Glasgow District Subway Co (subway railway company: 1890-1923: Glasgow, Scotland)

Glasgow, Scotland, was the third city in the world to build an underground rail system, after London, England, and Budapest, Hungary. In August 1890, the Glasgow District Subway Co was given authority to build a 6.5 mile long route under the streets of Glasgow. The circular line is formed of parallel pair of tunnels built by tunnelling or cut and cover. A third of the running tunnels are lined with iron, the rest with concrete or brick. The system uses an unusual gauge of 4 feet (about 1200mm), with the tunnels just 11 feet in diameter. The entire line is underground, but the depth varies from 7 feet to 155 feet.

The trains were originally moved by gripping a continuous moving cable, which was moved by a coal-fired boiler in Scotland Street on the South Side of Glasgow. The network has 15 stations, seven south of the river Clyde and eight to the north. Buchanan Street, St. Enoch and Partick stations provide interchange with the mainline railways. All the stations originally had a single island platform, which was about 10 feet wide. In the peak-hour control methods were necessary to prevent overcrowding.

The underground was opened on December 14 1896 , but a collision that day meant that the network did not open again until January 21 1897 .

The Glasgow Corporation, which was at the time running the largest tram network in Britain, took over the company in 1923 . In 1935 the decision was taken to electrify the railway to reduce operating costs. A raised third rail was used electrified to 750V d.c.

In 1973 the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive took over control of the Glasgow Underground.

From the guide to the Records of the Glasgow District Subway Co, Glasgow, Scotland, 1894, (Glasgow University Archive Services)