Leader: Wha’s like us...the Glasgow Subway
GLASGOW’S subway system, fondly known as the Clockwork Orange, celebrated its 115th birthday last week.
Scotland’s only underground system, which trundles along a 6.5-mile loop under the city, got its nickname from the colour of the carriages, although Strathclyde Partnership for Transport insisted they were red, to avoid sectarian connotations. The subway opened on 4 December, 1896, making it the world’s third oldest underground metro system after London and Budapest.
Originally powered by a clutch-and-cable system, there was one cable for each direction, driven from a steam-powered plant in Scotland Street. Today 14 million journeys a year are made on the Clockwork Orange, and with that number expected to grow the Scottish Government has approved an upgrade of the system to include “driverless” trains.
Glasgow’s subway has also been celebrated in The Underground Song, performed by Rikki Fulton and Jack Milroy, and inspired Subcrawl, a pub crawl that involves stopping off at bars close to all 15 stations.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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