Wishaw railway station

Wishaw railway station is a railway station in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and lies on the Wishaw Deviation Line just south of the single track link line which connects to the West Coast Main Line at Shieldmuir.

History
The station opened on 1 June 1880, along with the line from Law Junction to Holytown. It was previously known as Wishaw Central until the closure of the town's station nearby on the WCML in 1958, which was known as "Wishaw South".

Historical
Up until the electrification of the West Coast Main Line through to Glasgow Central in 1974, Wishaw was served by a Monday to Saturday hourly diesel service from Lanark to Glasgow Central High Level, alternating between services via Holytown/Hamilton and Bellshill.

1974 to 1979
An hourly electric service was provided between Glasgow Central High Level, running non-stop to Motherwell, as Shieldmuir station did not open until 1987.

1979 to 2001
From 1979 until 2001 an hourly electric service was provided Monday to Saturday between Lanark and Milngavie running via Motherwell and Bellshill. The service was initially non-stop to Motherwell, however in 1987 a new intermediate station was opened at Shieldmuir.

An hourly Sunday service was introduced in 1997.

From 2001
The station is currently served by a mixture of units and refurbished  units.

Since 2001, the following ScotRail service pattern has been in place -:


 * Monday to Saturday
 * Daytime
 * 1tph - Lanark to Dalmuir, via Bellshill, Glasgow Central and Yoker
 * 1tph - Lanark to Milngavie, via Hamilton and Glasgow Central


 * Evening
 * 1tph - Lanark to Partick, via Bellshill and Glasgow Central
 * 1tph - Lanark to Milngavie, via Hamilton and Glasgow Central


 * Saturdays excepted, there are also several peak-hour limited stop services, towards Glasgow in the morning, and towards Lanark in the evening. The Glasgow bound limited stop services are well used, and normally full on departure from Wishaw.


 * Sunday
 * 1tph - Lanark to Milngavie, via Bellshill and Glasgow Central


 * Other services
 * The station has some other sporadic passenger services such as two trains a day to Carstairs and two to North Berwick via Edinburgh Waverley. Since the December 2013 timetable change, the station has also been served by a regular Glasgow Central - Carstairs - Edinburgh semi-fast service in each direction, giving a through journey time of 48-50 minutes to Edinburgh.

From December 2014
A recast of the Argyle Line timetable in the wake of the Whifflet Line electrification has seen some significant changes to the service pattern. All services to Motherwell & Glasgow Central now run via Shieldmuir & Bellshill (every half-hour) rather than alternating via this route and Holytown & Hamilton and they also now terminate at Central High Level rather than running through to Partick and beyond via Rutherglen & Central Low Level (passengers now must change at Cambuslang for these destinations). The only exception is a single weekday train from Carstairs to Garscadden in the morning peak, which returns from Anderston to Carstairs in the evening & uses the route via Holytown.

The two-hourly semi-fast service between Glasgow Central & Edinburgh still calls all day (except on Sundays) and now is extended through to/from Ayr.

The line is heavily used for freight services also, with several Freightliner container trains a day from the nearby Coatbridge terminal to destinations in the south of England such as Felixstowe and Southampton. It is also used by services to the Mossend freight terminal as well as those travelling from the West Coast Main Line to the Highlands.

The line through Wishaw station is heavily used during engineering work on the adjacent West Coast Main Line (less than 1 km to the west of the station) which brings a wide variety of rolling stock to the line.

Facilities
The station has a small (25 spaces) car park and ticket office staffed from Monday to Saturday.