Secrets Of The Glasgow Subway 

2:07 "and is the busiest station on the network". *One person walks past Geoff*

My grandparents always call the subway the ‘clockwork orange’. My grandad sometimes gets on the subway at Hillhead and takes a trip the whole way round the subway route with sandwiches my granny packs for him.

"Hello. We're in Glasgow. It's raining" - I'm not sure why you repeated yourself?

Something that not many people know about the Glasgow Subway is that until the modernization programme in the 1970s, the staff were technically still in Mourning for Queen Victoria as their uniforms still had black frogging on the sleeves.

Don't you just hate it when you accidentally eat a train and ride a foot-long all the way back home -.-

Wearing a grey t-shirt INSIDE an orange t-shirt on the OUTSIDE. I see what you did there!!

London Underground: Mind the gap Glasgow Subway: Mind your head

I know it's a pretty accidental easter egg, but one of my photographs appears around 3:48. Round about the time I was graduating, I did quite a lot of photographic work for SPT documenting the modernisation of many of the stations, and at 3:48 there's a shot of the newly modernised Ibrox ticket machines (alongside two "vintage" photos). I was also lucky enough to spend a day wandering around inside the maintenance depot photographing stuff for posterity, as well as in Kelvinhall when the entire inner shell of the station was ripped out.

My grandfather used to be a driver on the Subway, before it was modernised. You should have seen it then. Ancient rolling stock and spooky stations with peeling paint. He took me for a ride in the cab. Amazing.

This must probably be the cutest metro I’ve ever seen!

Things I love about the Glasgow subway: 1: there are no annoying voice announcements 2: there is just 1 line to make things simple 3: they are very reliable 4: they have a lot of history

I lived in Partick around 2000 and I loved it. It's been 18 years since I came back to Mexico from Glasgow. Greetings!

I understand that the Glasgow Subway is the third oldest underground railway system in the world after London and Budapest.

Minor bit of personal trivia, I helped write the manuals for the sump pumping stations that pump out the water that leaks into the tunnels.

As a Glaswegian about to move to London your videos have been really helpful to me. But you missed the best bit about the clockwork orange! A sub-crawl! A 15 pub trek where only the strong survive! All the nearest pubs to the subway stops are in on it, best thing in Glasgow!

6:54 32 steps? Isn't that the equivalent of a 15 story building?

Cos wearing orange in Glasgow has never caused any problems

No way! I start my first year at university in Glasgow in a few days, so this upload is perfectly timed for me to learn a bit more about their subway system. I'll be sure to check out a lot of these features once I arrive, in just a few days time. Awesome stuff!

Watched all the secrets of the London Underground before hand but as I just live outside Glasgow I thank you so much for coming up and doing this, very informative and extremely appreciated that you came up to do our little subway, thank you again, I hope you enjoyed your time in Glasgow!

One time my Stepdad took my brother to a football match oddly I think it was Rangers match, they were in Burger King and just as they were leaving my Stepdad said to my brother; "Let's go and get the subway." My brother in return stated; "Great I'm starving." This is what I had to live with.

Oh, have I been waiting for this! Always hoped that Geoff would go to a different network and do secrets of the X, but never actually thought he would do it. The mad man!

6:50 Kinning Park is roughly 15 storeys below ground level.

My 5 year oldson and I loved this video. He doesn't live in Glasgow but we go there often just so he can ride on the Subway. We are especially grateful that you alerted us to the possible confusion between the Subway Sandwich shop and the Subway station :-) (He wants to get off at that stop!)

4:08 "I confess we may have gone into the wrong subway" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I went to uni in Glasgow and commuted from Stirling and for that; the Subway was an absolute lifesaver - get the train to Queen Street; jump in the Subway just outside the station and you're right there in Hillhead very quickly - from my experience outside of Football games the Subway only really tends to be very busy between St Enoch and Hillhead - perhaps also to Partick because of the bus and National Rail connections. Miles easier than the bus: the one time I took the bus I remember it being a very long walk to somewhere that wasn't Buchanan Bus Station and a much longer wait making it actually quicker to walk from the city centre to the Uni. Sure; it might be a very silly Subway system with its tiny trains and no expansion for 120 years making a few of the stations a bit useless since the houses that they were meant to serve are long gone (incidentally that's why most of the Station buildings are gone: they were often built in to Tenement blocks like at Kelvinhall and most of them were demolished just leaving the old Subway stations looking incredibly sad sat in the middle of nowhere) but those things make it incredibly unique and it'd be a shame I think if they tried to standardise it - plus its historic: the third oldest in the world and one of only two heavy rail underground systems in the UK (no points for guessing the other one). Although saying that I think that an additional circle for the East End and perhaps even a straight line (!!!) linking somewhere up with the SECC and the Hydro might make the system make a lot more sense - the latter especially is a bit of a pain to get to at times. Also I think that they really are missing a trick not integrating a link to Buchanan Street Subway into the redeveloped Queen Street Station: its a small thing really (not like its hard to get there) but it would be nice! You mention the small trains and I have a story about that. When I was at uni I had a class that tended to end early and if I ran I could catch the express train back home instead of the stopped which saved me around half an hour: one day I ran as fast as I could down the steps of Hilhead Station; towards the train... and knocked myself out running into the actual top of the train. I somehow ended up inside the thing and the next thing I remember was waking up in St Georges Cross station with a crowd of people surrounding me checking if I was OK - I had a concussion I'm sure but other than that nothing was wrong, although I was incredibly embarrassed about the whole thing and whenever I'm on the thing to this day I make a habit of ducking in a very stupid way to avoid that happening again.

Loooove Glasgow, in fact love it so much I bought a flat there to use as a base for travelling (im from Australia). People are extremely friendly, weather is great (I love the cold, overcast rainy days - Australia is too damn hot). Love the subway, so convenient! If I could live there full time I would in a heartbeat.

I always expect yet another video about train stations to be a bit boring, but I'm always fascinated by Geoff's trivia, knowledge, presentation, and editing skills, and end up wanting to know even more, and visit these places!

When i was doing Masters in Glasgow in 2006-07, i used to live just next to St Georges Cross station. Thanks a lot mate . Nice memories.

Oh the good ol' days of the Secrets of the Underground series are back. Good times, good times.

3:53 "This is Subway", "This is the Subway" "Sandwiches here", "Trains here" "Just don't get the 2 mixed up."

My son in-law works in the maintenance department. Loved this video. Thank you.

No way!! YT just random recommended this to me. During the modernisation I, my brother and a friend were rescued from a huge concrete pit they had dug at Broomloan road near Govan not long after it closed, 1977. My profile pic, altered, is from the newspaper item about it. What are the chances of that?

bumped into Geoff on Wardour Street the other day - very friendly chap - I've never realised how tall he is until I met him. Great content mate keep it up!

My god. Love your secrets on the underground videos. Love to go to Glasgow to see the subway. You make a secrets video about the Glasgow Subway... You made my day.

What a beautiful subway system. That black marble on the station walls surrounding the tunnel entrance is simply stunning!

2:27 is that queen elizabeth undercover in glasgow

Was waiting for this one after spotting you under Queens Street, wish I had had the time to stop and chat. You missed seeing the old railway tunnels running near Kelvin Bridge one running under Kelvingrove and the other running under Great Western Road. A fun feature of the paper tickets is their contactless like the plastic cards. The plastic cards can also be used to store scotrail train tickets to save on paper or battery life.

Notice how the line runs uphill as it enters every station, this is a remnant of the old cable system that pulled the trains. When the train approached the station it released the grip on the cable and the uphill would help slow the train as it came to the station.

"I confess, we *MAY* have gone into the wrong subway..."

Get yourself on the Glasgow Central tour. Paul the tour guide is a top lad, passionate and knowledgeable.

Never expected this!

Secrets of the Tyne & Wear Metro next?

"Welcome to Ibrox!" **orange t-shirt intensifies**

Well this video was a surprise! Every time I visit Glasgow I have to go for a shoogle on the Subway - the trains are definitely some of the cutest I've ever seen!!!

A Subway (Sandwich) in a Subway ha ha!!!! I love it!!!!

Fascinating video, thanks for the tour! I'm a US-based fan of UK rail and to be honest I know pitifully little about other underground systems apart from London's Tube system. I've just subscribed to your channel and I'm looking forward to watching more of your videos!

6:39 Take your grubby feet off the seats, you oik!

I must have lived in a cave for my 50 years. Had no idea Glasgow had a tube

I love Glasgow

3:58 There's also something similar in New York City where an old subway station now houses the fast food chain! I'd like to see someone do a cab ride video of the entire Glasgow Subway route!

Great to see the Glasgow underground again and thanks for the packed commentary - no time to get bored.

I can only say good things about your content I have come to realise! I have only become aware of your channel in the last few days and do not mind admitting I have binged a large amount of your back catalogue. I work as a channel/community manager for a few channels of around 500k size and I have been on the platform for eight years or so, and I can say I've never come across a channel like yours. I mean there are many channels out there focused on trains, travel, facilities but you just bring something unique to the table. You are personable, quirky and unashamedly enthusiastic about the content you make and even little touches like the orange and grey shirt combo adds to the character of the video. You manage to make this feel like a documentary that would not be out of place on one of the British networks, while also making it feel light hearted AND informative. So overall sir bravo!

Fascinating system would love to go on it to be fair. There’s a fab video of the modernisation in the 70s on this site and the infamous subway smell ! Great video Geoff !

I've been secretly hoping you'd do the subway ever since secrets of the underground came out! Cowcaddens also has the longest platforms on the system. Kelvinbridges island platform is the widest, as you said and it's just as well as its the busiest station on the network to retain that platform configuration. (Buchanan st., St. Enoch, Partick and Hillhead are busier but have different platform layouts). The reason Kelvinbridge station platform is so wide is that it was (historically) the only station with step free access. That emergency exit you showed that was the original entrance and exit to the station used to have both stairs and a lift down to the platform level, hence the tracks had to slew out to be wide enough to accommodate both stairs and a lift in their width and so Kelvinbridges platform is the widest. Kelvinhall used to be called Partick Cross but was renamed to avoid confusion with Partick interchange. West St. is currently the least used station on the subway with fewer than 100,000 passengers a year (some figures I've seen say 80,000 some as low as 50,000) And the original depot didn't have conventional track access like the modern one, instead there was a gap in the tunnels and a crane. Each car would drive into the gap, be uncoupled from the rest of the train, attached to the crane and then lifted vertically up out of the tunnel and into the depot. Apart from that you got all the other interesting facts I can think of about the clockwork orange. You'll need to jump on the 'low level' network of Glasgow next and do secrets of the North Clyde, Argyle and Cathcart circle lines.

Hadn't originally intended to watch this. Glad I did. Weirdly, really interesting & very well made.

Thanks for the tour of my home city Subway Geoff, really informative and interesting ! I now live 140 miles north of Glasgow , but when I go back I usually have a ride on the "Clockwork Orange".

Thank you for this, Geoff, totally unexpected. Brilliant.

It's official everyone! He's made a ''secrets of...'' outside England (though still inside Britain)! Yesss.... Only the sky is the limit now! Are Paris, New York and MADRID etc. still all to come? You know we'd all love to see that Geoff! Keep the quality material coming and greetings from Madrid :)

Geoff's comments about the small size of the carriages brought a smile to my face, as it reminded me of something my father commented on to me years ago when he worked in Glasgow, i.e. how Glaswegians tended to be noticeably shorter on average than us Edinburghers.😉

Very interesting content in this format. Quick visit to Glasgow compressed into an 8 minute video. Well done, Geoff!

Geoff I'd love to see a secrets of the Tyne and Wear Metro too

Amazing! Great to see you chose Glasgow as your first underground system out of London, considering it’s my closest city when I was growing up, I’ve only ever rode it once, in a loop like you and that was many years ago! And I appreciate the view of Ibrox ;)

Great video. I don't think you mentioned that Kelvin Hall station was called Patrick Cross until 1977. There was still some Partick Cross signage at the station when I last lived there.

Looks incredible. Well-designed, classy and colourful.

I'll miss the "shoogly trains" as they are known when they are withdrawn in a few years and replaced with driverless units!

I love Glasgow! The subway is very convenient. I stubbed my toe on steps at Hillhead. Worth it though.

Great video. I am not usually interested in trains, but I find the Glasgow underground strangely compelling.

Really amazing stuff. I've never come across your channel before, you've gained a follower. Really good stuff. These videos really make me want to travel to places in the UK where I would not imagine going to.

I love Glasgow, I didn’t get a chance to take the train though last summer unfortunately.

Lovely weather, always drizzling, with cold. My favorite Best regards from Canada

Just found your channel and honestly I can’t stop binge watching your videos 🙈

This video was awesome. I had heard of Scotland's Subway System, but never really thought about it, this video was very good and informative.

New sub here from Malaysia. Fascinating and thank you.

"I confess, we may have gone into the wrong subway" 😂😂😂

I’ve worked in Glasgow on and off for over 15 years and never knew it had a subway system. I even worked at central station!! Are my eyes painted on my face?🙈🙈🙈

I remember going to school in the 50’s and climbing up and down the stairs to road level at Kelvinbridge. Happy days. A great little intro to the new system. Thanks. Rmb

Please Geoff do the Tyne and Wear Metro, Sheffield Supertram, Manchester Metrolink, West Midlands Metro, Nottingham Express Transit and the Blackpool tram. P.s. You are an absolute legend.

Awesome! Thanks for doing this one. Always had a strange fascination for the clockwork orange.

Oh speaking of mixing up the subways in Glasgow. A recruitment agency sent me for an interview for an admin job with Subway and didn't tell me which one or give me much info. I thought it was with Glasgow subways, it was actually the sandwich people. I didn't get the job.

Not only was that fun, it was interesting indeed. I was going to subscribe, and saw that I was subscribed which I didn’t remember (now I have to remember which video it was that made me subscribe to your channel), but I’m glad that I’m subscribed. Very well done and informative. As a born and raised New Yorker and a bonafide subway enthusiast (I even worked for the MTA), I really love just how efficient and CLEAN this system and the London Underground are. New York City residents and the NYCTA (New York City Transit Authority) could certainly learn something from you all in the UK regarding cleanliness and efficiency. We’ll get there soon enough as the now president of the NYCTA is a British chap who turned around the London Underground (I believe) and did superb work for the Toronto subway (Toronto Transit Commission) as it’s president, Andy Byford. He’s working on new signals system wide, modernising stations and replacing fifty-two year old trains with new ones. I think you’d like the NYCTA system and I hope that you get a chance to ride it one day. Thanks again for your terrific video!

Ah but if you go on the Clockwork Orange, you can't not mention the Glasgow Underground Song by Francis & Joise. "There's Partick Cross & Cessnock Hillhead & Merkland Street (St) George's Cross & Govan Cross where all the people meet West Street Shields Road The Train goes round & round You've never lived, unless you've been on the Glasgow Underground!" Great to see the Glasgow Subway featured in a Geoff Marshal video.

Thanks Geoff you saved me a 30 hr plane trip and over $2000 you didn't seem very interested in. Covering the subway but I think it was worth it in the end. Cheers

Used to ride it every day when I studied at Strathclyde university, travelling from Hillhead to Buchanan Street. Was a godsend being able to flash back and forth from the city centre to Byres road in mere minutes

Great video! Loved being able to have a look into a British subway system! Great production and film work as well, very professional.

Yesss always wanted you to come to Glasgow :)

Love the hidden references to older videos. #OrangeTrain

Oh my *GOD* I’ve been waiting for this!

Another wee note of trivia is that Kelvinhall used to be called Partick Cross

"No reason not to use a smartcard" - Thanks Geoff, I'll remember that next time I'm in the northern hemisphere! When I was in Glasgow in July, the folks in the ticket office told me paper tickets would be cheaper.. Can attest to Ibrox going from a ghost town to a sea of people on game day too.

Really want to go on this before it gets new stock!

Great video - many happy memories of the subway in the early 70s.

What a pleasure to see such a beautiful system...so clean and well cared for; you all must feel very proud! In New York, most of our trains look like moving slums as the filth continue to paint the stations and the cars with their "high class" graffiti. Of course if you live here you could understand why...the class of many is way below low!

Great little video of the Glasgow Subway. Thanks Geoff. Thing I don't understand is why has it got over 130 thumbs down? Why do people give negative votes so much on RU-vid?

This makes me want to visit Glasgow your video was so good. Next time could you do Secrets of the Newcastle Metro, I sometimes go to that area to visit my grandparents.

Great video! I love the Glasgow subway. Could sit for hours in the coffee shop in the old station building. 3rd oldest underground system in the world, after London & Budapest, also has unusual track gauge of 3'.

They done a nice job on the modernisation ,it still looks clean and bright ,something Glaswegians can be proud of ,👍🏻😊

You left out the record time for the Subway version of the Tube Challenge!

You still need to try out the underground trains on the Isle of Wight...

Just back from a week in Glasgee. Sunshine! Rode the Subway. Love it.

Awesome episode. Loved it ❤️