Glasgow Subway

I am giving 5 stars to the Glasgow Subway as a whole as I find it a great Glaswegian institution, it is over 100 years old and still going strong. The fact that you can get around a fair geographical chunk of the city in such a short time makes me quite happy, as I often find I want to go to from west, city and south all in the same day, and I can do that easily with a day ticket.
Yes, it is small and does not go East or cover much of the south, and I wish it was open longer on a Sunday, but I would be really unhappy if the subway ever did not exist, just because it is the subway. and also something which I would suggest no tourist should leave the city without going on.

I LOVE A SHOOGLE!
Seriously, I do. When I first moved to Glasgow I was actually scared of the Subway and didn’t like going on it alone. Now I’m used to it though and the waves of claustrophobia don’t hit me anymore as I’ve got pure adrenaline pumping through my veins (maybe an exaggeration).
Reasons why the Subway is the best:
1. It’s simple. It’s a loop. You can do the inner circle, or the outer circle. The map is easy to read and it’s easy to explain to visitors.
2. It covers a decent area of Glasgow. Ok, sure if could cover more, but for easy access to the west end, city centre and some of the south side, it is pretty decent!
3. Price. I think £2.70 for an all-​day ticket is pretty reasonable and you can shoggle all over town. At some stations there’s park and ride, which is just £5 for all-​day parking and an all-​day ticket.
4. Fun. Ok, maybe for an every-​day commuter the subway isn’t fun but I don’t get it very often and always enjoy it when I do. It’s small, generally pretty clean and tidy and efficient. And it shoggles from side to side (similar to a wobble for anyone who isn’t Scottish).
5. Efficient. There’s a train every 4 minutes in peak hour, and then between 6 – 8 minutes in off-​peak. If there’s something wrong and one loop isn’t running, you can just go the long way around — the whole loop of the subway can be done in 24 minutes.
6. Subcrawl. This is obviously not an official endorsed event, but it’s still a load of fun. There’s 15 stops and each one has a pub nearby, so you get off at each stop and have a drink. It’s a laugh, best done with an awesome group of people and mind you don’t do it on a day when there’s football on.
7. History. Ok, I won’t go into the details here as I don’t really know the history of the subway but it is such an interesting part of Glasgow and it’s worth doing some reading on. The original plan was that there would be another overlapping loop to cover the east end, and the trains were designed to run without drivers. Eerie! It’s also worth making a special trip to the Hillhead Station to see the Alasdair Gray mural.
So yeh, I love the subway and think it’s one of the gems of Glasgow. I can’t wait for my next shoogle.

Awful Awful Awful!
The entire thing has been clad in plastic. An improvement?
With a new obtuse, means you need your ticket to leave.
No improvements to opening times or amount of city covered.
15% increase in price, zero improvements to service — a disgrace.
Blatantly cashing in on the commonwealth — shameful.
Woefully bad, removed the 20 journey card –which meant that despite travelling on cramped dirty old smelly cars,
Fabric in cars despite being 30 years old and dirtier than a toilet has not been replaced.
Previously you could travel on the one hoop system for one pound a shot, using a 20 journey ticket holding credit on your card for as long as you liked.
saved time and money. Done away with why?
Thanks for forcing me to pay an extra 60% Glasgow underground.
I was happy when you gave me a cheap service much like easy-​jet,
uncomfortable not good quality but fair on price.
Your now the ryanair of underground travel, woeful.
Copying the London Underground, it appears someone has delusions of grandeur.
If we could choose any other form of transport we would.
Remember if there is 3 of you going 6 stops or less its now cheaper to take a hackney .
Ruined by greed and short sighted management.
COMPLAIN PLEASE JUST SEND 3 WORDS IN AN E-​MAIL

The clockwork orange. The butt of many jokes from people who come from lands of sprawling networks of underground trains. and why? because it goes in a wee circle. You do however get the choice of which direction to go in, but on finding yourself going the wrong way nothing is lost because you will just have slightly longer to wait until you reach exactly the same stop.
Now i really like the Glasgow tube, it is very regular, rarely suffers any breakdowns or repair works on the line and is SO easy to navigate, but I did only give it 2 stars.
And the reasons are as follows, firstly, the Sunday service is an absolute joke. I know this is not only limited to the tube but for a public transport service to be unable to get me to work on time, and home after finishing makes getting a weekly pass an insult. secondly is they have done away with multi journey tickets. Now instead of using the train as and when i want to, i have to spend an extortionate sum on one that will expire in a week or a month.
I would love to rate the clockwork orange higher, but just can’t bring myself to do so.

It’s great to get around the city with.
Very punctual. However, often raaaaaaather smelly.
Not the staffs fault — just some skanky peeps get on it.
Doing Clockwork Orange, ie. the drink at every stop. Awesome fun!
You can always spot who’s attempting it. Sometimes it’s guys dressed as old ladies — for some reason. Proper giggle if you go for it.
Advice would be start earlyish, pace yourself and start at Kelvinhall heading in the Partick direction.
That way you get the shifty pubs over with first, knock a shot back, avoid the football colour pubs and wind up at Hillhead for the last stop.
DON’T USE IT ON MATCHDAY!
Full of drunks who rock the carriages. Not Cool, stupid and dangerous.
Use it if you’re a 9−5er.
Watch out for Sunday — rubbish opening times 10 – 6. WTF?!
But if you can put up with smells, cramped rush hour, drunks and folks ho can’t work out how to use headphones — it’s a bit of a laugh and much cheaper then a car.
Safe Travel Sweeties!
xxxx

Wow when will we ever get round to updating this! However the service is fast (mabey due to the same circles the trains go in)! Last time I went ine Glasgow tube I stupidly went on at rush hour and got stuck with some large sweaty mans armpit in my face and the train had to stop for some man who ran on the tracks (you’ve got to love some parts of Glasgow I wish I carried a camera I could make millions) we were there sweating and catching all sorts of things from each other for like 30mins :0 one word… traumatised!

The «Clockwork Orange» as it is locally known, has been around since 1896, and is one of the first pioneering underground systems in the world.
Today, it still serves the city centre of Glasgow, with a circuit that spans about 3 miles. Some stations still look like they’re perfectly preserved throwbacks to the 70s in their décor, although Partick has recently been modernised and looks very minimalistic indeed. I do enjoy the other stations however, especially the ones painted pink and gaudy citrus! It’s especially handy if you’re jumping from town to the west end, or from town to a gig out in the Carling Academy (your stop would be Bridge St if that was the case).
It’s a good way of getting around the main sights of the city, with signs indicating where the nearest appropriate museum is in each station. You can use the tube to alight for Glasgow Science Centre, the Art Gallery, Buchanan Galleries and the River Kelvin to name but a few. It’s relatively cheap for a ticket, with offerings of day trip deals and Park and Ride options in play at certain stations. There are certain tube stops connected to train stations, such as Partick, which is also by a bus stop junction if you’re looking for alternative travel arrangements.
There are some factors on the subway which could be improved, such as accessibility to areas outside the «inner circle» (sounds like a cult but it just means city centre), but plans are in the development stage to make this happen in time for the Commonwealth. I’d also like to see some sort of London style Oyster Card developed as it can be a right pain paying 3 quid for the bus and the subway when you have to use both, but hopefully brains will club together to form an efficient system such as that in the future. For now, I enjoy and utilise the speed of the teeny Clockwork Orange network, which remains so popular and iconic in Glasgow that poems have been written about it. Some guy even tried to race the subway on his bike a few years back. If you believe in miracles, you’ll enjoy his efforts:

A constant source of bemusement to Glasgow’s foreign visitors, the underground, known locally as the Clockwork Orange, has to be one of the smallest metro systems in Europe.
Those not used to it find the size of the carriages incredibly awkward, not knowing where to look when they have a complete stranger facing them from little over a yard in front of them. What’s more, its coverage of the city isn’t exactly extensive, with those living in the Southside and East End get a bit of a raw deal with the distribution of stops.
In saying that, the unique system has become a Glaswegian icon and while we all know it’s not perfect (the fact it closes at 6pm on a Sunday is a joke), it’s safe and undoubtedly handy when you need to get around the city centre or west end in a hurry.

‘The tube’.
I’ve only recent started using it on what can be called a semi-​regular basis, but it is ace.
It’s not as glamorous as the London Underground, but it’s a sensible means of getting around when it’s raining or if the traffic is a nightmare (both common and frequent in Glasgow).
The services are reliable and regular, which is more than can be said for alot of the buses (aside from the Glasgow Flyer) but the prices have shot up in recent years.
It used to be around £2.00 for an all day discovery ticket, which has now gone up to £3.50. A return costs £2.40, with a single being £1.20, offering no real motivation to get a return ticket.
Some of the stops are a mystery, either really closeby to another stop making it a bit pointless or they are situated next to nothing that’s seemingly worth visiting.
Some stops are getting a bit a makeover ahead of the Commonwealth games which is good, and I doubt that without the tube service in Glasgow such an event could be conceivable.
Hard to imagine Glasgow without the underground.

It is a regular service. It is safe. The trains have character.
So– why don’t I like the Clockwork Orange? Mainly because it has a limited circuit, and the southside is completely ignored by it. And it can take ages to get between places that are close overground. It is noisy.
As part of a comprehensive transport system, it is a novelty. It does have a park and ride service at the furthest stations, but since these are only ten minute drives from the absolute centre, I can’t quite see the point. Glasgow can’t really afford another line, though, so it is unlikely that the extensions will ever happen. I just find it frustrating, but maybe that is my bitter, southside soul.

I’m perhaps being a bit ungrateful, as many larger cities than Glasgow don’t even have their own underground, but this one isn’t quite as good as it could be. On the plus side it’s safe, cheap, and the trains run constantly from 6am till 11ish at night so you never have to wait more than a few minutes.
It’s problem however, is that it hardly goes anywhere. None of the East End is covered, nor the South Side bar the Govan area and a few stops such as Shields Road which no-​one uses anyway. To the vast majority of Glasgow’s population, the Subway is effectively useless.
I understand that it was built in Victorian times, and that building new Subway tunnels is likely an extremely complex, expensive and potentially dangerous undertaking, but they really need to get cracking with this.

Behold, the clockwork orange! A Glasgow institution through-​and-​through, it’s a great way to zip around town in 24 minutes or less. It runs in a loop to 15 stations, with trains running in both directions. You needn’t wait more than 8 minutes during regular service hours.
The hours aren’t fantastic on Sundays or late at night, but it’s an excellent commuter service at all other times. It’s by far the quickest way to get from the city centre to the West End.

I like the fact that Glasgow has an underground. The décor may be a bit 70s-​style (orange, yellow and brown… nice!), but apart from that, it’s a brilliant way to get around.
There’s at least 1 train every 6 – 7 minutes — the service is highly efficient, and the train drivers are all quite nice, i.e. if they see you haring it down the steps they’ll keep the doors open so you can bolt inside the first carriage. Brilliant.
My one qualm? It should be bigger, and go more places…

The Underground, or the «Clockwork Orange» as it is sometimes called, is a subway system based around the centre and west of the city. It has 15 stops with short distances between them, and has been operational since 1896, which is a frighteningly long time.
The Subcrawl is the best way to see most of the city while getting completely hammered at the same time. At each stop on the subway, you go to a pub for a drink. After 15 stops, your balance might not be quite at its best, so an added rule is that you can’t sit down or hang onto any poles as the train hurtles through the tunnels, jerking wildly from side to side.
Overall, I have always experienced good service on the subway. The trains arrive at very frequent intervals — roughly every 6 minutes, and I have never been subject to a delay here.
It’s a great service, and I’m sure many Glaswegians would be lost without it!