Glasgow Underground Modernisation 1977-1980 Full Archive Film

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] the region of Strathclyde not so much a region have a little world cluster run the bowl of the River Clyde [Music] and at the center of city Alaska over a million people live in this connotation the home worthless and market Lizzy at all times he's gripped by a twice-daily specimen as the wedding day begins and ends with a surge of humanity [Music] buses are the worker bees in this crowded hive a fleet of about a thousand serving the city unglamorous unsung unsentimental eyes and essential - gasps region is that brilliant yellow livery is as familiar as the strip of a favorite football team the team manager in this case is strapped lights passenger transport executive a statutory body which acts as the regional authorities agent for public transport of the over an area of 5,000 square miles working closely with British Rail yeah there that's the nationalized Scottish basket on the independent bus operator the airlines Caledonian mclean with its feet of sea fairies I'm directly operating the city's bus fleet and the new underground trains we're coordination of public transport particular illness dense collaboration is most important I think if we look at the concept there's only one set of travelling public and they're not interested whether a bus is red or green or a train is blue they just want the most efficient system as cheaply as possible and as reliable as poss the passenger transferred executive is therefore challenged with developing a total plan of public transport to satisfy the needs of the people and in this way it is the only body to bring all the operators together in terms of pricing marketing and general performance of public transport well with the change in the population distribution within the region and the closing vehicle ownership and the change in travel patterns there was necessary to take stock of the role of public transport and see how well otherwise it was serving the community in which it's based this led to the development of two projects after we had looked to see how well we could build them what do we have and these two projects first of all was the development of their guideline by making use of a tunnel right underneath the Argyle Street networks north and south we would have a fight the first time and that be effectively integrated the two suburban networks no can stop the fight and secondly by looking at the Victorian legacy of the gospel underground we were able to see how that could play a very vital link within the development of college transfer within the heart of the region by linking it with bus rail with car parks and by serving little communities originally Glasgow has been lucky but it's holes in the ground other tunnels reach out under some of its busiest streets like shadows on an x-ray plate along the east-west axis of the city once they were traversed by suburban steam James older citizens remember the choking smoke oh that was central low level station until dr. bleaching word brought him to make British Rail pay and perform surgery on this and other unprofitable lines at last it was realized that this half-forgotten Thruway was a hidden asset too precious to be abandoned now it emerges reinvigorated as the Argyle life Silke old because much of its five mile length runs under the fingers Argyle Street the flight of the line is a new station created halfway along Argyle Street deep down amid some of the biggest department stores in the West of Scotland for two whole years the most densely strong part of Argyle Street itself was to be barred to virtually all wheeled vehicles except the kiddies pushchair and the shopping trolley party ii completely new station on the argyle line rises high above ground on its embankment where the tracks break ground in fact it's a twin built over the spot where underground and argyle line converge and a new underground station occupies the same site joins the first time the network of electric railways which was separated until now by the Great Divide northern south it seemed never betray engine you now tunnelers have supplied the missing link [Music] noise dust din and discomfort made manifest and for shopkeepers perhaps moments of secret panic when will it all end once a year there was West spike in Argyle Street the worth of the party drills were done pile drivers pull and the festival began light Sparkle here comes sent ago [Applause] [Music] Largo just for a time got his favorite Street back as a Christmas present and there were other free shows after all watching men at work in holes in the ground is one of the great spectator sports the astonished populace gate as this mutual knock Jacobean Castle sitting in Santino square like a plump redhead find itself floating on air or rather on a concrete raft while work on the new underground station continued below much of the work was done far from public gaze like the burrowing junction of Sheldon linking our dire line with the Blue Train system unseen also the yellow giant paving a vase for the permanent way holy monster chomping concrete and leaving behind it as it inched along a perfectly loaded and reinforced rhythm of track that the way to the chaos of construction liquid on a pageant a weekend of Johnny getting to know your public transport everyone's eating from the Transport Museum to the firm supplying the very latest equipment for the underground Virginie any trader reach 7 and are getting any generate number 7 [Music] route number seven gone forever with the rest of the subway we once knew ready transport in miniature for the Victorian City a merry-go-round for workers and bowler hat it bosses that began with trains hold at the end of a tarry hawser and ended its first lease of life not so long ago as an own electric curiosity of the 1970s nowhere else was there a system like it it's not a great metropolitan system like London's or Moscow's on New York's every Glaswegian feels he has his Owens long betrayed no need to buy expensive toys for customers because we've got the biggest model railway intensification because it was the only one of its kind in the world I always used to feel that this was like being a toy time and you were sitting in and it was very good for the liver because we are humble about you know so it kept his cruise as well and it was a slight tourist attraction people coming out from the South are always dying to go for he huddle inaudible I said well there's no doubt about that because these are original coaches they were built 1895 very handy differently has declined to dignify on such a grand title as underground to then it remained the subway antique units wrote the six and a half mile medic around on a bumpy four-foot narrow gauge permanent way through twin tunnels under the center of the city passing 15 stations in the half-hour circuit with strange-sounding names to tell cow captain killing path Bertram Street Cessna each one was austerely child in cream and weed and at each street level entrance there lingered the authentic trademark of the subway slow an indefinable not unpleasant mustiness the smell is still a great classical engine and varies from station to station a Calvin Richard I was a kind of mixture of old steam and old dust a bit like wash day and a slump but pleasant listen and the other thing that wait was that mr. marvelous crew of the Glasgow underground even during the very tropical heat waves which as you know we have forever eleven months of the year in Glasgow you can retreat to the the cool camp Celine roto of the Africa and restore the nervous dishes the smell is something that people have said that tried to bottle for export but like very fine and delicate wines it does not travel okay cat dig off in the depo where trains were the Boreas leak rained up through a hole in the ground the only time they saw the light of day ingenious craftsmen performed miracles of make do and mend to keep the obsolescence stock on the rails reconditioning adapting even cannibalizing from trends as they went out of service but in the end the subway was running out of spare parts just as it was running out of passengers at the tenement blocks above were demolished and finally the subway ran out of time the twin tunnels felt silent well lose are enough a lot of memories at the same time I believe it progress must be won with the promise of a substantial government run the decision was made to transform this gently their way into the heart of an integrated transport system for Strathclyde as progressive as any in the world new stations new signalling new trend the rolling stock new idea the bubble and the accumulated experience leaned from underground systems built all over Europe in the last few years go had one advantage it didn't need to start play scratch because the tunnels were already there and the capital cost is therefore relatively modest the related disadvantage is that the line is more or less fixed and that working in eleven foot diameter tunnels first built for Kindle attraction gives little elbow room for either designer for dude no it's bottomed anybody innovation already matters not only from there water brother tunnel in failure and of course there were plenty of headaches were all concerned and I'm trying to meet the tightest of she knows how to keep the leg around going mucking out the tunnels at one aim and feeding in plant and equipment of the other how to make elderly for a major engineering party and find in a circle less than three and a half meters in diameter there was flooded frustrating mechanical hitches bugs in the electronics have faith this is what is going to be like no trains to catch his yet of this mock-up of one of the modernized stations but is sufficiently realistic to attract the keen interest of British Rail boss Sir Peter Parker and fellow guests showing them around with proprietary pride is the man of the center of Strathclyde transport system the Director General of the executive the late Andrew McCabe room to stretch and a capacity of 90 in each car when it's busy 34 City 956 Stanley Glasgow School of Art provided early inspiration for the design aiming at a chummy cheerfulness to complement comfort and quiet running dodging sewers main services and even underground students nudging the base of old building bigger stations are scooped out and longer platforms built a stretch of new towel is written allowing the new train units to surface for overnight parking and access to the new repair shop complex at room load [Music] at nine of the 15 stations escalators will carry passengers to and from street level instead of the former flight of steps a Buchanan Street a covered moving pavement will ease the way to Queen Street Station opened a token upon transports coming to you today is running from the top of a double-decker bus and open toddlers getting a wee bit chilly the only things that a warning my body weighs very nice I think they're going to be very comfortable most bosses really for us done I think you do a really good that's Joe Guidice the VC unstated a very good beautiful with it great I like the see so like everything very nice it's nice to see the class was going to have something more than that last beautiful very nice for grad school nice weather and even from McAllen forward to meanwhile work on the Argyle line and the underground nears completion behind the series llamas have been worked weekends have been eroded by passenger transport start by the consultants by an unseen hose now the shock troops moving an army of tradesmen of many skills adding the finishing touches [Music] [Music] at last all is set for the official opening and the arrival of a very special visitor [Applause] [Music] bridges rails most up-to-date technology has gone into the Argyle line rental units for the trains new or completely modernized stations the line is a godsend to the crowded city created for thousands of shoppers businesspeople and office workers went wrong with Scotland's busiest urban center down in the depths of the earth an orange revolution the moment clips or Glasgow is been waiting for and a city resumes its love affair that its little rolling [Applause] [Music] really wonderful terrific that's my first raid and I totally enjoyed it smashing comes to the heart or fantastic it really is oh it's wonderful especially that he is most giftable cup always lovely I really enjoyed that lovely production from your public now I'm very impressed I used to go in the old underground and this is 68 isn't in budget it's a credit to Crosley that's what the money money really a plaque that takes you anywhere on the circle no need to worry about missing a train the next one is very good will eat away each of the 33 motorized car designed to operate in units as twins or triplets is a highly sophisticated look-alike a little technical model with everything from radio link to complex automatic train control lumen the eyes ears and brain under a control center where every aspect of the system is of the experts fingertips television for an instant overview a galaxy of winking lights to chart the progress of the Train a next-door the new Linton is definitely a far cry from the make do and mend that kept the old subway running far beyond its natural sperm this is the precision-built part of tomorrow's world Lync is a favorite word with the policymakers of the passenger transport executive and they make switching between different types of transport easy wherever they carry at party to escalator rides connect the Argyle line with the underground at Buchanan Street a moving pavement now eases the way to Queen Street Station one aim of the new system is to ease the pressure of private car traffic in the city center in line with joggers environmental policy making it attractive for drivers to park and continue by underground equally the underground complements those rules bringing more and more areas within easy reach of public transport users factories offices shops cinemas and Opera House are only an escalator ride away while they undergone the guyline projects for major projects in themselves and acted as the catalyst towards the promotion of that trans client they are not enough in their own right that are still a need to father develop public transport infrastructure to rationalize bus and rail services to improve ticketing facilities to facilitate interchange between bus rail and undergone in forums of these policies of Strathclyde transfer policies we have introduced a special feeder bus services we have introduced and car parks and suburban stations were built and bus stations and a number of locations we've introduced express buses and other waterways there are special server citizenship see mini bus service in little videos these are all part of the broad range of activities that are involved in improving pond chance for identified efficient transportation is no luxury it is a necessity and the fabric of modern life would decay without the extension of public transport is a tool in the reconstruction of the community we are really very much concerned in developing a fully integrated and coordinated certain of transport because of its importance if you like in many aspects of people's rights Liberty development of Industry amazing environment and nearly everything dimensions effectively severe weather by far the transport and we consider as well underneath in certain aspects the stratified regions for two and a half million people live in stratified a world in a small space a living world pulsing with energy public transport is a lifeline and that lifeline charged with new energy at the birth of the underground and the Argyle line is the integrated up-to-the-minute system that there's a file named trance fly

Channel: Martin Hannett

Views: 38,883

Rating: 4.9057817 out of 5

Keywords: glasgow, underground, archive, argyll line, 1979, 1980, subway, trans, clyde

Id: 2vEEfKLK0g4

Length: 29min 53sec (1793 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 23 2017