Motherwell railway station
Motherwell railway station serves Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on the West Coast Main Line (WCML), and is served also by Argyle Line trains of the Glasgow suburban railway network. It is the penultimate stop on the northbound WCML before Glasgow. There are four platforms of various length in use at Motherwell. The station is located next to the town's main shopping arcade, Motherwell Shopping Centre. History. The first station in Motherwell was opened by the Wishaw and Coltness Railway on 8 May 1843 and was located at Orbiston. As Orbiston station was quite  some distance from the rapidly expanding Motherwell town centre, the decision was taken by the Caledonian Railway to build a station at 'Lesmahagow Junction', the point where the Motherwell Deviation branch of the Caledonian Railway Main Line met the lines to Mossend, Hamilton and Lesmahagow. That Motherwell station was opened on 31 July 1885 on a site conveniently in the heart of the town which replaced the original station. The current station was built by British Rail during the 1970s (on the same site) to coincide with the completion of electrification of the West Coast Main Line from Carlisle to  Glasgow which was completed in 1974. It has four through platforms, crossed by two overbridges with the main buildings being above the level of the line between Platforms 2 and 3. At platform level between Platforms 2 and 3 there is also an ScotRail traincrew depot, staff car park and an office of the British Transport Police. These are accessible via a gated rampway leading to street level. Beyond Platform 4 are some electrified sidings used for the stabling of trains overnight. Diagrams are nominally worked so that these units will only stay at Motherwell for one night before returning  to their allocated depot. Services. Local services departing to and from the station are provided by ScotRail and the majority of northbound services serve Glasgow Central (either terminating at the High Level station or passing through the Low Level station en route to or ), whilst southbound Argyle Line services terminate at or . There is one train per hour to Edinburgh Waverley via Shotts. TransPennine Express. Provide a 2 hourly service to both Glasgow Central and Manchester Airport, In addition on weekends there is a limited service to Liverpool Lime Street these operate as follows: On Saturdays, There is 1 train  per day, On Sundays 2 trains call, All other trains to/from Liverpool and trains on weekdays don't call here. Avanti West Coast. Provide a regular service, as follows: On Monday to Saturdays, There is 6 trains per day northbound to Glasgow Central(1 of which is set down only) and 9 trains per day southbound, 8 of these go to London Euston while the last one terminates at Crewe. On Saturdays, There is 5 trains per day to northbound to Glasgow Central(3 of these are set down only) and there are 7 trains per day to London Euston. On  Sundays, There is 5 trains per day northbound to Glasgow Central(4 of these are set down only) and an hourly service operates southbound to London Euston. London North Eastern Railway. Provide 1 train per day to between Glasgow Central and London Kings Cross. CrossCountry. Provide a regular service (roughly every two hours) to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley with most eastbound services extending to Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads and Plymouth via Newcastle and Sheffield. A limited number run beyond Plymouth through to Penzance. ScotRail. Provide limited services in addition to their normal services: There are 2 trains per  day to North Berwick, There is a 2 hourly service to Edinburgh Waverley via Carstairs - several of these run to/from A few peak time services operate to/from Carstairs Motherwell is unusual in that Glasgow Central can be reached via trains from three different platforms going in two different directions. Glasgow is generally north-west of Motherwell, but trains can depart via the West Coast Main Line in the Motherwell Deviation going North, or by the Hamilton Circle going South. The same can also be said for services to Lanark, which is south-east of Motherwell. Trains can depart  towards Lanark going south via Shieldmuir, or initially north via Holytown (though this route is not normally used for timetabled trains since the December 2014 timetable alterations were implemented). During times of disruption such as the closure of the West Coast Main Line between and Law Junction for engineering works, Virgin Trains services and those of CrossCountry can be diverted along the Hamilton Circle and Wishaw Deviation (and sometimes the line to Edinburgh via ) and will use Platforms 3 and 4. Trains provided by London North Eastern Railway will generally be suspended in this event as their drivers do not  have the required route knowledge. In general, a replacement bus service will operate from Motherwell, and passengers from Glasgow are advised to travel to Edinburgh via Glasgow Queen Street.