Glasgow Subway Legacy fleet to make final journey after 44 years of service

After more than four decades of service, Glasgow Subway’s legacy fleet will make its final journey around the iconic underground loop today.

The subway operator SPT announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that there will be a legacy train on the inner and out circle on Friday 28 June between 1pm and 4pm.

Passengers will have the chance to take one last ride on the legacy train which marks 44 years of service today.

Writing on social media they said: "After 44 years of service, today marks the final day our legacy fleet will be in operation.

"There will be a legacy train on each circle this afternoon between 1 - 4pm for their final run of passenger service."

After SPT began introducing 17 new trains to the subway last year, the legacy fleet started slowly moving out of passenger service after many years of serving the Glasgow community.

While some of the trains are bound for scrap one has been selected to be preserved in the Glasgow Transport Museum next to the Clyde, which houses the city’s outstanding transport and technology collections.

The museum was the first, back in 2016, to answer the call for new homes for Glasgow Subway’s iconic orange carriages and worked closely with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport SPT to arrange for Car 128 to be moved to the museum to be preserved properly and put on display earlier this month.

Car 128 carried millions of passengers since the opening of the modernised Glasgow Subway system in April 1980. In its retirement, the driver’s end carriage, weighing around 12 tonnes, will have a pride of place at the Riverside Museum.

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John Messner, Curator, Transport and Technology, at Riverside Museum – part of Glasgow Life Museums said: “For 44 years, Car 128 has been a vital part of the city’s transport infrastructure. The new trains became local icons from the moment they were introduced in 1980.

“The ‘Clockwork Orange’ trains – as they quickly were nicknamed – hold fond memories for many Glaswegians as well as visitors to the city, and Glasgow Life Museums is proud to have been able to preserve one of these beloved carriages with the help of the team at SPT, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.”

However, local MSP Paul Sweeney said on social media that he is also working to save some of the other trains from the fleet from going to scrap.

He said: “This will be the last day that the iconic 1980 Metro Cammell trains will operate on the Glasgow Subway.

“One care has been preserved in the Transport Museum, and I’m still working to save some of the others from the scrapyard:”

The new trains replacing the legacy fleet began service in December 2023 and were part of the Subway modernisation programme.