I Failed... But I Gave It My Best Shotts
4 February 2024
ABOVE: First Glasgow 67035 (SK68 LZE), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, passes along Station Road in Shotts, working route 266 from Hamilton. All photos in this article were taken on Tuesday 12 September 2023
I was going to entitle this article "The Cruellest Cancellation". That might be to exaggerate the story that I am about to tell, but, as we all know, a survey recently suggested that the number of people who are prone to exaggeration has gone up year-on-year by a million per cent.
But this is the story of a failure, and it is a disappointing failure for me, as I generally do so well on my travels.
I’m in Shotts, a small town in North Lanarkshire, in southern Scotland. I'm 17 miles out from Glasgow, where I started my day, and 26 miles away from Edinburgh, where I am heading. I'm part-way through what is meant to be one of my long-distance rides, but my bus has been cancelled, I need facilities, and I'm short of options.
Rewind a few hours...
After a week in Glasgow (I still have more stories to tell about this over the coming weeks), I am crossing to Edinburgh for the last couple of days of my stay in Scotland. Of course, I want to do this by bus. Previous attempts to plan the journey have failed to identify the X37 (Glasgow to Falkirk) and X38 (Falkirk to Edinburgh) as the optimal routes (there is also the through service 900 - not so interesting), but in any case, I want to go a slightly longer way round and make a full day of it.
The other consideration for me is that I have a large suitcase with me. A total of 10 days away means that I have a lot to carry. Top decks are out of the question for ‘Top Deck Man’ today!
I’m starting out towards East Kilbride, on First (Greater) Glasgow route 21. This starts in Cochrane Street, near its junction with John Street and just off George Square, in the heart of Glasgow City Centre. This is extremely convenient for me as it’s just around the corner from my hotel. It’s less convenient for the friendly driver, perhaps. This terminus point is just a city street and he needs facilities that are not immediately available.
With apologies for leaving me on the roadside (I am the only intending customer at this point), he goes off in search of facilities.
He’s back after a few minutes, having found what he needed, as well as a fresh cuppa to top him up again. It's a good job that there is a generous layover time before this journey.
ABOVE: First Glasgow 33979 (SN65 OFU), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, in Cochrane Street in Glasgow City Centre, awaits departure on route 21 to Gardenhall (East Kilbride). And yes, that's MY suitcase by the bus stop pole!
We’re on our way at 0822, as scheduled. Although there are a significant number of electric buses around here, this one is a diesel ADL Enviro400 MMC. I can’t go upstairs, so I position myself in the first forward-facing seat on the nearside - the best downstairs seat - hoping that the relatively early hour will mean not too many people really need this seat. (I’m also conscious of the School Run risk.)
It’s a convoluted run out of the City Centre. The bus turns left, left again, left a third time and then right, at which point I become conscious that we’re only a stone's throw from where we started (actually 321 feet as the crow flies), and I wonder whether a slightly longer walk, and a marginally earlier start, might have saved me half an hour, by putting me in touch with the previous departure (all this to-ing and fro-ing around the City Centre takes 10 minutes)! I've drawn the map below to illustrate the route out of the city centre...
It’s a fairly unremarkable journey after this. I spot a modern double-decker carrying the registration of an old London Routemaster (WLT 976). This is 37188, a First Glasgow Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini of 2007 vintage. The School Run does not materialise and the journey does not get busy.
We pass through the Gorbals district, just to the south of the City Centre itself. Within this, the area of Hutchesontown was declared a Comprehensive Development Area in 1957. This took the form of slum clearance, and the replacement of overcrowded housing with new homes in high rise tower blocks. Of the 16 tower blocks that were built as part of this scheme, only six are still standing today (and even two of these are scheduled for demolition).
Soon after comes Rutherglen, which received the status of Royal Burgh in 1126, by Royal Charter from King David I of Scotland. It gradually diminished in importance as Glasgow grew in power and size. Rutherglen Castle, was occupied by an English garrison during the struggle between John Balliol and Robert the Bruce for the Scottish crown. It was besieged by Robert the Bruce in 1309 and eventually came into Scottish possession in 1313. It was destroyed after the Battle of Langside in the 16th Century.
Rutherglen was subsequently a centre of heavy industry, having a long coal mining tradition, whilst the Clydebridge Steelworks began operating in the 1880s and employed thousands at its peak; it now only refines steel produced elsewhere.
With a limited sense of all this history at the time (I've looked up these details subsequently), a routine journey ends for me at the bus station at East Kilbride, on time at 0930.
ABOVE: Two First Glasgow buses call into East Kilbride bus station (the slightly-remote Stances 1 & 2 - I am photographing from the main Stance area). Nearer the camera is 37214 (SF57 MKO), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini on route 21. In front of it is an ADL Enviro400 MMC on route 18 (Glasgow to East Kilbride)
After a coffee break, I’m heading on to Hamilton on First Glasgow route 201. This is a busy service on a 15-minute frequency, and runs across the southern and eastern suburbs of Glasgow, from Hairmyres round to Petersburn. It goes to the town of Hamilton, but doesn’t appear to serve Hamilton bus station, where I need to get to, so I will need to have my wits about me in order not to miss my stop / the centre of town.
There’s a slight delay to the service, and two buses are listed at East Kilbride as “due”, although only one appears. It’s an ADL Enviro200; busy, but not too busy for me to utilise a pair of seats towards the back for me and my case.
ABOVE: My best (only) shot of route 201 is First Glasgow 67860 (SN13 EFB), an ADL/TransBus Enviro300, somewhere north of Motherwell
We depart at 1020. During the course of this journey, a dynamic road speed sign registers that we are doing 41 miles per hour where the speed limit is 30.
The stop in central Hamilton is described as "before Leechlee Road", but it could do with the additional descriptor, “opposite Bus Station”, because that’s exactly where it is! I spot it easily enough, and am one of a number of people to exit here.
ABOVE: Buses line up in Hamilton Bus Station. Nearest the camera is SJ22 GZZ, a Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora of JMB Travel, working route 41 (Lanark to Hamilton). Next to that is 63226 (SN14 DYD), a Wright Streetlite DF. At the far end, a pair of ADL Enviro200 MMCs flank what could be a 'classic' Enviro200. The man in the hi-viz is responsible for ensuring that buses can back out safely.
My next service, from the adjacent bus station, is route 266, another First Glasgow service. This is a complicated service as it has two distinct legs to it. All buses run via Motherwell to Newmains Town Centre, where half the service turns north to head into the residential part of Newmains, while the other half pushes north-eastwards to Allanton, and then turns north towards Shotts. Both sections run every 15 minutes, meaning eight buses an hour as far as Newmains Town Centre.
Curiously, at Hamilton Bus Station, while the once-daily departure on route 253 merits a route diagram, the prolific 266 does not:
The Newmains section takes just four minutes from Newmains Town Centre, whilst the Shotts section is almost another half an hour.
The 1103 departure is a Wright Streetlite DF (a long one). There’s a fast stretch down the main A723 Motherwell Road dual carriageway to start with, into Motherwell itself. The service is busy – the high frequency is clearly justified, even at off-peak times.
Headquarters for North Lanarkshire Council, Motherwell was noted as the steel production capital of Scotland; the home of David Colville & Sons, at one time the largest Steel works in Scotland, the town was nicknamed "Steelopolis".
We head south-east; a mile-and-a-half further along is the University Hospital Wishaw. There’s a very tight turning circle here, which looks like it would be OK for buses if it hadn’t also become the (presumably unofficial) pick-up and drop-off point for any car visitors. We are momentarily delayed by a couple of drop-offs before we can complete the turn. Although it’s a busy service, and one might expect the Hospital to be a key pick-up / drop-off for us as well, there’s actually relatively little churn.
We reach Shotts at 1203. A claim to fame for this small town of 8,840 people is the Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band, a bagpipe and drum band, which has won the World Pipe Band Championships sixteen times - an impressive record indeed!
I get off the bus in Main Street, at its junction with Station Road. My advance planning has suggested that this is reasonably central to the town. (In fact, it's the border between the main part of Shotts and the suburb of Stane.)
ABOVE: Shotts EU Congregational Church in Station Road
There isn’t much in town, though, and my subsequent online investigations of the area have not suggested that there's much else around - certainly very few shops.
I have just under half-an-hour to my next bus and I could use a cuppa, and the essential facilities. But I can’t find either. The best I can do is a petrol station for a bar of chocolate. They don’t have the other facilities, though, and suggest the Health Centre across the road. I don’t quite feel that I can go into a Health Centre when I have no reason to (and I'm allergic to surgeries and hospitals anyway), so it looks as though I am going to have to hang on until my next stop, Livingstone. It’s an hour-plus away once I board the bus, but what else can I do?
There’s a lovely open space here that I am able to wander around for a little while whilst waiting for time to pass. I also stumble across the remnants of the Shotts Ironworks. Wikipedia tells me that the works and the associated extraction of raw materials were the main source of industry in Shotts for a period of over 150 years.
ABOVE: Shotts Sports Field, with the Medical Practice in the foreground and the helpful petrol station in the background. To the right is the Shotts Ironworks.
I’m soon back at the bus stop, though, awaiting the 1232 departure on McGill’s service 23 towards Livingstone and Broxburn, West Lothian.
But there’s no sign of the bus, and I’ve not seen the incoming service either. Ten minutes after it’s due, it suddenly occurs to me that there have been a lot of service cancellations at McGill’s recently. A check of the website reveals the truth – the bus has been cancelled.
ABOVE: Screenshot from the McGill's website, showing the cancellation of my 1232 service as far as Livingstone.
The next bus is a further hour away, meaning that my arrival in Livingstone will now be in two hours plus. All I need is a little coffee shop to pass the time, with a 'smallest room', but there’s nothing promising in sight in any direction.
There is a station around here somewhere, but I don't want to take a train, so I feel that I have only one option to get moving again quickly, and that is to cross the road and return to Motherwell, the first sizeable town, on the 266. The 1245 departure is an ADL Enviro200 MMC. It’s not as busy as the incoming service was, but still sees steady trade. Another double-run into Wishaw Hospital results in another delay at the turning circle – I guess this happens all the time.
I bail out at an Asda store just short of the town centre, which provides considerable relief and the required cup of tea! It's now 1325, so I would still not have left Shotts at this point if I had waited for the 23.
ABOVE: The outskirts of Motherwell, at the junction of West Hamilton Street and Watson Street, sees First Glasgow 67035 (SK68 LZE), an Enviro200 MMC, heading for town on route 266. In the distance can be seen the Clock Tower of Motherwell Town Hall (left), and the Viewing Tower of the North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre
A stocktake of the situation then. Do I really want to spend another 40-45 minutes riding the 266 for a third time? And with the risk of another failure on route 23 if I do so? There are several cancellations today - does that 1430 cancellation on the list potentially affect me if I go back to Shotts?
Are there other options to get me across the central part of this journey? Not obvious ones, no. Traveline offers complex journeys involving three or four buses, including some infrequent ones, and most of the options go via Glasgow.
ABOVE: Motherwell Railway Station
So there's only really one way to go at this stage. I jump on the 1432 departure of frequent route 240 - every 12 minutes - back to Glasgow City Centre. This is another ADL Enviro200 MMC from First Glasgow. Eighty-two minutes later, I’m back in George Square - a place I hadn't expected to see again quite so soon!
Here. the need to get out of Glasgow becomes apparent... Football fans are descending on the city for a "friendly" Scotland versus England 150th Anniversary Match this evening, commemorating "the oldest rivalry in international football", with Scotland taking on "the Auld Enemy for the 116th time". At 4pm, people are already starting to arrive from across Scotland, and I can imagine what it's going to be like here in another hour. (I don't see any England supporters, incidentally.)
So I jump on the train across to Edinburgh (49 minutes end-to-end)! I have reached journey's end, but not in the way I had intended.
I usually do very well with the bus journeys that I plan, and cancellations are few and far between. I appreciate that it’s unavoidable sometimes, and this was one of those occasions where the stars did not align the right way for me. I was fortunate as well that McGill’s advertises its cancellations on its website, so I knew quite quickly that the bus wasn’t coming (once it occurred to me to look)! One of those things.
Perhaps if I had found a suitable place for a break in Shotts, such that I could have waited another hour, it would have been different. I presume that the 23 wasn’t a very heavily-used service, as it no longer runs...
So I failed in my quest to do Glasgow to Edinburgh the long way round by bus, but I did give it my best Shotts ... erm, shot. And it was still a day out on the buses, so still a good day out!
England won the football 3-1 that evening. I lost by a similar margin that day!
A rough approximation of my journey, the bits I couldn't do, and the alternative routes, are shown below.
