By means of Jamie Russel, BBC Scotland News
It was the end of the line for Glasgow’s 44-year-old Underground trains as the last old-style trains passed through the underground loop for the last time.
Since December, the city’s metro has been gradually phasing out the old trains. These will be replaced by new, modern metro trains that are wheelchair accessible.
A total of 17 trains will be gradually put into service in the period up to and including 2024.
The new rolling stock is just part of a £288 million upgrade program for the metro system, which will include platform doors and driverless trains in the future.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), which operates the Metro, said the last two trains have each completed an estimated 4.6 million kilometers in passenger service – 400,600 loops of the system.
Driver Julie Baker, who took one of the trains for its final run, said she was trying not to cry as she had been driving it for 35 years – almost as long as its lifespan.
“I’m actually emotional, but it’s time to change,” she said.
Julie has been working at SPT since she was sixteen and passed her driver’s exam in her early twenties.
“There were quite a few girls riding at the time, but it seems more men are doing it now – the services are not always family friendly,” she said.
“But that’s all I’ve ever known.
“I expect a large pension and a good old-age provision in the coming years, when the trains no longer have drivers,” she said.
SPTThe old trains entered service on April 16, 1980 as part of the system’s second modernization project, which started in May 1977.
This project closed the metro for three years.
33 Metro-Cammell trains were added to the system, with eight additional carriages added in 1992, making all trains three carriages long.
One of the old carriages has been moved to the Riverside Museum in Glasgow as part of the transport exhibitions.
The new third-generation trains are the same length as the older carriages, but have a “walk-through” design and are air-conditioned.
According to SPT, the trains should be more comfortable and quieter.
The new trains are also the first to be wheelchair accessible, with a dedicated wheelchair space. However, only two of the metro’s fifteen stations have a lift to help people with mobility issues.
Glasgow’s Subway, often referred to as the ‘Clockwork Orange’ due to its striking orange colour and single loop design, has undergone its third modernisation since 2012.
This included a renovation of all 15 stations, a new smart ticketing system, new rolling stock (trains) and the introduction of a new signaling, communications and control room system.
The third generation trains can also be driverless, which the operator wants to introduce in the future.
SPT will also introduce platform screen doors on platforms as part of its £288 million upgrades.
SPTInterior designer Anna Campbell Jones, who is also a judge for ‘Scotland’s Home of the Year’, designed the seat pattern (moquette) on the old trains.
Glasgow native Campbell-Jones told BBC Radio Scotland Good morning Scotland program that it was her first design job after graduating from Glasgow School of Art.
The old chairs were upholstered in 100% mohair and Scottish leather.
“It was in the early 1990s when the old carriages were renovated,” she said.
“It’s incredible how long they’ve lasted and I feel incredibly old that something I designed will now be in a museum.”
SPTSPT Chairman, Councillor Stephen Dornan, said it was a sad day to say goodbye to the much-loved fleet.
“I know many staff, both current and retired, and many passengers have been keen to take one last tour of the system in recent weeks,” he said.
SPT’s director of transport operations, Richard Robinson, told Good Morning Scotland the new designs help bring the Metro into the 21st century.