Formar North British Lines

By 2000  the service on the former North British line had again been pruned back, particularly in the evening and on Saturday mornings, where a half hourly service was deemed sufficient, this had reduced the overall number of trains to 65 trains to Glasgow and 64 trains from Glasgow, dropping by 10 trains each way on Saturdays.  Western destinations of services now alternated between Helensburgh and Balloch.
Improvements had seen the reinstatement to services beyond Airdrie to Drumgelloch and the introduction of the faster and more modern class 320 EMU.   This allowed the journey time to Glasgow to be shaved to 25 minutes Westbound and 26 minutes Eastbound, but all the morning and evening additional peak hour services ran fast between Blairhill and High Street to give an overall time of 20 minutes from Airdrie to Queen Street and 23 minutes returning from the City.

2002 year of crisis

A drivers dispute coupled with the massive problems encountered with the new class 334s, intended to replace the life expired class 303 “Blue Trains” led to the introduction of an “emergency timetable”.  The service between Drumgelloch and Glasgow was reduced to half hourly throughout the day with additional peak services (stopping at all stations again) giving a total number of 40 trains from Glasgow and 41 to Glasgow (38 and 39 respectively on Saturdays).  Journey times were also increased allowing 26 minutes from Airdrie to Glasgow and 26 minutes from Glasgow (the first time that eastbound and westbound times have been the same).   Following the resolution of the drivers’ dispute resolved the other problems were slowly resolved, and  a return to the 2000 service pattern was achieved by the beginning of October

Ex-Caledonian Lines
 

In 1971, no-one in their right mind would have believed that in 2000 there would be a daily service of 13 trains to and from Cumbernauld, 15 trains to and from Glasgow Central via Hamilton and about 30 trains to and from Motherwell.  But the service did develop, initially thanks to the electrification of the line from Mossend to Coatbridge Freightliner Terminal, which offered the chance for an experimental electric service to Hamilton and Glasgow.  This was a success and was augmented by the DMU service from Motherwell to Cumbernauld in 1990.  Journey times were 14 minutes to Cumbernauld (11 minutes from Cumbernauld), 13 minutes to Motherwell, 23 minutes to Hamilton and 45 minutes to Central Low Level.   A feature of the timetable was the time allowed between the last two stations on each route e.g. from Whifflet to Coatbridge Central, which would appear to include 2 minutes recovery time in order to maintain good punctuality statistics. Sadly the crisis of 2002 has seen the Glasgow and Hamilton services “temporarily” withdrawn, and the Cumbernauld service reduced to only six trains each was per day, with only one on a Saturday.  There is hope however that this service will be developed into a Motherwell to Stirling Service in the not to distant future

On the finge of the Monkland District, Glasgow to Cumbernauld services have benefitted from the improvements made over the last twenty years, including the Cowlairs Chord, the recent resignalling scheme and the reopening of stations at Stepps, Greenhill and hopefully soon at Gartcosh.  The class 156 and 158 units now make the journey to Queen Street High Level in 24 minutes. Regular weekday services are now re-establishmed  beyond Cumbernauld (to Falkirk) for the first time since Buchanan Street station was closed in 1966.  (Diverted Glasgow - Edinburgh services made an advertised stop at Cumbernauld on Sundays at various times during the early 1990's)