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3,000 Put Case on Line but Region Gives Death Signal

Friday 30TH December, 1983, Barrhead News

More than 3,000 signatures did not stop Strathclyde Regional Council agreeing to close Neilston station.

The petition objecting to the closure was dismissed by senior Strathclyde Regional politicians on Wednesday. The council met to discuss the rail plan for Strathclyde which will take the services into the 90s. And when the plans were accepted …Neilston was given the chop. Despite objections by Councillor Jimmy McGuire and an amendment to allow further time for consultation, proposed by councillors Edmonston and Robertson, the council agreed to withdraw its subsidy from Whitecraigs to Neilston Line.
The proposals to withdraw the train service from Neilston and Patterton are part of a wide ranging plan for Strathclyde’s rail services, produced by the regional council after a lengthy study of the problem of maintaining services at a time of escalating costs.

The proposals mean that rail services will generally be maintained, even improved in many places, but the village of Neilston emerges as one of the major casualties. The direct train service is to be replaced by a link bus to Barrhead station which will have an improved half hourly service. Protestors from the village drew attention to the fact that the region’s own figures show the station is well used and that the withdrawal would be a major blow to a community, in which existing public transport, is already less than adequate.

Neilston Community Council also debated the issue at its meeting of December 20, and has agreed to call a public meeting in the near future.