The Itzy Bitzy Glasgow Subway

Sometimes simple tasks turn out to be rather interesting. Take getting from the Glasgow Central train station to our accommodation via the Glasgow Subway. What could have been a mundane journey on public transport turned out to be rather entertaining.

The Glasgow Subway is the world's third oldest underground metro system. It was opened way back in 1896 and as a result it has some quirks.

First among its quirks is that it is small. Like, really small.

I really had to duck to get into the cars and I am not that tall. Presumably six foot tall folk were rather less common when the subway was originally built.

Inside the cars it was not much more spacious.

Not only are the trains little but the platforms are too. Its not so easy to see in this photo but this platform is probably 2.5 meters wide with a train line on either side. Not much room to move. It was a bit odd to not be able to move back further when trains were pulling in due to having another line behind you.

The size of things is not the only reminder of the age of the subway system. There are also the stairs. Being so old there are no elevators, or at least none that we could find. There are not even any escalators although some appeared to be being installed while we were there.

Being all stairs makes things a bit difficult with a baby and a pram/stroller/buggy. We folded ours up and carried our baby and our folded pram down all the stairs before setting it up again on the platform. Upon arrival at our destination our baby in a pram was spotted by a staff member who informed us that, next time around, we were not to set up the pram while within the subway system.

Encountering a public transport system in a city in a western country that that makes using a pram impractical in 2014 was quite surprising. And too bad if you require a wheelchair.

Although it was somewhat impractical it was delightfully anachronistic. We have seen many different places but now I feel like I have been given a window into a different time.