| Wishaw | |
| Symbol Location: | gb |
| Symbol: | rail |
| Borough: | Wishaw, North Lanarkshire |
| Country: | Scotland |
| Coordinates: | 55.7721°N -3.9261°W |
| Grid Name: | Grid reference |
| Manager: | ScotRail |
| Platforms: | 2 |
| Code: | WSH |
| Original: | Caledonian Railway |
| Postgroup: | LMS |
| Years: | 1 June 1880 |
| Events: | Opened as Wishaw Central[1] |
| Years1: | 14 June 1965 |
| Events1: | Renamed as Wishaw |
| Footnotes: | Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road |
Wishaw railway station is a railway station in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and lies on the Wishaw Deviation Line just south of the single track link line which connects to the West Coast Main Line at .
The station opened on 1 June 1880, along with the line from Law Junction to . It was previously known as Wishaw Central until the closure of the town's station nearby on the WCML in 1958, which was known as "Wishaw South".
Up until the electrification of the West Coast Main Line through to in 1974, Wishaw was served by a Monday to Saturday hourly diesel service from to Glasgow Central High Level, alternating between services via Holytown/Hamilton and Bellshill.
An hourly electric service was provided between Glasgow Central High Level, running non-stop to Motherwell, as Shieldmuir station did not open until 1987.
From 1979 until 2001 an hourly electric service was provided Monday to Saturday between Lanark and running via Motherwell and Bellshill. The service was initially non-stop to Motherwell, however in 1987 a new intermediate station was opened at Shieldmuir.
An hourly Sunday service was introduced in 1997.
The station is currently served by a mixture of units and refurbished units.
Since 2001, the following ScotRail service pattern has been in place -:
Monday to Saturday
Daytime
Evening
Sunday
Other services
The station has some other sporadic passenger services such as two trains a day to and two to via . Since the December 2013 timetable change, the station has also been served by a regular Glasgow Central - Carstairs - Edinburgh semi-fast service in each direction, giving a through journey time of 48-50 minutes to Edinburgh.[2]
A recast of the Argyle Line timetable in the wake of the Whifflet Line electrification has seen some significant changes to the service pattern. All services to Motherwell & Glasgow Central now run via Shieldmuir & Bellshill (every half-hour) rather than alternating via this route and Holytown & Hamilton and they also now terminate at Central High Level rather than running through to Partick and beyond via Rutherglen & Central Low Level (passengers now must change at for these destinations).[3] The only exception is a single weekday train from to Garscadden in the morning peak, which returns from to Carstairs in the evening & uses the route via Holytown.
The two-hourly semi-fast service between Glasgow Central & Edinburgh still calls all day (except on Sundays) and now is extended through to/from .
The line is heavily used for freight services also, with several Freightliner container trains a day from the nearby Coatbridge terminal to destinations in the south of England such as Felixstowe and Southampton. It is also used by services to the Mossend freight terminal as well as those travelling from the West Coast Main Line to the Highlands.
The line through Wishaw station is heavily used during engineering work on the adjacent West Coast Main Line (less than 1 km to the west of the station) which brings a wide variety of rolling stock to the line.
The station has a small (25 spaces) car park and ticket office staffed from Monday to Saturday.[4]