One of the slower of the five railway lines which connect Edinburgh with Glasgow across the Midland Valley of Scotland, the Shotts Line opened in 1869 and electrification was completed exactly 150 years later, in 2019, at a cost of £160 million. It extends for 47 miles (75 km) between Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station and Glasgow Central.
The line makes use of the Edinburgh branch of the West Coast Main Line from Edinburgh to Kirknewton Railway Station, then the former Cleland and Midcalder Line between Kirknewton and Uddingston Railway Station, finally returning to the West Coast Main Line (Glasgow branch) to reach the high-level platforms of Glasgow Central. These lines were all run by the Caledonian Railway Company and became part of the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) system in 1923. Today, passenger services are provided by ScotRail and the fastest journey time for limited-stop trains is one hour and seven minutes, but more typical journeys take one hour and thirty-one minutes. The line is also used for freight.
There are twenty-one stations; Waverley and five others in Edinburgh, six in West Lothian, six in North Lanarkshire, two in South Lanarkshire, and Glasgow Central. The intermediate stations are: Haymarket, Slateford, Kingsknowe, Wester Hailes, Curriehill, Kirknewton, Livingston South, West Calder, Addiewell, Breich, Fauldhouse, Shotts, Hartwood, Cleland, Carfin, Holytown, Bellshill, Uddingston and Cambuslang. The least busy is Breich Railway Station, with less than 100 passengers per annum. A further station at Newpark (West Lothian) closed in 1959.
There are junctions with the Glasgow-Edinburgh Line, Argyle Line, Whifflet Line, Cathcart Circle Line and the Glasgow South Western Line.
