Bowling railway station

Bowling railway station serves the village of Bowling in the West Dunbartonshire region of Scotland. This station is on the North Clyde Line, between Kilpatrick and Dumbarton East, from Glasgow Queen Street measured via Maryhill. The station is managed by ScotRail who provide all train services.

History

The station was opened on 15 July 1850 by the Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway, and resited a few years later in 1858.

Accidents and incidents

On 8 September 1933, a passenger train collided with wagons on the line due to a signalman's error. Five people were injured.
In October 2023, severe flooding took place around the River Clyde following a severe weather warning from the Met Office. The Glasgow Times described the station as being "underwater" while The Herald called the station "inundated with muddy water... flood rising almost to the platform’s edge".

Facilities

The station is unstaffed, and only comprises basic shelters, benches, help points, a payphone and a few cycle stands. As there are no facilities to purchase tickets, passengers must buy one in advance, or from the guard on the train.

Passenger volume

The main origin or destination station for journeys to or from Bowling station in the 2022/23 period was Glasgow Queen Street, making up 5,892 of the 25,434 journeys.

	2002–03	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22	2022–23
Entries and exits	151,079	113,682	129,518	113,598	121,129	96,012	43,916	31,784	32,502	33,948	55,820	55,014	58,878	34,438	43,894	61,326	50,366	5,320	18,274	25,434

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour Mondays to Saturdays is:

2 tph to via Singer and
2 tph to

The typical service on Sundays is:

1 tph to via, and
1 tph to via Yoker, Glasgow Central and
2 tph to

Cultural references

The station was made famous by a 1960 painting by the renowned railway artist, the late Terence Cuneo, who depicted a then new Blue train heading westbound into Bowling, passing a steam engine, which the 303 had replaced, in a siding. The painting was used as a poster 'Glasgow Electric'.