I've made a suggestion or two before about a new route for Glasgow Central, but that was WCML. This time "Glasgow Commuter", set in a recent/modern era. 3 new lines, 20-odd stations, but not actually a whole lot of new miles. Line 1: Glasgow Central to Barrhead which goes through Crossmyloof, Pollokshaws West, Kennishead, Priesthill & Darnley, Nitshill and Barrhead. The line continues on beyond Barrhead towards Kilmarnock, Dumfries and Carlisle, but with a bay platform it's a good way to end services. Plus, from here you run faster non-stop services to/from Glasgow Central. Line 2: Glasgow Central to East Kilbride, diverging from the Barrhead route after Pollokshaws West, you call at Thornliebank, Giffnock, Clarkston, Busby, Thorntonhall, Hairmyres and East Kilbride. This line is a mixture of double and single track running, with some nice gradients and you also cross the Neilston line just past Giffnock. Line 3: The Paisley Canal line, which after leaving Central calls at Dumbreck, Corkerhill, Mosspark, Crookston, Hawkhead and Paisley Canal. In the modern era, Canal station is a terminus and for the most part the line is single track. For this route, the new stock item would be the Class 156 DMU. If you set it around now, the 156s are still running beyond Barrhead (while 380s do the terminating services) and they are also still on the East Kilbride line until late next year when the electrification will be complete. If you set it in same era as Cathcart Circle then lines 1 & 2 are unelectrified and operated by Class 156 DMUs. The reason for line 3 is two-fold. Firstly, it allows you to have Corkerhill depot in the game and it will allow the opportunity for more ECS services, both DMU and EMU. The other reason is it's another route you can run the 314s and 380s on when like me - you're starting to get bored of only being able to use the Cathcart Circle. In fact you could even run some 156 services to Paisley Canal to simulate the era where the wires were up but had not yet been switched on. The 156 DMU is desperately needed for TSW and this is a great way to introduce it. (I'd also love to see a 320 introduced with the route as they ran on Paisley Canal branch for a while and it would also be a welcome addition for the Cathcart Circle route, layering in for 314 when you wanted to represent post-2019.) Ideally, I'd love to see this idea and Cathcart Circle as one big network-type route, but I don't think this will happen. There are so many ideas for lines out of Central that I support, but I thought I'd do one that although seems like a lot, isn't as long as you think and has enough variety in it, especially as a good few miles of this idea are represented in TSW already. There isn't much freight on these lines, but you do get light loco runs and departmental workings. Plus if we ever get a 57 in TSW, you could do some Pendo drags to/from Barrhead to simulate when the WCML has been shut. My ideal hope for TSW is a line out towards Ayr/Gourock direction or WCML towards Carlisle, but I think as a shorter option, the 3 lines idea would offer lots of variety for less work/development time.
I'd like to add an extra 1-2 miles to this idea by including Polmadie depot as well. This would allow you to finally be able to use the Pendolino out of Glasgow Central, albeit in the form of ECS moves. But by having another route that you can legitimately use the Pendolino on will increase its appeal. You could also use the sidings on the opposite side to Polmadie for ECS moves for any railtour scenarios as well.
