In 2024, Beatroute Arts became the proud owner of Subway Carriage 117 – making it Scotland’s first community-owned train!

Beatroute Arts is a community-led music and arts charity based in Balornock, in the north of Glasgow. Working from the Beatroute Arts Centre, brought into community ownership by Beatroute via an Asset Transfer from Glasgow City Council in 2021, the organisation delivers free, high-quality artistic and holistic programmes for local people with particular focus on young people, older adults, and individuals with additional support needs. Beatroute has operated in Balornock for over 20 years, an area identified as being within the 10% most deprived in Scotland (SIMD 2020). Beatroute responds directly to the impact of poverty upon its community by increasing access to free creative learning opportunities and holistic activities in an area where such provision is otherwise lacking, reducing social isolation, supporting improved mental health and wellbeing, and raising the voices of marginalised groups through the arts. Then came the subway carriage….

For generations, Glasgow’s Subway has been a major part of the city’s identity. Thousands of people have so many important memories tied to these carriages: travelling to work, gigs, university, nights out, and everything in between. The chances are you’ve already met carriage 117!

When the legacy fleet was retired by SPT, Beatroute saw an opportunity to preserve a piece of Glasgow’s history – not behind glass, but as a living, creative and accessible space to be shared by everyone. As news travelled that the 1980’s carriages were to be scrapped, Beatroute set about the task of securing a carriage for our community. It took a while, but after months of conversations, planning and support from partners and funders who believed in the vision, Carriage 117 was craned into the Beatroute garden.

Having the carriage offers an often overlooked Glasgow community the unique opportunity to commemorate Balornock’s railway heritage in a creative way, and to be a part of the conversation around circular economics in the cultural sector.

Beatroute works with people who are wheelchair users or have limited mobility. Accessing the modern-day subway system has many barriers for people with differing degrees of mobility, and we know that many heritage and cultural spaces remain inaccessible to disabled people and people with additional support needs. We want to highlight the challenges experienced by people with disability when accessing spaces others take for granted, by placing accessibility at the heart of this project - not added as an afterthought. Our aim has always been to make sure this subway carriage is accessible for EVERYONE.

But here’s the thing. Before we can safely open the carriage to the public, we need expert support to help us understand the scope of the work.

This includes:

• accessibility planning

• structural surveys

• specialist heritage advice

• design work exploring how the space could be transformed responsibly and sustainably

This stage is essential to ensuring the carriage can become a safe, welcoming and long-lasting community space for future generations.

The carriage has already been subject to extensive graffiti, vandalism and weather exposure. With our proposed design (as pictured), the carriage will be fully restored to its authentic state and its heritage preserved. We have already committed significant funds ourselves towards the costs of employing an architect, but we cannot complete this next stage alone. Your support now will help us complete the specialist work needed to move the project forward.

We know that times are tough out there. The charitable sector is getting squeezed hard, too, with Beatroute having written no fewer than 60 bids for funding support in the past 12 months. Costs are increasing, while routes to funding support are in sharp decline. The renovation of carriage 117 would create a revenue stream for us via private letting, and we know the interest is there- we have already had several enquiries from people to shoot music videos and short films aboard the train, as well as people wishing to hire it as a meeting and events space.

If you would like to help us get these studies completed and begin our little train’s journey to becoming North Glasgow’s most beloved asset, then please donate below. We are incredibly grateful for any donation that will help us push this over the finishing line.