Easterhouse Station is well, not actually in Easterhouse as the locals know it. It is located on…read moreEasterhouse Road, but is more accurately described as being in the Swinton area. This station is on the Glasgow North East route, serving both lines between Drumgelloch in the east and Helensburgh and Balloch in the west. It costs something in the region of about £2.80 for a return from here to the city centre. The three city centre stops are High Street, Queen Street, and Charing Cross. A trip from Easterhouse to Queen Street takes about 15 minutes. The station is a park and ride, with a small number of parking spots. It's a bit awkward to get in and out of, which isn't particularly useful, but the facility is there. There is also a manned ticket window and you can sit indoors. Trains are ever 15 minutes between 7am and 7pm, and every 30 minutes on Sundays and evenings.

One of the first stations to be refurbished, Hillhead now looks like an overly-lit public toilet…read morewith its uniform coverage of large white tiles and really bright fluorescent lighting. There's no attempt at any artistic merit at the platform level; however that is redeemed largely by the fantastic Alasdair Gray mural on the entrance concourse wall. I feel they have missed a trick with the refurbishment by not taking the opportunity to install LED lighting and incorporate more design elements on the platforms. It's hard to maintain the sense of individuality that the stations used to have when they are all bright white tiles. Some design motifs would have helped, and with LED lighting they would not only be more eco-friendly, they could change the mood of the lighting to suit the occasion. The best it can be described as is functional and utilitarian. But I do love the mural upstairs.

For me, the Hillhead subway station is pretty ideal. It has both staffed and self-service ticket…read moresales points and it has plenty of space in the main entrance and six turnstiles for its hundreds of customers - Hillhead is one of the busiest subway stops in the city. It also has that cool Alastair Grey tiled mural and a coffee shop. This stop is especially handy for Byres Road, the Botanic Gardens and the University of Glasgow which goes some way to explaining why its one of the busier stops on the Clockwork Orange. It's definitely a bit crowded at peak times but the regular rate of trains passing through mean that this isn't normally an issue. It has just reopened following works to modernise the subway in (summer 2016). However, since these works were necessary for sections of track at the depot, rather than for the stations themselves, it looks more or less the same as it did before.

This is my local station, and it's pretty simple. There are no ticket offices, coffee stands or…read moreticket machines so it's simply a station with two platforms, one for Glasgow Central and one for Edinburgh. There is a shelter with an information button though, and it usually allows you access to someone through at the Scotrail offices if you need to know about train delays or something. The service is pretty regular, about one each hour at half past going to Glasgow Central, although for some reason it skips an hour at half past 7, which is pretty strange. You can get a 13 minutes past 8 service at nearby Holytown Train Station if that's a problem though.

Garrowhill station is a small but perfectly formed station of two platforms that connects the…read moreGarrowhill area with the centre of Glasgow via Queen Street Station. There's not a lot here, apart from some seats and waiting areas and a ticket office. It's surrounded by the Garrowhill area which is a fairly quiet and green piece of suburbia. There's not much around besides housing, schools and churches, so as pretty as this station is, there's no strong reason to visit it unless, perhaps, you're seeing friends who live in the area.

Garrowhill train station can be approached either from Barrachnie Road on the Barlanark side, or…read morethrough the residential streets of Garrowhill. It's a very small low-level station, with Eastbound links to Airdrie and Drumgelloch, and Westbound links to Helensburgh and Balloch. Trains in each direction are frequent, roughly every 15 minutes between 7am and 7pm, and every half-hour until about midnight on weekdays. The Westbound trains from here will get you into High Street in 10 minutes, Queen Street in 12 minutes, and Charing Cross in 15 minutes. It's perfect for getting into town. There are 2 platforms, with a ramp down to Platform 1 and a ramp up to Platform 2. There is also a staffed ticket booth, which is open between 6am and 7pm on weekdays, and closed on Sundays. The staff here are really friendly and helpful. It is a little bit weathered and dingy at the best of times, but it's a good location and gets you into the city centre 3 times faster than a bus (and for about the same price), which is well worth it!

This is a lovely wee station which is tucked away just off Fenwick Road, but really can't be beat…read morefor convenience if you're looking to get to/from Giffnock. It's on the East Kilbride line and has services about every 30 minutes into town or East Kilbride. I like the trains on this line as they tend to be quite comfortable, a bit better than the basic ones on the Neilston line (but then, a train's a train and it's not that long of a journey). The trip into Glasgow is a short 17 minute journey and is £2.90 for a single or £3.10 for an off-peak return. If you're travelling to Giffnock, you'll find a lovely village-style town with some really great shops worth visiting - Whole Foods Market is the big draw card, but there's some other places worth stopping along the way as well as a couple of nice restaurants and the Orchard Park Hotel if you want a drink.

You will find Giffnock Train Station on the East Kilbride line, between Glasgow Central Station…read moreand, well, East Kilbride! It's is a relatively busy little station always choc-a-block with commutors heading to work. Once stepping out of this train station you will find yourself on Fenwick Road which homes a whole host of independant shops from stationary, card shops, restaurants to delis and larger grocery stores. It is a bustling little street and particularly nice to stroll down on a nice summers day.

Barnhill station is practically just a stone's throw from Springburn station, but it is the closest…read morestation to St Rollox retail park, which includes a Lidl, Costco and Tesco superstore. It lies just off Petershill Road and the large Royal Mail sorting office - a major employer in the area. The train service is frequent, with trains between Springburn and the west end of Glasgow (Balloch, Dalmuir, Milngavie) calling here. The station is usually very quiet but I would not recommend hanging around after dark, as the nearby area is somewhat dodgy. It is not ideal that Barnhill does not have a ticket office or waiting room, though given it is such a quiet station it is understandable. It would definitely be better to sit in a proper waiting room on a cold winter's night though, rather than the somewhat primitive bus shelter-style ones here. I was bemused to learn that Barnhill does not see any trains stop at it on a Sunday, which gives it the appearance of some sort of ghost station on the ScotRail timetable. I know that the station is not well-used but to have it totally closed on a Sunday is absolute blasphemy. If the lack of patronage justifies its closure, then why not do the same with other quiet stations like Scotstounhill or Hillington East?

It's only a little station but it's a good one. There's only two platforms and this is a terminus…read morestation so trains just shuttle back and forth taking passengers to Glasgow, Edinburgh or Motherwell, stopping at other small stations along the way. There's a staffed ticket office but there are machines to buy tickets from as well. The station also has bike racks, a small car park, a coffee kiosk, waiting rooms and free WiFi via the Cloud. You can reach Milngavie centre via an underpass just outside the station. Also right outside the station is a small but pretty little square with a couple of benches - possibly a nicer place to sit in sunny weather. It's a well kept station with baskets of flowers and plants around and is apparently a grade B listed building.

One of the slicker stations offered on the local line, Milngavie is well maintained and relatively…read moreaesthetically pleasing. Unsurprising, I guess, given the affluence of the area. With an elaborately decorated underpass leading into the town centre, it's a nice way to welcome the abudance of visitors the town gets who are preparing to start the West Highland Way. Indeed, it gets an extra star for the provision of bike lockers, which is obviously particularly handy in this location.

What can you say about a subway station? It's handy for the bottom end of Byres Road and places…read morelike the Lismore, Ichiban, Sparkle Horse, The Three Judges, Butterfly & Pig West End, and anything else in the vicinity of Partick Cross. Strangely, that's what this station used to be known as before the 1980's renovation of the entire subway system. What is now Partick station used to be called Merkland Street, and to avoid confusion when that station was moved to better serve the main line rail station, Partick Cross was renamed Kelvin Hall, despite the fact that it's at least a brisk 5 minute walk from the aforementioned venue. The location of Kelvin Hall station down a wee lane with access from both Dumbarton Road and Dalcross Street is very handy, although the lane used to be a bit scary in the dark and smelled of wee most of the time, with the odd bottle of Buckie occasionally found gracing the pathway. With the recent refurbishment things have improved dramatically and it finally has some decent lighting, although you are still often confronted by a mound of domestic furniture and other rubbish at the Dalcross Street end, which seems to have become a popular location with the locals for fly-tipping despite the best efforts of the Council to keep it tidy.

The bane of the lives of regulars in the surrounding Partick pubs, Kelvinhall Station introduces…read moresubcrawlers to the likes of the Dolphin, Quarter Gill and Partick Tavern to name but a few. It's a pretty inconspicuous stop but is handy for the Partick cross section of Dumbarton Road. Despite the name, it is still a good 10 minute walk to Kelvin Hall from here with many city buses representing a better option for those wishing to visit the sports facility.

This is one of the least-patronised subway stations on the line. There's very little reason to use…read moreit unless you're either a local resident or have need to visit one of the numerous commercial premises in the area. There really isn't much else of interest around apart from a small park and a pedestrian bridge over the motorway, and even that only accesses an area populated entirely by warehouses and industrial sites.

Next to the motorway, this has to be the smallest of the tube stations…read more It bears the new-look design inside with a purple design. It's right in a residential area with a nice park, but being right beside the motorway it's really noisy. Not really much here to see or do, being primarily a tube stop for the folks who live over this part of town.