Skip to main content
The future is uncertain for St Rollox railway works
Labour calls for public intervention to take works into public ownership

“IT is a scandal that the industrial base of an area which has a proud record in engineering is being destroyed to such an extent,” the MP for the Glasgow East End district of Springburn told the Commons. 

“If we do not train young apprentices, we shall destroy the seed corn.”

This wasn’t Paul Sweeney, the current MP, speaking of the recent plans to close the St Rollox railway works. It was the late Michael Martin — who would later become the Commons Speaker — speaking 33 years ago, when the workforce at the site was being reduced from 1,000 to fewer than 200.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A piper walks the platform alongside the Avanti West Coast Class 390 EMU train as it arrives at Glasgow Central Station from London Euston, failing to break the 36-year-old record for the fastest train journey between London and Glasgow, June 17, 2021
Railways / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

Our groundbreaking report reveals how private rail companies are bleeding millions from public coffers through exploitative leasing practices — but we have the solutions, writes Aslef Scottish organiser KEVIN LINDSAY  

Voices of Scotland / 8 December 2024
8 December 2024
Despite promises of a new era under state control, the SNP government backs massive cuts to ticket office hours while ignoring safety concerns and excluding disabled passengers from consultation, writes ANN HENDERSON
GHOSTS OF INDUSTRY: The Caley, seen here in 1982
Aw That / 20 July 2024
20 July 2024
As Starmer’s Labour peddles hollow ‘Great British’ rhetoric, MATT KERR traces the decline of Scotland’s railway industry and the true cost of profit-driven politics