Glasgow Subway spends extra £120,000 on new trains after passengers complain carriages too 'unstable'

Glasgow’s Subway operator spent an extra £120,000 on its new fleet after passengers complained the upgraded trains were ‘too shoogly’.

Strathclyde Partnership for Travel (SPT) paid for around 100 dampers to be added to its new trains after receiving complaints from passengers about them being too unstable while in motion.

A freedom of information request from the Scotsman newspaper first revealed nearly £120,000 was spent on the additional dampers.

The rollout of the new fleet formed part of a £288m modernisation programme – the biggest upgrade on the network in more than 30 years.

Originally built in Switzerland, the new trains are fully-air conditioned, wheelchair-accessible and have a walkthrough design.

They replaced the classic Metro-Cammell trains, first introduced to passengers on April 16, 1980, which made their last trips on the network in December 2023.

The old trains completed an estimated 2.6 million miles each in passenger service, approximately 400,600 loops of the inner and outer system.

SPT said the dampers were purchased to improve ride comfort for passengers.

A spokesperson said: “Following feedback from some passengers, SPT paid for the retrofitting of dampers to be added to the new train fleet to improve the ride quality of the trains in the system.

“While what the train manufacturer delivered met the applicable standards set for trains, we requested the additional dampers be added to further improve the ride.”