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Arkleston Junction is a railway junction east of the town of Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. The junction is one mile from Paisley Gilmour Street railway station and is heavily used by both passenger and freight traffic.
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Post 1967-electrification
Situated on both the Ayrshire Coast and Inverclyde lines, previously - since the electrification of the Gourock line in 1967, and the removal of the centre (fast lines) from Shields Junction - Arkleston Junction merged the four passenger tracks (Up & Down Fast; and Up & Down Slow) and the Up and Down Goods Loops running out of Paisley Gilmour Street into the two tracks running on the former Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway line into Glasgow Central station.
There was also a locomotive siding at the junction. The locomotive siding was used by electric locomotives waiting to take over car trains from Elderslie having been hauled by diesel locomotives for the first short section of their journey. This siding was close to the former signal box which was removed during the 1960s electrification project.
Another departmental siding, together with the former Paisley signalling centre, occupies part of the site of the former Paisley Greenlaw Goods station; which also rejoined the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway at Wallneuk Junction.
The Paisley and Renfrew Railway line to Renfrew, which closed to passengers in June 1967, was retained to serve the former Babcock & Wilcox plant (now Mitsui Babcock) until January 1981, and was connected to the Up Goods Loop.
Ayrline Electrification - 1986
As part of the Ayrline Electrification by British Rail in the early 1980s, the connection to the line to Renfrew was removed (the line had previously become derelict and mostly removed), the locomotive siding and the Slow lines were taken out of use between Wallneuk Junction and Arkleston Junction. The practical application of this was the former Up Goods Loop and Up Slow line were removed and the Down Slow Line became the Up Goods Loop.
2006/07
Off peak, seven passenger trains run over the junction in each direction per hour with up to six freight workings using the junction.
Current development
Arkleston Junction, under plans for the now abandoned Glasgow Airport Rail Link, was to have become the western end for the proposed three track running between the Junction and its Glasgow equivalent, Shields Junction, to accommodate the new Glasgow International Airport services as well as increased passenger traffic to Ayr and Gourock. Although the airport link was cancelled by the Scottish Government in 2009, the third track between Shields Junction and Arkleston Junction was opened to traffic in early 2012.