A stop on the Argyle Line in South Lanarkshire, Rutherglen Railway Station (known in Gaelic as An Ruadh-Ghleann) lies a quarter-mile (0.5 km) north northeast of the town centre and a half-mile (1 km) south of Dalmarnock (Glasgow City), from which it is separated by the M74 motorway. The original Rutherglen Station opened on the Caledonian Railway in 1849 (now the West Coast Main Line). The Glasgow Central Railway opened in 1895, creating a sizeable triangular junction and the station used to serve two of these arms, but the Glasgow Central line closed in 1964. When the Argyle Line was established in 1979, the platform on the main-line closed, leaving only an island platform on the eastern arms of the junction, which is accessed from the town centre by overbridges, which pass over the main-line. In 2009, a lift was installed to permit disabled access.
Now operated by ScotRail, Rutherglen Railway Station is staffed part-time and was used by 1,098,300 passengers in 2016-17, a number which has grown from 734,704 in 2009-10. It is preceded by Cambuslang Railway Station, 1½ miles (2.5 km) to the east southeast, and followed by Dalmarnock, a mile (1.5 km) to the north northwest.
