Tuesday 17th February 2026
Readers may recall my post in February last year when I enjoyed a journey on JMB Travel’s fledgling route X1 providing a new fast link from Hillhouse and Hamilton into Glasgow using the M74/M73/M8. Well, they’ve done it again – introducing a second new route providing a quick “Glasgow fast” journey time using the same motorway connections.
This time new route X5, which began on 12th January, links Newarthill, Carfin and Motherwell with Glasgow’s Buchanan bus station.
Whereas the X1 resurrected a long withdrawn route once operated by First Bus, the X5 provides new links especially for the large residential area around Newarthill and Carfin as well as giving a great quick link between Motherwell and Glasgow as an alternative to ScotRail.
All the more so as, like the X1, the route taken by the bus in central Glasgow between the M8 junction and Buchanan Street conveniently serves Strathclyde University and the City of Glasgow College in Cathedral Street which are just a few minutes from the motorway.
As you can see the timetable comprises an hourly frequency on Mondays to Saturdays between around 06:15 and 20:00 (07:37 on Saturdays) with two buses allocated to the service. On Mondays to Fridays the first and last two journeys extend from (and to) Newmains, Coltness and Cleland.
I sampled the 15:00 departure from Glasgow on Saturday afternoon and was impressed to see 14 passengers board in the bus station with another passenger boarding in Cathedral Street. A similar number had alighted as the bus had arrived from its previous journey and I saw a similar number on the next departure when we passed that bus in Motherwell.
Obviously the return journey into Glasgow at 15:57 from Newarthill was less busy (being ‘against the flow’) but still carried seven including five into Glasgow.
As with my journey on the X1 last February the bus was a smart, recent addition to the fleet – a Volvo eVoRa – and bearing in mind the weather conditions, and preponderance of motorway driving, was also very presentably clean too.
The driver was absolutely excellent, very helpful and polite to everyone handing out timetable leaflets from beside his ticket machine and I also noticed a box containing a good supply above the front nearside wheel which another passenger helped himself to before announcing he’d been distributing them locally to ensure all his neighbours and friends “are aware of this great new service”.
The bus carries the same ‘Glasgow fast’ branding as developed for the X1 which will help raise the profile as since its introduction just over a year ago, that route has seen a frequency uplift with a half hourly frequency for much of the day as well as a Sunday service and I reckon it won’t be long before the X5 will be up for similar expansion.
It’s once again so refreshing to see a small independent, family owned business investing in, and trying out, new bus routes, making sure the timetable is tweaked in response to demand, the branding is to a high standard with a nicely turned out bus, both internally and externally and with excellent committed drivers
I saw this in action on the way back into Glasgow on Saturday afternoon when the two buses on the route crossed each other in Motherwell and the driver of the outbound journey called across to our driver to ask if he had any spare timetable leaflets on board to which the reply was yes and he jumped out the cab and took some across the road to the other driver who handed one to a passenger who was getting off the bus.
What great service. And I hear (from the driver) that four more brand new Volvos will soon be entering service too. Fantastic.
The X5 deserves to succeed tapping into a significant residential market in Cafin and Newarthill…
… as well as Motherwell itself…
… just as the X1 has done west of the town in Hilllhouse and Hamilton.
I have every confidence it will be a success and well done once again to Ian Bieniowski for overseeing the route’s development as well as Jennifer and Martin Bell, JMB’s owners for their continuing commitment to investing in new routes and new buses.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
Glasgow took hold of the idea of the urban motorway. I don’t know how much local destruction occurred but it dies seem to compare to how london failed to complete its network giving rise to a lot of now local congestion on roads north south and east making onetime Greenline semi fast coach journeys broadly impossible.
is Glasgow a young growing city these days?
JBC Prestatyn
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Glasgow also had uncompleted sections in a similar way and for similar reasons to London, although the original plans don’t appear to have been quite so extensive.
There’s a historic video on YouTube that covers the construction of urban motorways in Leeds. An interesting point is that even at the time when they were in vogue the conclusion was reached that for traffic to flow smoothly the roads would need to cover an area greater than the size of the city itself!
Surfblue
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Yes, JMB Travel have gained quite a reputation for being a good quality Operator in the region. Amongst the usual plethora of evening and Sunday bits, which ebb and flow like the tide according to the Strathclyde budget, they have developed the 41 (Lanark-Hamilton) to a very creditable service, and look to be having success with the X1 and X5.
Sadly, I see plans are in hand to mess about with Buchanan Street bus station (how dare buses take up space in City centres when said space can be used for better things such as offices and car parks, but no, I don’t know the details), and I suspect should services be pushed out to street stops, may become less attractive. There is also the prospect of re-regulation which may dampen any initiatives such as JMB’s services.
Terence Uden
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A perfect bus service! Friendly driver, clean bus, fast, reliable- this is true bus rapid transport!
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