British Rail Class 314

The BR Class 314 was a fleet of sixteen three-car 25 kV AC electric multiple unit sets built at BREL York in 1979, designed as a replacement for the ageing first-generation Class 303 Blue Trains and Class 311 sets on the Glasgow suburban network. The Class 314 was built on the same BREL York body shell that had been developed for the Class 313 dual-voltage EMU, adapted for the pure AC operation of the Glasgow overhead system and with an interior specification tailored for the high-density, short-distance stopping service pattern of the Clyde suburban network.

The sixteen sets were delivered to Shields Road depot in Glasgow in 1979–80 and entered service on the electrified routes radiating from Glasgow Central Low Level and Queen Street Low Level to Helensburgh, Airdrie, Motherwell, and the Cathcart Circle. The Class 314's arrival allowed the withdrawal of some of the oldest Class 303 Blue Train sets, the first of which had entered service almost twenty years earlier in 1960. The Class 314s were slightly more powerful and significantly more modern in interior specification than the sets they replaced, with a cleaner, more functional passenger environment and improved reliability compared to the ageing first-generation stock.

In service the Class 314s became closely associated with the Strathclyde PTE-managed suburban network, carrying the distinctive orange and black livery that was the visual identity of Glasgow's trains from the mid-1970s until the Strathclyde PTE era ended. Later they were repainted into ScotRail Saltire blue and white. They worked the Glasgow network for nearly forty years, a testament to the quality of the BREL York build, before withdrawal between 2018 and 2019 as the new Class 385 Hitachi units arrived to replace them. The entire fleet was scrapped; none was preserved, despite the class's long service as one of the defining vehicles of the Glasgow suburban network.