Glasgow Queen Street railway station

Glasgow Queen Street (Scottish Gaelic: Sràid na Banrighinn) is a city centre railway terminus in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the smaller of the city's two main line railway terminals and the third busiest station in Scotland.[3] The station is situated between George Street to the south and Cathedral Street Bridge to the north, at the northern end of Queen Street adjacent to George Square.[4] Queen Street station serves the Greater Glasgow area's northern towns and suburbs. The station also serves the Edinburgh Waverley shuttle and is the terminus for all inter-city services to destinations in the North of Scotland. The other main city-centre station in Glasgow is Glasgow Central.

Glasgow Queen Street
Scottish Gaelic: Sràid na Banrighinn[1]
Glasgow Queen Street main concourse post-electrification
Location
PlaceGlasgow
Local authorityGlasgow City Council
Coordinates55.8622°N 4.2512°W / 55.8622; -4.2512
Grid referenceNS591655
Operations
Station codeGLQ
Managed byScotRail
Number of platforms9 (2 on low level)
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 16.959 million
2015/16 16.424 million
2016/17 14.682 million
2017/18 16.398 million
2018/19 17.207 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTESPT
ZoneG1
History
Original companyEdinburgh and Glasgow Railway (High Level)
Glasgow City and District Railway (Low Level)
Pre-groupingNorth British Railway
Post-groupingLNER
21 February 1842 (1842-02-21)High Level Station opened[2]
15 March 1886Low Level Station opened[2]
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Glasgow Queen Street from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

History

The station was built by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, and opened on 21 February 1842.[2] In 1865 the E&GR was absorbed into the North British Railway, in 1878 the entire station was redesigned by the civil engineer James Carswell.[5] It became part of the LNER group in 1923.

The climb through the tunnel to Cowlairs is at 1 in 42 and until 1909 trains were hauled up on a rope operated by a stationary engine, although experiments were carried out using banking engines in 1844–48. Three people died in 1928 when a train leaving the station rolled back into another train. Modern diesel and electric trains have no difficulty with the climb.

The adjacent Buchanan Street station of the rival Caledonian Railway closed on 7 November 1966 as a result of the Beeching cuts and its services to Stirling, Perth, Inverness, Dundee and Aberdeen transferred to Queen Street. This caused difficulties with longer trains, as Queen Street is in a confined position between George Square and the tunnel.

In the 1980s, HST were used on Cross Country and East Coast services run by InterCity, having to use Platform 7 with the end of the train being close to the tunnel mouth.

Services

Queen Street station's platforms are on two levels, with the high-level platforms running directly north–south, and the low-level running east–west. They are connected by staircases at either end of the low-level platforms, and by lifts accessible from Platform 7 on the high level.

In 2018, the typical Monday to Saturday service is:

High level
High level platforms

The High Level station is the larger of the two levels, and is the terminus for the Edinburgh shuttles and all routes north of the Central Belt run by ScotRail. The high level railway approaches the station building through the Queen Street Tunnel, which runs beneath the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre to the Sighthill area northeast of the city centre. Platforms 1–7 occupy the High Level, Platform 1 being at the western end of the trainshed, and being considerably shorter – it is usually only used for local stopping services. Since the electrification of several of the routes from the High level station (Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High and to Stirling, Dunblane and Alloa) the fleet is largely electric, utilising the new Class 385 trains.

Low level
A train leaves the low level station

Platforms 8 and 9 comprise the Low Level station, and it is the most central stop on the North Clyde Line of the Glasgow suburban electric network. Trains run frequently between Helensburgh on the Firth of Clyde, Balloch and suburban Milngavie to Airdrie, on the eastern edge of the Greater Glasgow conurbation and onward to Edinburgh via Bathgate and Livingston. The line is electrified; the fleet operating this route are Class 318s, Class 320s and Class 334s.

Services on the West Highland Line to Oban, Fort William and Mallaig occasionally use the Low Level station when the main route into the High Level is unavailable due to engineering work. As of September 2014, the Fort William to London Euston overnight sleeper also calls here instead of Westerton in the northwestern suburbs, eliminating the need for those travelling between Glasgow & Fort William and between Glasgow & London Euston on the sleeper to change there (alighting only southbound/boarding only northbound), the only locomotive-hauled train to call here.

The Low Level line between High Street, Queen Street and Charing Cross was built before the Glasgow Subway, making it the oldest underground railway in the city. In May–June 2014, work was carried out to redevelop the Low Level platforms, which now have new compliant seating.

Signalling
Train arriving at Glasgow Queen Street

Queen Street signal box, opened in 1881, was on a gantry spanning the tracks close to the tunnel mouth. It closed on 26 February 1967 when control of the high level station was transferred to a panel in Cowlairs signal box. That box was superseded by the new Cowlairs signalling centre on 28 December 1998. This in turn was abolished in October 2013 and the station is now under the supervision of Edinburgh IECC (which will eventually become the Edinburgh Rail Operating Centre).

The low level station had two signal boxes, 'Queen Street West' and 'Queen Street East'. Both boxes were over the tracks and closed on 8 February 1960. The low level lines came under the control of Yoker Signalling Centre (IECC) on 19 November 1989.

Redevelopment
High level station redevelopment works, 2016

Minor refurbishment of the station has taken place over in recent years, which has seen the station internally repainted and paved with new flooring, and the CRT screens that displayed train timetables and passenger information were replaced with new LED information boards similar to those in Glasgow Central Station but smaller, in January 2008.

In August 2006 Network Rail revealed that it intended to redevelop Queen Street substantially, making use of the Hanover Street car park area to provide more retail space, and to upgrade the station's entrances, and to provide escalators down to the lower-level platforms – at present there are only steep staircases at either end of Platforms 8/9, and lifts which have to be reached using a circuitous route via the main line platforms. More plans were unveiled in September 2011 by Network Rail, along with an announcement that the owner of the Buchanan Galleries shopping mall – Land Securities had been chosen as development partner for the station. This saw the 1970s hotel extension (which until recently fronted the George Square entrance of the station) demolished and replaced by a glass atrium.[6] The previous plans of developing the airspace rights above the North Hanover Street car park into an expanded retail and restaurant area will be carried forward – and will form part of the proposed extension to the Buchanan Galleries, which will gain direct access to the station concourse. The redevelopment, which was initially scheduled for completion in June 2019, also includes an extension of the high level platforms to accommodate the longer trains that will be introduced as part of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP).[7]

In 2009, the Scottish Government announced that the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line would be electrified by 2017. Overhead line electrification lines have been installed on the high level platforms of Queen Street, with Class 380 trains now operating from the station as of December 2017, and Class 385 trains as of Autumn 2018.[8] As part of this work, the High Level station was closed for 20 weeks (from 20 March to 8 August 2016) to allow 1,800 m (5,900 ft) of track in Queen Street Tunnel (and all of the tracks and platforms in the station itself) to be replaced.[9] Services were diverted over various routes during this period, with some trains running to/from the Low Level station and others to/from Glasgow Central station (via Cumbernauld, Coatbridge and Carmyle).

In August 2017, work began on the £100 million redevelopment of the station, which was due to be completed by December 2019, but has now been scheduled to 2020 due to delays in receiving power to go forward with the work.[10][11]

Proposals

Various schemes to link Queen Street to Glasgow Central station have been considered, as passengers travelling from the north of Scotland to the south and vice versa via Glasgow have to traverse the city centre either on foot or by road. A bus link connects the two stations (which also calls at the city's Buchanan bus station), use of which is free to rail passengers making a cross-Glasgow transfer on a through ticket. Neither of Glasgow's main line terminals is served by the Glasgow Subway, although a moving walkway was installed between Queen Street and the immediately adjacent Buchanan Street subway station during the system's modernisation in 1980, whilst St Enoch station is a short walk from Glasgow Central.

One option to allow cross-Glasgow rail journeys would be Crossrail Glasgow, using a former passenger line (now used only for freight) that links High Street to the Gorbals area. This initiative was reviewed favourably, but progress has been stalled indefinitely as of 2009. Alternative proposals envisage a new city centre station (possibly in a tunnel underneath the city centre) or a light rail / metro system.[12]

Routes – past and present
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Glasgow High Street   Abellio ScotRail
North Clyde Line
   Charing Cross
Terminus   Abellio ScotRail
West Highland Line		   Dalmuir
Terminus   Abellio ScotRail
Croy Line
   Bishopbriggs
Terminus   Abellio ScotRail
Cumbernauld Line
   Springburn
Terminus   Abellio ScotRail
Maryhill Line
   Ashfield
Terminus   Abellio ScotRail
Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line		   Croy
Terminus   Abellio ScotRail
Glasgow to Aberdeen Line		   Stirling
Terminus   Abellio ScotRail
Highland Main Line		   Stirling
Edinburgh Waverley   Caledonian Sleeper
Highland Caledonian Sleeper		   Dalmuir
  Historical railways  
Glasgow High Street
Line and Station open		   North British Railway
Glasgow City and District Railway
   Charing Cross
Line and Station open
Terminus   North British Railway
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
   Cowlairs
Line open; Station closed
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References
  1. Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
  2. Butt (1995), page 103
  3. Office of Rail Regulation, Station Usage
  4. Google Maps listing.
  5. "Biographies of Civil engineers, Architects, etc". Steamindex. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  6. "Network Rail announces Queen Street development partner" (Press release). Network Rail. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  7. "We are redeveloping Queen Street station". Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme. Network Rail. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  8. Network Rail 'update' posters at station.
  9. "Glasgow Queen Street rail tunnel to close for 20 weeks". BBC News. BBC. 12 January 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  10. Russell, Jennifer (1 August 2017). "Work begins on Queen Street Station demolition as £100 million facelift gets underway". Glasgow Live. Reach. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  11. "Completion of Glasgow Queen Street station redevelopment moved back to 2020". Global Rail News. Rail Media. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  12. "Strategic Transport Projects Review" (PDF). Transport Scotland. October 2009. Retrieved 3 October 2018.

Other sources
  • Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
  • Yonge, John (May 1987). Gerald Jacobs (ed.). British Rail Track Diagams - Book 1: ScotRail (1st ed.). Exeter: Quail Map Company. ISBN 0-9006-0948-6.
  • Yonge, John (February 1993). Gerald Jacobs (ed.). Railway Track Diagams - Book 1: Scotland and the Isle of Man (2nd ed.). Exeter: Quail Map Company. ISBN 0-9006-0995-8.
  • Yonge, John (April 1996). Gerald Jacobs (ed.). Railway Track Diagams - Book 1: Scotland and the Isle of Man (3rd ed.). Exeter: Quail Map Company. ISBN 1-8983-1919-7.
  • Yonge, John (2007). Gerald Jacobs (ed.). Railway Track Diagams - Book 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (Quail Track Plans) (fifth ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps (formerly Quail Map Co). ISBN 978-0-9549866-3-6. OCLC 79435248.
  • Glasgow and District Transport Plans – 1951 with details of Queen Street and proposed new station
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