Glasgow Queen Street is a railway station in
GlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland, the smaller of the city's two main line railway termini and the third-busiest station in Scotland. It is between George Street to the south and Cathedral Street Bridge to the north, at the northern end of Queen Street adjacent to George Square. Queen Street station serves the
Greater GlasgowGreater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area...
conurbation's northern towns and suburbs, the
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
shuttle, and is the terminus for all inter-city services to destinations in the North of Scotland.
History
The station was built by the
Edinburgh and Glasgow RailwayThe Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was a railway built to link Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Act of Parliament for building the railway received its Royal Assent in 1838 which was open on 28 July 1863. Services started between Glasgow Queen Street and Haymarket on 21 February 1842. The line was...
, and opened on 18 February 1842. In 1865 the E&GR was absorbed into the
North British RailwayThe North British Railway was a Scottish railway company that was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923.-History:...
, which became part of the LNER group in 1923.
The climb through the tunnel to
CowlairsCowlairs is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow, part of the wider Springburn district of the city. It is situated north of the River Clyde. Cowlairs F.C. represented the area...
is at 1 in 42 and until 1909 trains were hauled up on a rope operated by a
stationary engineA stationary engine is an engine whose framework does not move. It is normally used not to propel a vehicle but to drive a piece of immobile equipment such as a pump or power tool. They may be powered by steam; or oil-burning or internal combustion engines....
, although experiments were carried out using banking engines in 1844-48. In 1945 there was a minor railway accident when a train leaving the station slipped to a standstill and rolled back into another train. Modern diesel trains have no difficulty with the climb.
The adjacent
Buchanan Street stationBuchanan Street Station was the least known of Glasgow's four main terminal railway stations, the other three being Central, Queen St and St Enoch...
of the rival
Caledonian RailwayThe Caledonian Railway was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century and it was absorbed almost a century later into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, in the 1923 railway grouping, by means of the Railways Act 1921...
closed on 7 November 1966 as a result of the
Beeching axeThe Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
and its services to
StirlingStirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...
,
PerthPerth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...
,
InvernessInverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
,
DundeeDundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
and
AberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
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,
HSTThe InterCity 125 was the brand name of British Rail's High Speed Train fleet. The InterCity 125 train is made up of two power cars, one at each end of a fixed formation of Mark 3 carriages, and is capable of , making the train the fastest diesel-powered locomotive in regular service in the...
were used on Cross Country and East Coast services, having to use Platform 7 with the end of the train being close to the tunnel mouth.
Currently (2011), trains are usually of two to six coaches, running more frequently.
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
liftsAn elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
accessible from Platform 7 on the High Level.
High Level
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 BeltThe Central Belt of Scotland is a common term used to describe the area of highest population density within Scotland. Despite the name, it is not geographically central but is nevertheless situated at the 'waist' of Scotland on a conventional map and the term 'central' is used in many local...
run by
First ScotRailScotRail Railways Ltd. is the FirstGroup-owned train operating company running domestic passenger trains within Scotland, northern England and the cross-border Caledonian Sleeper service to London using the brand ScotRail which is the property of the Scottish Government...
diesel multiple unitA diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
s. The high level railway approaches the station building through the Queen Street Tunnel, which runs beneath the
Buchanan GalleriesBuchanan Galleries is a shopping centre located in the central area of Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. Construction began in 1996 and the building opened to the public on 31 March 1999. Costing £250 million, it is one of the largest city centre shopping developments in the United Kingdom,...
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.
Low Level
Platforms 8 and 9 comprise the Low Level station, and it is the most central stop on the
North Clyde LineThe North Clyde Line is a suburban railway in West Central Scotland. The route is operated by First ScotRail, on behalf of Transport Scotland...
of the Glasgow suburban electric network. Trains run frequently between Helensburgh, Balloch and Milngavie on the
Firth of ClydeThe Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...
, towards
AirdrieAirdrie is a town within North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on a plateau roughly 400 ft above sea level, and is approximately 12 miles east of Glasgow city centre. Airdrie forms part of a conurbation with its neighbour Coatbridge, in the former district known as the Monklands. As of 2006,...
, on the edge of the
Greater GlasgowGreater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area...
and onward to Edinburgh via
BathgateBathgate is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, on the M8 motorway west of Livingston. Nearby towns are Blackburn, Armadale, Whitburn, Livingston, and Linlithgow. Edinburgh Airport is away...
and
LivingstonLivingston is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It is the fourth post-WWII new town to be built in Scotland, designated in 1962. It is about 15 miles west of Edinburgh and 30 miles east of Glasgow, and is bordered by the towns of Broxburn to the northeast and Bathgate to the northwest.Livingston...
. The line is electrified; the fleet operating this route are
Class 318sThe British Rail Class 318 is an electric multiple unit train, which operates exclusively in the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport network in West Central Scotland. The units were introduced fully on 29 September 1986 as part of the electrification of the Ayrshire Coast Line between and...
,
Class 320sThe British Rail Class 320 is an alternating current electric multiple unit train found on the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport rail network in Central Scotland, and is used exclusively on the North Clyde Line between Helensburgh and Airdrie, North Lanarkshire via Glasgow Queen Street...
and
Class 334sThe British Rail Class 334 is a suburban electric multiple unit built by Alstom in Birmingham. They are part of the Juniper family of trains along with Classes 458 and 460. They were built for SPT/ScotRail outer suburban services in Glasgow, UK. They later became part of First ScotRail/SPT fleet...
.
The Low Level line between High Street, Queen Street and Charing Cross was built before the
Glasgow SubwayThe Glasgow Subway is an underground metro line in Glasgow, Scotland. Opened on 14 December 1896, it is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro. Formerly a cable railway, the Subway was later electrified, but its twin circular lines...
, making it the oldest underground railway in the city.
Routes - past and present
Signalling
Queen Street
signal boxOn a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...
, 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.
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 (
IECCThe Integrated Electronic Control Centre was developed in the late 1980s by the British Rail Research Division for UK-based railway signalling centres, although variations exist around the world...
) on 19 November 1989.
Proposals
Various schemes to link Queen Street to Central Station have been considered, as passengers travelling from the north of Scotland to the south and vice-versa via Glasgow have to cross the city centre. The
Glasgow SubwayThe Glasgow Subway is an underground metro line in Glasgow, Scotland. Opened on 14 December 1896, it is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro. Formerly a cable railway, the Subway was later electrified, but its twin circular lines...
serves neither station, however a moving walkway was installed as part of the Subway modernisation in the late 1970s which connects
Buchanan StreetBuchanan Street subway station is a station on the Glasgow Subway in Scotland. It serves Buchanan Street, which is popular with shoppers. Close to Buchanan Bus Station and providing interchange with Glasgow Queen Street railway station via a travelator, it is the busiest station on the Subway, with...
station with the west entrance of Queen Street.
The preferred solution to the problem is
CrossrailCrossrail Glasgow is a proposed railway development in Central Scotland.Since the 1970s, it has been widely recognised that one of the main weaknesses of the railway network in Greater Glasgow is that rail services from the South cannot bypass Glasgow city centre and join the northern...
, using a disused freight line that links High Street to the Gorbals area. This initiative
http://www.spt.co.uk/microsites/Crossrail/ was reviewed favourably, but progress has been stalled indefinitely as of 2009.
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
CRTThe cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
screens that displayed train timetables and passenger information were replaced with new LED information boards similar to those in
Glasgow Central StationGlasgow Central is the larger of the two present main-line railway terminals in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. The station was opened by the Caledonian Railway on 31 July 1879 and is currently managed by Network Rail...
but smaller, in January 2008.
In August 2006
Network RailNetwork Rail is the government-created owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in Great Britain .; it is not responsible for railway infrastructure in Northern Ireland...
revealed that it intends 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
escalatorAn escalator is a moving staircase – a conveyor transport device for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.Escalators are used around the...
s 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, which will see the existing 1970s office block which currently fronts the George Square entrance of the station demolished and replaced by a glass atrium. 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 - this will form part of the proposed extension to the Buchanan Galleries, which will gain direct access to the station concourse.
In 2009, the Scottish Government announced that the
Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk LineThe Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line is a mainline railway line linking Glasgow and Edinburgh via Falkirk in Scotland. It is the principal route out of the four rail links between Scotland's two biggest cities, hosting the flagship "Shuttle" service between and .- Places served :The route...
will be electrified by 2016, meaning that overhead line electrification will be installed on the high level platforms of Queen Street.
Sources