10.05.18
First milestone in £120m Queen Street revamp reached
Work has been completed on the extension of Glasgow Queen Street’s platform 1.
The completion of the six month project is the first key milestone in the £120m redevelopment of the station.
Work to extend the platform by 50m began in November 2017, with the demolition of the former ticket office and staff accommodation block to clear the space needed, and was completed during the bank holiday weekend.
During the project, engineers removed over 4,000 tonnes of demolition material before laying 200 tonnes of ballast, 35m of new sleepers and rails and installed overhead power masts.
Alan Ross, director of sponsorship for Network Rail Scotland, explained: “We are transforming Glasgow Queen Street to create a bigger and brighter station and successfully completing the extension of platform one is the first significant milestone for the project team.”
He added: “The redevelopment of Queen Street, and the recently completed electrification of the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line, is part of our plan to build the best railway Scotland has ever had – delivering longer, faster trains with more seats for customers.”
Visiting the station to view progress on the extension works, transport minister, Humza Yousaf, said last week: “It’s great to see very real progress at Queen Street Station with the accelerated delivery of the platform one extension.
“Once complete, the redeveloped station will deliver a fully accessible, modern, transport facility that better serves the needs of passengers and the city while also enabling longer, faster, greener trains to operate.”
Consort House and the Millennium Hotel extension buildings are currently being removed from the front of the station to make room for the extensions of platforms 2 to 5, which will also be lengthened to accept trains up to eight-carriages long.
When the works are completed in 2020, the redeveloped station will offer an expanded concourse with more circulation space and improved customer facilities.
The new station is being delivered as part of the Scottish Government-funded Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme.
Top image: Network Rail
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