05.01.16
Glasgow Queen Street £112m rebuild tender issued
Network Rail has issued a £112m tender to rebuild Glasgow Queen Street to meet growing demand and accommodate faster and longer trains.
The longer electric trains will be rolled out as part of the £742m Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) and will require extended platforms and concourse in the station.
Other elements of the tender include demolishing the Millennium Hotel’s 1970s extension hanging over the station and of the Consort House cornering it.
The canopy over the footway in Dundas Street will be removed, and the plans also involve redeveloping the station’s south and west façades (including reconstructing and extending station buildings), improving entrances, extending platforms to accommodate eight-car trains and renovate lighting and ticket offices.
The redevelopment of Scotland’s third busiest station, due for 2019, is aimed at creating a “landmark and modern” site that reflects its significant role as both a gateway to the city and a departure point for visitors heading north and east.
ScotRail Alliance’s managing director, Phil Verster, said the invitation to tender for the station’s renovation is “another tremendously exciting step forward” in plans to transform Scotland’s rails.
“Scotland’s railway is about more than running metal boxes up and down the tracks. We are all about using trains to connect people with jobs, businesses with customers and communities with more opportunities to grow and prosper,” he said.
“The changes we are making in the coming years will make sure that we have a modern fleet, running on improved infrastructure to and from world-class stations. That is a rail network we can all be proud of.”
Programme director for the EGIP, Rodger Querns, took the opportunity to recap on other key elements “successfully completed” as part of the project, including the electrification of the Cumbernauld line and Haymarket station. They are also “on the ground” across the Edinburgh-Glasgow via Falkirk High line to prepare for electrification.
The Scottish Government-funded project will see the line electrified by the end of this year as part of the first phase of electrification across Scotland.
This will eventually include a 70-train Hitachi Class 385 fleet to be rolled out by December 2018 on several routes, allowing ScotRail to run eight-carriage trains once Queen Street is redeveloped.