Location type

Station

Name and dates

Glasgow Queen Street High Level (1842-)

Station code: GLQ National Rail ScotRail
Where: Glasgow City, Scotland
Opened on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway.
Open on the West Highland Line.
Open on the Glasgow to Perth.
Open on the Glasgow to Anniesland via Maryhill.

Description

This is a high level terminus with seven platforms under a large glazed barrel roof trainshed to the north of George Square [Glasgow]. It is a terminus for lines to the north, west and east. The railway was electrified in 2016.

The station is undergoing a major expansion and renovation (2019,2020). The works will, for the first time in its history, bring the station frontage out into the open alongside George Square.

The station is terminus for services to Oban, Fort William, Mallaig, Anniesland, Stirling, Dunblane, Perth, Inverness, Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh Waverley.

Below the station is Glasgow Queen Street Low Level, opened in 1886. Its running lines are a 90 degrees to the main station.

The station is built into the side of a hill, the site of the Crawford Mansion and a quarry (Dovanhill Quarry) before opening. It was the western terminus of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. Until 1870 it was the terminus for Caledonian Railway trains to Stirling, Perth and the north and the company had a ticket office.

The northern end of the station is within a deep dressed stone lined cutting with Cowlairs Tunnel running northwards beyond. The steep climb is the Cowlairs Incline, up which trains were once hauled by cable powered by steam engine at Cowlairs.

The station has its frontage onto the north side of Glasgow's George Square. Much of the station dates from the major rebuilding between 1877 and 1888 which enlarged the station and provided the roof. The architect was James Carswell. This is a glazed tied arch, 450 by 250 feet and 78 feet tall. Under this are the passenger platforms. There was a very small goods yard on the east side, not sufficient for the goods traffic, which led to the opening of Sighthill Goods in 1855.

The goods yard was altered several times, but the general layout was a series of covered platforms outside the main trainshed on the east side, a parcels department and a beer store with, in the north east corner, a grain and flour warehouse.

Many of the alterations to the trainshed and surrounding buildings were made in the 1960s and 1970s. These are now being replaced and an entirely new frontage (2019) built. The roof had a narrow escape in the 1960s when it was to be replaced with platform canopies.

The station's signal box (1881) was located on a gantry over the lines at the station throat. This closed in 1967, replaced by Cowlairs Power Box. The gantry remained in place afterwards until the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre was built at the north end of the station.

The apparent second tunnel entry at the north end of the station, on the east of the Cowlairs Tunnel, does not lead to a tunnel.

Local

The Buchanan Galleries shopping centre is to the north of the station, overshadowing the entry to the Cowlairs Tunnel.

The North British Hotel was to the east of the station. It became a British Transport Hotel and was sold in 1984. It is now the Millenium Hotel Glasgow .

Glasgow City Council - George Square Webcam

Tags

Station terminus

Aliases

Glasgow Queen Street

Facilities

Gaelic name: Glaschu Sraid na Banrighinn

Nearby stations Glasgow Queen Street Low Level Buchanan Street [Subway] Buchanan Street Glasgow Central Argyle Street Glasgow St Enoch Glasgow Central Low Level Dunlop Street St Enoch [Subway] Glasgow Cross College [1st] High Street Cowcaddens [Subway] Central Station Broomielaw Hoist Gallowgate	Phoenix Iron Works Office [1st] Buchanan Street Goods High Street Tunnel Fulton^s Iron Foundry Charing Cross Tunnel Atlas Works Buchanan Street Shed Cowlairs Tunnel Pulteney Street Engine Works Sun Foundry [Glasgow] Tourist/other George Square [Glasgow] Buchanan Galleries Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Hutcheson^s Hospital St Enoch Shopping Centre
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.