QUEEN STREET REDEVELOPMENT APPROVED

A TRANSPORT and Works Scotland order for the redevelopment of Glasgow Queen Street station has been approved by Scottish Ministers.

The granting of permission for the work has taken longer than anticipated, with Network Rail originally hoping to award a contract last autumn and complete the work by 2019. Former ScotRail Alliance managing director Phil Verster told the Scottish Government’s Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee in January that delays in receiving approval for the Queen Street works ‘will have consequences for our delivery of key outputs 3 and 4 in EGIP (the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme)’. When questioned about the timescale for the work, a Transport Scotland spokesperson said: ‘In light of the positive announcement we will now work with Network Rail to assess the impact of the TAWS process having taken longer than allowed for in the original delivery programme. We will make the outcome of this public in due course’.

Under the plans, platforms will be extended to accommodate eight-car trains as part of EGIP, while the station concourse will be redeveloped and expanded following demolition of the Millennium Hotel’s extension above the station and of Consort House, currently home to Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). Installation of new lighting and public address systems and provision of a new ticket office and staff accommodation block also form part of the work.

Separately, Network Rail has issued a £16 million contract to Balfour Beatty to deliver enabling works ahead of the extension of platform 1 at Queen Street to accommodate four-car trains. This will involve the demolition of the present staff accommodation block, which will be relocated to a new building on the North Hanover Street side of the station. Work was due to begin in April, with completion in spring 2018.