Plans for Scotland’s Queen Street Station Submitted

Network Rail has submitted plans to Glasgow City Council for the next phase of a GBP120-million (US$170-million) project to redevelop Queen Street Station, Scotland’s third-busiest railway station, The Herald reported on May 20. Plans include a new roof-level public plaza and two interior mezzanine levels with retail and food and drink outlets and access to low-level platforms. The higher level will have space for a commercial development, and the lower mezzanine will feature retail space. New entrances to the station concourse will be created at the Millennium Hotel and on North Hanover Street opposite Martha Street. It will also be accessible from the plaza level via lifts and escalators. The plaza will be accessible by steps from North Hanover Street and Cathedral Street as well as from the station concourse below via lifts and escalators. A new lift provides step-free access from street level up to the main concourse and down to a basement area, which houses public toilets. Engineers have been working on Queen Street station since 2017 without closing it to passengers, and the new station concourse and main entrances are now completed. The redevelopment is being delivered by Network Rail and main contractor Balfour Beatty as part of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP), a Scottish Government investment in the railway infrastructure across central Scotland.