Proposals
Various schemes to link Queen Street to Central Station have been considered, as passengers travelling from the north of Scotland to the south and vice-versa via Glasgow have to cross the city centre. The Glasgow Subway serves neither station, however a moving walkway was installed as part of the Subway modernisation in the late 1970s which connects Buchanan Street station with the west entrance of Queen Street.
The preferred solution to the problem is Crossrail, using a disused freight line that links High Street to the Gorbals area. This initiative was reviewed favourably, but progress has been stalled indefinitely as of 2009.
Minor refurbishment of the station has taken place over in recent years, which has seen the station internally repainted and paved with new flooring, and the CRT screens that displayed train timetables and passenger information were replaced with new LED information boards similar to those in Glasgow Central Station but smaller, in January 2008.
In August 2006 Network Rail revealed that it intends to redevelop Queen Street substantially, making use of the Hanover Street car park area to provide more retail space, and to upgrade the station's entrances, and to provide escalators down to the lower level platforms - at present there are only steep staircases at either end of Platforms 8/9, and lifts which have to be reached using a circuitous route via the main line platforms. More plans were unveiled in September 2011 by Network Rail, along with an announcement that the owner of the Buchanan Galleries shopping mall - Land Securities had been chosen as development partner for the station, which will see the existing 1970s hotel extension which currently fronts the George Square entrance of the station demolished and replaced by a glass atrium. The previous plans of developing the airspace rights above the North Hanover Street car park into an expanded retail and restaurant area will be carried forward - this will form part of the proposed extension to the Buchanan Galleries, which will gain direct access to the station concourse.
In 2009, the Scottish Government announced that the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line will be electrified by 2016, meaning that overhead line electrification will be installed on the high level platforms of Queen Street.
Read more about this topic: Glasgow Queen Street Railway Station
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