Hidden Glasgow Central platform to be opened to tourists

[amcluesent]

Hidden Glasgow Central platform to be re-opened after 50 years

A derelict platform in the bowels of Scotland’s busiest station is to be restored...rails which have been replaced on other lines will be laid by Network Rail trainees on the old track bed.

Tracks will be re-laid and a vintage train carriage from the era shunted into the long-forgotten low-level platform at Glasgow Central, The Scotsman has learned.


Funding for the restoration, which is due to start next month, will come from revenue from the tours of the station, which have attracted 29,000 people in two years...

Oh wait, it's just going to be a museum for tourists...:roll:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transp...form-to-be-re-opened-after-50-years-1-4327355

 

[najaB]

Oh wait, it's just going to be a museum for tourists...:roll:

Or, according to one of the comments, for terrorists:

I don't think the security implications have been considered, too easy to leave bombs beside the foundations and collapse the entire station.

hock:

 

[Carntyne]

Hidden Glasgow Central platform to be re-opened after 50 years

Oh wait, it's just going to be a museum for tourists...:roll:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transp...form-to-be-re-opened-after-50-years-1-4327355

So it is being reopened after 50 years, as part of the tour.

Great news.

 

[NotATrainspott]

Network Rail have identified the single island platform at Glasgow Central Low Level as being a major capacity constraint on the Argyle Line, and any attempts to free up space at the high level by redirecting trains that way. Their solution is to convert it to two flank platforms which could then have the space for escalators. This would almost certainly entail using the second platform island as the eastbound flank platform, with the current eastbound platform used as the westbound and the remaining platform faces filled in to expand the platform space. As a result, while this would be a nice tourist attraction it doesn't look likely that it would be a permanent addition to the city.

 

[najaB]

As a result, while this would be a nice tourist attraction it doesn't look likely that it would be a permanent addition to the city.

Indeed. But while that plan remains on the drawing board it's a simple, low cost way for Network Rail to generate some positive PR.

 

[edwin_m]

Getting a "vintage train carriage" into there sounds like a major operation. It can hardly be craned in and bringing it in by rail would involve making a temporary connection to the live running line, causing all sorts of cost and hassle.

 

[clc]

Network Rail have identified the single island platform at Glasgow Central Low Level as being a major capacity constraint on the Argyle Line, and any attempts to free up space at the high level by redirecting trains that way. Their solution is to convert it to two flank platforms which could then have the space for escalators. This would almost certainly entail using the second platform island as the eastbound flank platform, with the current eastbound platform used as the westbound and the remaining platform faces filled in to expand the platform space. As a result, while this would be a nice tourist attraction it doesn't look likely that it would be a permanent addition to the city.

The Route Study said that proposal wasn't being progressed. Too disruptive to build and wouldn't allow longer trains to operate.

 

[Adlington]

An abandoned platform at Glasgow Central is proving a huge attraction.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39011396

 

[route:oxford]

The subtitles were handy.

This is a slightly longer version in landscape format for people who don't need the subtitles.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39008682

 

[snowball]

There's a feature in the current issue of Rail magazine about the tours of the bowels of Glasgow Central.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Was that Frankie Boyle's less-sweary cousin in the video?

 

[bspahh]

There's a feature in the current issue of Rail magazine about the tours of the bowels of Glasgow Central.

You may have free access to read Rail magazine online through your public library. You can do this from any computer, not just the ones in the library itself.
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=2864415

I went on the tour last summer. It was interesting to see the underbelly of the station. It has a good rating on Trip Advisor
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attra...s-Glasgow_Central_Tours-Glasgow_Scotland.html

 

[Mikey C]

Was that Frankie Boyle's less-sweary cousin in the video?

Or Roy Wood's Scottish cousin

I find it amazing that such a useful bit of infrastructure, could be completely shut in 1964 without trying to incorporate some of it with the rest of the network (which is what eventually happened 15 years later).

 

[sdrennan]

Been on the brilliant tour and this was mentioned. I believe access is relatively easy to join to the working line at one end however on the other side there are foundations of the Westergate building which I think are on the trackbed so reopening for full use is not easily achievable

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Was that Frankie Boyle's less-sweary cousin in the video?

The enthusiastic Paul Lyons has been very succesful at promoting and developing the Glasgow Central Station tour; though his facts concerning matters outwith the station itself are sometimes a bit shaky. On the tour I was on which included the roof, when asked about the CGU viaduct upstream he replied with great confidence that it was nothing to do with the railway. hock:

A great tour, and well worth doing. if you are having a McDonald's before it, take one of the tiny packets of salt with you.