GLASGOW’S Queen Street Station has scooped the station excellence award at the Rail Business Awards in recognition of its £120 million redevelopment.
The event recognises and celebrates achievements in every aspect of the rail industry – from daily operations, safety and customer service to technical innovation and major projects.
Balfour Beatty led the four-year works on the redevelopment of the station which represents an ‘integral’ part of the Edinburgh Glasgow improvement programme (EGIP), as well as being ‘key’ to the strategic delivery of wider outputs of electrification.
The redeveloped station includes a larger concourse which allows for double the circulation space for passengers, as well as being fully accessible – with lifts into the new building from Queen Street and step-free access from Dundas and North Hanover streets.
The expanded space was made possible through the demolishment of the 1970s buildings in front of the Victorian station. Over the course of a year, more than 14,000 tonnes of material was removed from the site – with mini diggers demolishing the buildings piece by piece from the top down.
Network Rail said around 94% of the demolition material was recycled – with some even returned to the station to be used in the foundations of the new concourse.
In December 2018 the expanded station’s steel frame began to go up, with it beginning to take shape in September 2019 when the last of the 310 glass panels on the station frontage was installed.
Alex Hynes, MD of Scotland’s Railway, said, “I am delighted Scotland’s Railway had been recognised in this way at this year’s Rail Business Awards. To win the Station Excellence Award is testament to all who have worked tirelessly on the project, from our engineers and contractors to the station team – their commitment and dedication was to get the job done with minimal impact on passengers and the wider public.
“At the very early stages, collaboration was key to creating an integrated team, with everyone working to achieve the same end goal – a striking, iconic new station in the heart of Glasgow that has truly transformed the passenger experience. The new station also celebrates Queen Street’s rich heritage and embraces a vibrant, sustainable and greener future that is the direction of travel for Scotland’s Railway and our commitment to decarbonising passenger rail services by 2035.”
