Overhaul of railway station could be seven months late
Start of revamp to one of city’s busiest transport hubs is delayed
A REVAMP of one of Scotland’s busiest railway stations is facing major delays after a “significant risk” was identified that the £112 million project would not meet its deadline.
The managing director of the country’s rail services has admitted it would be several more months before he could reveal how long hold-ups to the overhaul of Glasgow’s Queen Street Station would last.
ScotRail boss Phil Verster told MSPs that work had been due to start in December but it would be a further three months before he could commit to a date.
It is now thought work on the rebuild – which will see the main entrance at George Square replaced with a huge glass facade – will begin during the spring, meaning it could be seven months behind schedule.
Passenger experience is not expected to be impeded by the delays which is said to be a contractual issue.
A report had been due to be forwarded to the transport minister in July but will now arrive on Humza Yousaf’s desk in February.
The delay to the redevelopment was revealed at a committee hearing in Holyrood where concerns were raised about a planned free travel period for monthly and annual season ticket holders, announced recently by the Scottish Government.
Mr Verster said the operator had yet to agree to provide £1.8m of the £3m cost of the month-long scheme, the contribution coming from a rail improvement fund called Squire generated by fines paid by the train operator for failing quality checks.
The Scottish Government announced the scheme in the aftermath of the draft budget in November and again when fares were raised at the start of the month.
Mr Verster told the committee he first heard of the initiative “two to three weeks” before Mr Yousaf announced it and that the Squire, controlled by ScotRail, currently had a value of around £1m.
Mr Verster told MSPs: “I can’t vouch for whether the scheme goes ahead or not. I can just comment on whether we will make that decision, and when we’ll make the decision in the next couple of weeks in terms of how we will deploy the Squire fund.”
Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said: “This is quite extraordinary. I was going to say this is policy made on the back of a fag packet, but I don’t think it’s even reached that stage of development.”
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “The redevelopment of Queen Street station continues to make progress, some advance works are already under way and Transport Scotland authorised a further package of enabling works in December 2016.
“Transport Scotland continues to work closely with Network Rail, we note Mr Verster’s comments to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee and await Network Rail advice.”
Queen Street handles 20 million passengers a year but this is predicted to grow to 28 million passengers by 2030.
The project, to be completed in 2019, is part of a £742m plan to cut journey times and increase capacity.