For 20 weeks, it’s been all change at Glasgow Queen Street as a considerable package of work is pushed forward as part of the ongoing Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP). Involved are platform extensions to handle new eight-car trains, track layout changes in the station throat and, through the thousand-yard long approach tunnel, renewal of its degraded 40-year-old slab-track.
Even after breaking out around 10,000 tonnes of concrete to a depth of 600mm, another 250mm of sandstone and mudrocks still had to be excavated to create sufficient headroom for the conductor bar that will carry the traction current. The new slab-track – an Austrian system – has a design life of 60 years.
In the station throat, new drainage and multiduct was installed before work got underway on a new layout to align with the extended platforms, incorporating seven S&C units; four more are located in the tunnel. The signalling infrastructure is also being renewed, with axle counters replacing track circuits.
All in all, it’s expected that an average daily workforce of around 70 will have worked a total of half-a-million man hours by the time Queen Street High Level welcomes commuters again on 7th August. A two-year redevelopment of the station buildings is on course to begin in November.