NRA Major Station of the Year 2024: Glasgow Queen Street (ScotRail)

Glasgow Queen Street (ScotRail) won the Major Station of the Year award in the National Rail Awards 2024.

Highly Commended recognitions were awarded to London King’s Cross (Network Rail) and York (LNER).

The award for Major Station of the Year remains in Scotland’s largest city, having last year gone to Clydeside neighbour Glasgow Central.

The judges said the station, and its “friendly staff who are always available and attentive to passengers”, is a worthy winner after being highly commended in 2023.

Although it is the smaller of Glasgow’s two main line terminals, Queen Street is Scotland’s third busiest station with 12.3 million exits and entries recorded in 2022-23.

Opened by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in February 1842, the station was initially named after nearby Dundas Street before reverting to Queen Street.

The steep 1-in-24 Cowlairs Incline required early trains to the Scottish capital and destinations to the north to be hauled from the station by a steam-driven winding cable.

The terminus underwent its first major rebuild in 1878-80, when it was expanded by North British Railway. Queen Street Low Level was added in 1886 as a through-route for trains serving the Central Belt.

Further inter-city services were added in 1966, following the closure of the adjacent Buchanan Street station under the Beeching cuts.

In August 2017, a major £120 million redevelopment project began to lengthen platforms and to expand the concourse to coincide with electrification of the Glasgow-Edinburgh via Falkirk line. The demolition of surrounding buildings erected in the 1970s enabled the construction of a new glass-panelled frontage.

The judges added: “This station’s striking design and the recent integration of the high- and low-level stations is further enhanced by the immaculate way in which it is maintained throughout.”

Go to our results story for a list of all the winners at the 2024 National Rail Awards, together with more pictures from the event at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House hotel, Park Lane, London on 12th September.