Grid reference NS590660 | Pre-grouping Caledonian Railway Platforms in use 6 | |
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1 November 1849 Opened as terminal station Similar Bellahouston railway station, Partickhill railway station, Crow Road railway station, Strathbungo railway station, Glasgow Cross railway st | ||
Buchanan Street Station was the least known of Glasgow's four main terminal railway stations, the other three being Central, Queen St and St Enoch. It was to the north-west of Queen St Station and served the north of Scotland.
History
Constructed in 1849 by the Caledonian Railway Company as its main terminus for the city, the original station buildings consisted of supposedly temporary wooden structures, which lasted until the 1930s. A goods station at the site opened in 1850. Services ran primarily northbound, to Aberdeen, Perth and Stirling and other destinations.
The station was marked for closure and replacement in the "Bruce Report" about how to redevelop Glasgow in the post-Second World War period. The plan included replacing Buchanan Street and Queen Street stations with a Glasgow North station on land including the site of Buchanan Street, but many times larger. There was also a similar scheme to replace Central and St Enoch stations with a Glasgow South station, but neither came to fruition.
Despite this reprieve, it proved only to be temporary as the station was closed in 1966 as part of the rationalisation of the railway system of Great Britain devised by Richard Beeching, with most of its services running to Queen Street. The buildings were demolished in 1967. The 430 yard Buchanan Street tunnel that ran from just outwith the station to Sighthill still exists, but public access is prohibited.
Buchanan House (named 'ScotRail House' between January 1985 and April 1994) and Glasgow Caledonian University occupy the site of the station.
