A project milestone has been reached on the £120 million Glasgow Queen Street redevelopment scheme.

Work to extend platform 1 by 50 metres is now complete, providing additional space for longer four-carriage trains.

The six-month scheme involved demolishing the former ticket office and staff accommodation block to clear the space needed to lengthen the platform.

Engineers worked over 11,500 hours to remove more than 4,000 tonnes of demolition material before laying 200 tonnes of ballast, 35 metres of new sleepers and rails, and installing overhead power masts.

With the newly-extended platform 1 now entering service, platforms 2 - 5 will also be lengthened to accept trains up to eight-carriages long.

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Work is continuing to remove Consort House and the Millennium Hotel extension buildings from the front of the station, which will make way for these longer platforms, as well as a new station frontage, concourse and entrances.

Speaking during a visit to the station last week to view progress on the extension, Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said: "It's great to see very real progress at Queen Street Station with the accelerated delivery of the platform one extension. Once complete, the redeveloped station will deliver a fully accessible, modern, transport facility that better serves the needs of passengers and the city while also enabling longer, faster, greener trains to operate."

Alan Ross, Director of Sponsorship for Network Rail Scotland, said: "We are transforming Glasgow Queen Street to create a bigger and brighter station and successfully completing the extension of platform one is the first significant milestone for the project team.

"The redevelopment of Queen Street, and the recently completed electrification of the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line, is part of our plan to build the best railway Scotland has ever had – delivering longer, faster trains with more seats for customers."

The redeveloped Glasgow Queen Street station is scheduled to be complete in 2020.

(LM/MH)