Buchanan Street subway station

Station Interior.

Buchanan Street
Scottish Gaelic: Sràid Bhochanain[1] Glasgow Subway
General information
Location174 Buchanan Street
Glasgow, G1 2JZ[2]
Scotland
Coordinates55°51′45″N 4°15′12″W / 55.8624566°N 4.2534051°W / 55.8624566; -4.2534051
Operated bySPT
Platforms2 (side platforms)
Tracks2
Connections Buchanan Bus Station
National Rail Glasgow Queen Street
Construction
Structure typeUnderground
ParkingNo[2]
Bicycle facilitiesYes (bike hire)[3]
AccessibleNo[4]
History
Opened14 December 1896
Rebuilt16 April 1980; 44 years ago (1980-04-16)
Passengers
2018Increase 2.501 million[5]
2019Decrease 2.490 million[6]
2020Decrease 0.829 million[6]
2021Increase 1.059 million[6]
2022Increase 2.083 million[7]
Services
Preceding station Glasgow Subway SPT Following station
Cowcaddens
anticlockwise / inner circle
Glasgow Subway St Enoch
clockwise / outer circle
Location
Map
Notes
Passenger statistics provided are gate entries only. Information on gate exits for patronage is incomplete, and thus not included.[8]

Buchanan Street subway station is a station on the Glasgow Subway in Scotland. It serves the major shopping thoroughfare of Buchanan Street, and is one of two stations on the Subway (along with St Enoch) that directly serve the city centre. Close to Buchanan Bus Station and providing interchange with Glasgow Queen Street railway station via a travelator, it is the busiest station on the Subway, with 2.54 million passengers in the 12 months ending 31 March 2005.[9]

When built in 1896 the station had a single island platform serving both tracks. An additional side platform was added as part of the 1977-1980 modernisation scheme. A glass wall was added on one side of the island platform to prevent access to the train that is boarding at the side platform. Each platform has a single stairway linking it to the ticket hall, causing congestion during peak hours due to conflicting passenger movements in the same space. The station was closed in 2002 as a result of the Glasgow floods with trains continuing to run without stopping at the station.

The original surface level entrance of the station in the early 1970s prior to modernisation. A gift shop now stands on this site

Other than St Enoch it is the only station with an underground ticket hall. Originally, the surface access to the station was located on the ground floor of an adjacent building on the east side of the street. This building was demolished in order to insert the moving walkway to Queen Street mainline station and today, a gift shop now stands on the site. In line with the pedestrianisation of Buchanan Street in 1977, two street level entrances were added - located in the middle of the former roadway during the modernisation scheme, with escalators serving the northern entrance and a staircase at the southern end of the ticket hall. The canopies were replaced in 1999 as part of the repaving of Buchanan Street - the northern canopy is constructed entirely of structural glass: all beams and columns, the walls and roof are glass.

Part of carriage 41 from the Subway's pre-1977 rolling stock was also preserved within the station, but has since been removed as part of the 2010s renovation to the network .

Nearby places:

  1. ^ King, Jake (12 July 2020). "Glasgow's Gaelic Underground". Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Maps & stations". spt.co.uk. Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. Archived from the original on 15 January 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  3. ^ "Bike parking facilities". spt.co.uk. Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. Archived from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  4. ^ "Accessibility & mobility". spt.co.uk. Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. Archived from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  5. ^ "Request for some usage statistics". Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. 11 January 2019. Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2019 – via WhatDoTheyKnow.
  6. ^ a b c "Station usage statistics" (PDF). Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. 20 July 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 February 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023 – via WhatDoTheyKnow.
  7. ^ "Request for annual Subway station patronage 2022". 22 February 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 February 2023. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  8. ^ "Freedom of Information Request: Subway Station Usage Statistics" (PDF). Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. 3 August 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2023 – via WhatDoTheyKnow.
  9. ^ SPT - Subway - Facts and Figures Archived 20 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 12 June 2006