Glasgow Central (), usually referred to in Scotland as just Central or Central Station, is one of two principal main line rail terminals in Glasgow, Scotland. With 25 million passengers in 2024–2025, it is the seventeenth-busiest railway station in Britain and the busiest in Scotland, as well as the third-busiest station in the UK outside of London, behind and . The station is protected as a category A listed building.

The station was opened by the Caledonian Railway on 1 August 1879 and is one of 20 managed by Network Rail. It is the northern terminus of the West Coast Main Line ( north of London Euston).Thomas (1971); Chapter VIII – Glasgow As well as being Glasgow's principal inter-city terminus for services to England, Central also serves the southern suburbs of the Greater Glasgow conurbation, and the Ayrshire and Clyde coasts. The other main station in the city is , which primarily serves regional and inter-city services to the north of Glasgow. The three letter station code is GLC.

In Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins, the station was one of only ten to be awarded five stars. In 2017, the station received a customer satisfaction score of 95.2%, the highest in the UK.

History Original station

The original station, opened on 1 August 1879Caledonian Railway. Opening Of Central Station, Glasgow. , The Glasgow Herald, 1 August 1879 on the north bank of the River Clyde, had eight platforms and was linked to Bridge Street station by a railway bridge over Argyle Street and a four-track railway bridge, built by Sir William Arrol, which crossed the Clyde to the south. The station was built over the site of Grahamston village, whose central street (Alston Street) was demolished to make way for the station platform.

The station was soon congested. In 1890, a temporary solution of widening the bridge over Argyle Street and inserting a ninth platform on Argyle Street bridge was completed.Matheson, Donald Alexander (1908). "Glasgow Central Station Extension". In: Minutes of Institution of Civil Engineers, 10 November 1908. It was also initially intended to increase Bridge Street station to eight through lines and to increase Central station to 13 platforms.

Low-level station Originally built as a separate station, there were two island platforms making four platform faces, and a siding to the north. The station was built to serve the underground Glasgow Central Railway, authorised on 10 August 1888 and opened on 10 August 1896.Awdry (1990); p77 The Glasgow Central Railway was taken over by the Caledonian Railway in 1890. Services ran from and from the Lanarkshire and Dunbartonshire Railway in the west through to and via Tollcross through to , Newton and other Caledonian Railway destinations to the east of Glasgow. Other stations include Cambuslang and Motherwell.

1901–1905 station rebuild By 1900, the station was again found to be too small, passenger numbers per annum on the high-level station having increased by 5.156 million since the first extension was completed in 1890. Passenger usage per annum in 1899 was 16.841 million on the high-level station and 6.416 million on the low-level station, a total of 23.257 million. The station is on two levels: the High-Level station at the same level as Gordon Street, which bridges over Argyle Street, and the underground Low-Level station.

Between 1901 and 1905, the original station was rebuilt. The station was extended over the top of Argyle Street and thirteen platforms were built. An additional eight-track bridge, the Caledonian Railway Bridge, was built over the Clyde, and the original bridge was raised by 30 inches (0.75 m).Hume (2006), Chapter 1, "Railways and the City". In: Cameron(2006). Bridge Street station was then closed.

Also, during the 1901–1905 rebuild, a series of sidings was created at the end of platforms 11 and 12 on the bridge over the River Clyde. These were named West Bank Siding, Mid Bank Siding and East Bank Siding. A dock siding, No. 14 Dock, was created at the south end of platform 13.Tweedie & Lascelles (1925), insert facing page 184

Central station has a spacious concourse containing shops, catering outlets, ticket offices and a travel centre. It is fronted by the Central Hotel on Gordon Street, designed by Robert Rowand Anderson. The station building also houses a long line of shops and bars down the Union Street side. The undercroft of the station is not open to the general public, except through regular official tours, and houses private car-parking and utility functions for the station and the adjoining Central Hotel.

The station's famous architectural features are the large glass-walled bridge that takes the station building over Argyle Street, nicknamed the 'Hielanman's Umbrella' (Highlandman's Umbrella) because it was used as a meeting place for highlanders living in the city; and the former ticket office and information building. This was a large oval building, with the booking office on the ground floor and the train information display for passengers on large printed cloth destination boards placed behind large windows on the first floor by a team of two men. Underneath the "Umbrella" are a number of shops and bars. The Arches, a one-time nightclub, theatre, gallery and restaurant complex, was also located below the station.

Railway electrification

Overhead power lines began to appear on the high-level platforms in the early 1960s under British Railways. Firstly came 6.25 kV AC overhead power lines from the Cathcart Circle Line electrification scheme, which started on 29 May 1962.Summers (2006), Chapter 26: "Changing Trains". In: Cameron (2006). During this period, the old 1879 bridge over the River Clyde was removed and the railway lines were rearranged.

This was followed by the 25 kV AC overhead-power-lines electrification of the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway and the Inverclyde Line to Gourock and Wemyss Bay, completed in 1967. The WCML northern electrification scheme started on 6 May 1974. Part of the Cathcart Circle was upgraded to 25 kV AC supply in 1974, to provide a diversionary route; the whole of the Cathcart Circle route was later upgraded to that supply.

Plans to electrify other routes, such as the Whifflet Line, as part of a scheme to improve rail services in Scotland, were completed in November 2014.

20th–century

Low-level station

Closure Services through the Low-Level station, initially generous, had been greatly reduced due to competition with the extensive and efficient Glasgow Corporation tram system well before the withdrawal of service at the Low-Level station on 3 October 1964 under the Beeching Axe. The trams themselves had been replaced by buses by 1962.

Reopening In 1979, part of the low-level line was electrified and the Low-Level station was re-opened as the Argyle Line of the Glasgow suburban railway network. It consisted of the southern island platform with the original northern island platform and siding remaining closed. Changes to the original track layout had to be made to allow the southern island platform to serve eastbound and westbound trains as the platform was previously only served by westbound trains. The reopened island platform was numbered as platforms 14 and 15; they were later renumbered to 16 and 17 respectively when the project to resignal and add two additional platforms to the higher level took place in 2008.

Initially services were provided by Class 303 and Class 314 units. The latter were built specifically for this service. Following the withdrawal of the Class 303 units, the service was provided by Class 318 and Class 334 Juniper units.

Class 320 units were intended to be used on the route but, due to the position of the original driver's monitors for checking doors, this proved impossible. Therefore, these units were restricted to the North Clyde Line. This changed in 2011 with a programme of works carried out to enable the Class 320 units to work through the station in passenger service. The Class 320 and 318 units between them now provide the majority of Argyle Line services, with most 334s having moved to operate the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link.

Flooding of the Low-Level line Over the Christmas festive period of 1994, on 11 December, torrential rain caused the River Kelvin to burst its banks at the closed Kelvinbridge station, with the water making its way through the disused tunnels to and the Low-Level station, which was completely submerged by the resultant flash flood. It was closed until 24 September 1995 while repairs were made.

In August 2002, torrential rain flooded out the low-level stations from through to for a number of weeks. Most services were routed to the high-level platforms or to Queen Street station. The 2002 Glasgow floods had a number of other effects, causing a cryptospiridium outbreak in the city's water supply.

Refurbishments The high-level station's facilities were substantially redeveloped in the mid-1980s. The old ticket office / train information building was replaced in 1985 by an all-new Travel Centre adjacent to the Gordon Street entrance. By 1986, a large electro-mechanical destination board at the end of the platforms, with a smaller repeater board at the western side of the concourse, had replaced the former manually operated train-information boards. The old booking office / train information building was retained and redeveloped into shops, eateries and an upstairs bar/restaurant, and the station was re-floored in marble. During this redevelopment the staffed ticket barriers at Platforms 1 to 8 were removed and the yellow ticket automatic barriers were removed from Platforms 9 to 13 (now 15).

In 1998, a five-year renovation programme was initiated by Railtrack, which saw the trainshed completely re-roofed and internally refurbished by Bovis Lend Lease – which also included the restoration of Hielanman's Umbrella. The 1980s vintage mechanical pixel-style destination boards were later replaced around 2005 with an array of LED-style destination boards. The final improvement, the upgrading of the upstairs restaurant area, was completed in 2005.

21st-century

Layout Platform 1 is at the east end and platform 15 is located at the west end of the station; platforms 16 and 17 are directly underneath the station's high level platforms. Platforms 1 and 2 are usually used by longer distance cross-border services operated by Avanti West Coast, TransPennine Express and CrossCountry, while platforms 3 to 6 are used mainly by services to Lanark, Edinburgh, East Kilbride, Barrhead, Kilmarnock, Carlisle, Girvan, and Stranraer. Platforms 7–10 are used by services which operate along the Cathcart Circle and also Neilston and Newton, but other services are known to use them as well. Platforms 11–15 are used mostly by services to Ayr, Largs, Ardrossan, Gourock, Wemyss Bay and Paisley Canal. Platform 11 is used as a relief platform for Avanti West Coast services if platforms 1 or 2 cannot be used.

All of the high level platforms are divided into three sections: front, middle and rear; these are used when two or three trains are occupying the same platform.

2009–2010 expansion