Gourock railway station

Gourock
Scottish Gaelic: Guireag
The new ticket office in November 2010
Location
Place	Gourock
Local authority	Inverclyde
Coordinates	55°57′43″N 4°48′57″W / 55.9619°N 4.8158°WCoordinates: 55°57′43″N 4°48′57″W / 55.9619°N 4.8158°W
Grid reference	NS243779
Operations
Station code	GRK
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	3
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.397 million
2005/06	0.438 million
2006/07	0.432 million
2007/08	0.451 million
2008/09	0.460 million
2009/10	0.447 million
2010/11	0.448 million
2011/12	0.463 million
2012/13	0.470 million
2013/14	0.483 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1889
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Gourock from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Gourock railway station is a terminus of the Inverclyde Line, located at Gourock pierhead, Scotland, and serving the town as well as the ferry services it was originally built for. The Caledonian Railway found that their service to Greenock Central station, which was an inconvenient walk away from the quay, was losing Clyde steamer trade to the new Glasgow and South Western Railway terminal at Prince's Pier in Greenock. The Caley extended their line through a new tunnel to the small fishing village of Gourock, with the railway running on the seaward side of Shore Street to the terminal which opened on 1 June 1889 and subsequently based the headquarters of their steamer fleet there. The terminal is now the headquarters of Caledonian MacBrayne who used to run a car ferry to Dunoon from the pier, a service which is now provided by Argyll Ferries on a passenger only basis, and it also serves Clyde Marine passenger ferries to Kilcreggan and Helensburgh.

Cutbacks

Partly demolished station in 2006, with temporary ticket office

The station was built to take large numbers of passengers boarding the steamers, but has been considerably reduced in size for the smaller traffic volumes of today. Originally the curving station had 17 canopy bays each side over three railway lines, three bays full width then the westmost 19 bays covered one line which continued on, and a central concourse with adjacent offices and stores etc. fronting the pier. In the 1980s the westmost end of the station was cut back by 18 bays, and in the 1990s the adjacent timber quay was demolished. More recently the remaining glazed canopies over the platforms have been taken down, leaving only the cast iron supporting structure and the slate roofs and glazed canopies over a section incorporating a ticket office and a waiting room. The adjacent Bay Hotel was also demolished in the 1990s with its site being grassed over and in 2006 a portable ticket office was put in place at the end wall which had been erected when the station was cut back and the old ticket office was closed.

Development

Approval was given in 1999 for plans initiated by Inverclyde Council, Caledonian MacBrayne and Railtrack, which involved shortening the railway tracks and constructing a new station adjacent to Caledonian MacBrayne's headquarters. This formed part of a major development scheme, with the space formerly occupied by the station together with the grassed area which had been the site of the Bay Hotel providing space for two major supermarkets and housing. Alexander George was appointed preferred developer, but Network Rail was slow to come to an agreement on relocating the station. The work involved in shortening the tracks would have involved considerable expense and meant closing the station for 18 months. The delay left the station looking rather neglected. Then, near the end of September 2006, new plans were announced following intervention by the transport minister Tavish Scott. A considerable saving is to be made by not moving the station so far, so that the work involved is reduced and it will only have to be closed for four or five weeks. Only one supermarket is now proposed, with 580 houses being constructed in blocks facing out onto the Clyde.^[1]

In the interim, the station was renovated at a predicted cost of £630,000 to provide a new entrance, glass roof and toilets, and improved waiting facilities. David Simpson, route director for Network Rail in Scotland, advised that they needed to carry out essential work to make the station more comfortable for the 400,000 passengers using it every year, while continuing to "explore the longer-term options for the station with our industry partners".^[2]

By the end of 2010 the new station building was in use, and work on demolishing the existing canopies and providing new shelters on platforms proceeded through 2011.

Gallery

• 

  Platform 1 is nearest to the pier and Platform 3 originally extended twice as far as the other platforms. The structure supported glazed canopies until recently. Class 37 and 334 are shown

• 

  The pierhead in 1990, with the Bay Hotel and platform canopies still evident

• 

  A train leaves the pierhead at the same time as the ferry sets off for Dunoon (Class 314)

References

1. Greenock Telegraph 28 September 2006
2. Greenock Telegraph 12 October 2006

External links

• Train times and station information for Gourock railway station from National Rail