Greenock Central station is one of eight

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

s serving the town of Greenock in western

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, and is the nearest to the town centre. This station, which is staffed, is on the

Inverclyde Line The Inverclyde Line is a railway line running from Glasgow Central station through Paisley (Gilmour Street) and a series of stations to the south of the River Clyde and the Firth of Clyde, terminating at Gourock and Wemyss Bay, where it connec ...

, west of towards Gourock. It has three platforms, two of which are in use, with one disused bay platform. This disused platform is still connected to the main line. It was originally the terminus before the railway was extended to

Gourock Gourock ( ; gd, Guireag ) is a town in the Inverclyde council area and formerly a burgh of the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It was a seaside resort on the East shore of the upper Firth of Clyde. Its main function today is as a ...

and at that time was known as Greenock Cathcart station, as the access road to the station leads off the town's Cathcart Street.

History

The station was opened by the

Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway The Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway (GP&GR) was an early Scottish railway, opened in 1841, providing train services between Greenock and Glasgow. At the time the River Clyde was not accessible to sea-going ships, and the intention was to c ...

on 31 March 1841 as the terminus of its line from Bridge Street railway station, which had a shared section between Glasgow, and Paisley Gilmour Street being run by the

Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway The Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway was the section of railway line between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Paisley, in the west of Scotland. It was constructed and operated jointly by two competing railway companies as the stem of ...

. Greenock was already a major seaport and a branch near the station provided a goods service, but it was the passenger service which proved a major success. The new station provided a connection to

Clyde steamer The Clyde steamer is the collective term for several passenger services that existed on the River Clyde in Scotland, running from Glasgow downstream to Rothesay and other towns, a journey known as going ''doon the watter''. The era of the C ...

s, which took around two hours to get from Glasgow down the River Clyde as far as Greenock, and now for the first time a railway took about an hour to get to the coast. '' Black's Guide'' published by A & C Black in 1854 advised: "By taking the railway train from Glasgow to Greenock (running hourly to suit the steamers), the tourist does not need to leave until generally an hour after the steamer's departure from Glasgow". The terminus entrance from Cathcart Street was around 300 yards (280 m) from Custom House Quay, Greenock, where steamers took wealthy commuters in summer to their villas around the shores of the

Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...

as well as huge numbers of holidaymakers visiting resorts down the

firth Firth is a word in the English and Scots languages used to denote various coastal waters in the United Kingdom, predominantly within Scotland. In the Northern Isles, it more usually refers to a smaller inlet. It is linguistically cognate to ''fj ...

at "trades holidays", particularly the annual Glasgow Fair. When the railway merged with the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

on 9 July 1847, Greenock Cathcart was the main access to the coast. However, in 1869 their dominance of this traffic ended when the Glasgow and South Western Railway opened its station on the waterfront at Princes Pier, Greenock. Greenock's growth had led to increasing overcrowding of

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

houses, and passengers were glad to avoid the walk through these streets. Attempts by the Caledonian to extend their railway to Gourock had met with difficulties in getting through a built up area, but now, spurred by competition, they gained Parliamentary approval for in 1884 for ''The Caledonian Railway (No. 2) Bill''. The route took the railway in a tunnel from the station under the town's Well Park (which provides a level area atop a high rocky crag), then in further cuttings and tunnels westwards through the hillside, including the long tunnel under Newton Street, until clear of the expensive properties on the coast. After three years in construction the Gourock Extension Railway opened on 1 June 1889. In the 1923 grouping, the line became part of the LMS, then after coming under British Railways. The line was electrified in 1967.

The station buildings

The tracks from Glasgow enter at the east end of the wide concourse which is flanked to the north and south by high stone walls, each capped at the east end by a

castellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

turret. A glazed roof between these walls sheltered the concourse until recently, but it has been removed and small shelters introduced. The northernmost line stops as a bay platform and is not in use, and platform 1 serving eastbound trains opens directly to the top of Station Avenue which slopes down to Cathcart Street through stone archways marking the station entrance. The two tracks in use continue westwards through a tunnel which is capped by the parapet wall to Terrace Road, which leaves Cathcart Street further to the west and rises steeply towards the station before turning south over the tunnel entrance and continuing to rise to the level of the Well Park. Doorways in the parapet wall lead to staircases down to each platform, and to a steel ramp down to Platform 2 serving westbound trains. Originally, there was only one doorway, which led to a sloping passageway which in turn connected with the (now removed) station's internal steel lattice footbridge. Originally, before electrification, this bridge had both stairs and a ramp for porters' trolleys on the up (westbound) platform, and from the landing above the eastbound platform there was the passageway to the door onto Terrace Road, a staircase down to the platform, and an archway through to an external, stone-flagged ramp down to another archway back into the building and platform area. Thus luggage (which in the 19th century would have consisted of large steamer trunks, and been hauled by a porter on a large four wheeled trolley) could be moved from one platform to the other as required. At electrification in 1967, the steel lattice footbridge span above the tracks was raised several feet, and steps inserted at each end, to provide extra clearance for the 25 kV overhead wires, at the same time the up platform ramp to the bridge was removed as the steps in the span meant that trolleys could no longer use the bridge, however the luggage habits of passengers had changed significantly so this was not seen as a problem, the idea of wheelchair/disabled accessibility being still several decades in the future at the time. The internal footbridge was entirely removed in the late 1990s, and an all-new stairway leading to a new doorway onto Terrace Road was built to replace it, leaving the current situation where passengers needing to cross from one platform to the other must do so via Terrace Road. The original booking office was demolished around the early 1990s, being replaced for a time by a portable building and now that the glazed roof has been removed a small booking office with a hipped roof has been added, with the north side of the concourse being made into a car park.

Services

There is a frequent service in both directions, westwards to Gourock and eastwards to Glasgow Central via Paisley Gilmour Street on Monday to Saturday daytimes. Westbound trains serve all local stations, whilst eastbound trains alternate between expresses that serve Port Glasgow, and Gilmour Street only and all stops locals (2tph each). In the evening, the frequency is halved and on Sundays an hourly all stations service runs in both directions.

References

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External links

Video footage and narration - Greenock Central Station
{{Railway stations served by Abellio Scotrail Railway stations in Greenock Former Caledonian Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1841 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1889 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1889 SPT railway stations Railway stations served by ScotRail