LONG-awaited behind-the-scenes tours of Scotland's busiest train station will launch this week, allowing fans to scale Glasgow Central Station's historic glass roof and delve into an abandoned Victorian village buried underground.
Tickets for the tours go on sale today at £10 per person, with profits going to cover the cost of staff and improvements to the 135-year-old station.
The first guided tours will take place on Friday and will be run three days a week, usually at weekends.
The move follows the overwhelming success in summer 2013 of a Doors Open Day, which allowed the public on the station's roof for the first time. The limited number of tours sold out almost immediately and plans were drawn up to run more extensive tours on a permanent basis, with an initial start date of January this year.
However, a £2 million series of renovations to the building's toilets and entrances at the beginning of the year, followed by the unprecedented surge in passengers during the Commonwealth Games, forced station managers to push back the project.
More recently, delays in completing the booking website for customers prevented the tours from getting under way by the start of November.
Network Rail, which owns the station, said the 90-minute tours would explore everywhere from the top of the glass roof - the largest in the world, with 48,000 panes of glass compared to Edinburgh Waverley's 17,000 - to the old steam engine boiler rooms and derelict tunnels in the basement.
After meeting beneath the station's clock tower, visitors will ascend 90 steps and walk across vertigo-inducing catwalks above the station concourse to access the giant roof area. At its highest point, the roof stands 40ft above the concourse. It was completely renewed in 1998 as part of an £80m station renovation.
Anyone taking part must be physically fit and aged at least 16. No one will be allowed to join the tour if they have been drinking alcohol due to the potential risk from falls, and because the tour groups will pass through live operational areas. Groups will also be limited to 10 people at a time.
Once on the roof visitors will be able to enjoy panoramic views across the River Clyde and city skyline.
From there, participants will head into the station's catacombs, where they will explore the abandoned basement and tunnels hidden beneath the station and descend winding stairwells to the long-lost Victorian streets of Grahamston village, which once bustled with shops and activity before the station was built over the top in 1879.
Ross Moran, the station's manager, said: "Central Station has played a vital role in the social and economic life of the city for 135 years and we are looking forward to being able to share the sights and stories of the station with the public.
"Previous events at the station, such as last year's Doors Open Day, have shown there is huge interest in the history of the building. The new tours will help bring that history to life, while also raising funds that can be reinvested in Scotland biggest and busiest station."
The tour will also incorporate the public concourse areas, giving the history of the development of the station since its original construction in 1879, its extension in 1906, and how the history of Glasgow has influenced the changing face of the A-listed building.
More than 38 million people a year use Glasgow Central, with about 1500 train services a day arriving and departing from its 17 platforms.
Tickets for the tours must be booked in advance through the website: www.glasgowcentraltours.co.uk
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