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* | |
| 2011/12 |
 0.463 million |
| 2012/13 |
0.470 million |
| 2013/14 |
0.483 million |
| 2014/15 |
0.535 million |
| 2015/16 |
0.563 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. | |
 |
|
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.
The line from Glasgow was electrified as part of the Inverclyde Line electrification scheme by British Rail. The 25kV A.C system was used with electric operation commencing in September 1967.
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 westernmost 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.
...
Wikipedia