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Home » Train Stations in Glasgow

Train Stations in Glasgow

If you’re travelling to and from Glasgow, then you might need to transfer between different stations. Glasgow Central serves trains to and from England, as well as South West Scotland. Meanwhile, Glasgow Queen Street will take you to and from the rest of Scotland. Let’s take a look at where you can go from the train stations in Glasgow and how you can get between them.

What are the train stations in Glasgow?

If you’re travelling to and from Glasgow, then there are two main stations that you’ll probably be using. As well as this, you’ll find a couple of smaller ones that might be useful if you’re visiting different attractions in the city. Let’s take a look at all of them.

Glasgow Central

As one of the two main train stations in Glasgow, it’s quite likely that you might use Glasgow Central. You can catch trains to London Euston, Manchester Airport and Liverpool Lime Street. On most days, there’s one train a day to London King’s Cross via York, as well as a daily train to the South West of England. The overnight Caledonian Sleeper service to London also leaves from here.

This station also serves trains to Ayr, Stranraer, Kilmarnock, Dumfries and Lanark, as well as to Edinburgh via Shotts.

Local services on the Cathcart Circle Lines (Neilston and Newton), and well as trains to East Kilbride, Gourock, Wemyss Bay, Largs and Ardossan run from here, too. If you’re connecting to a ferry to Northern Ireland or the Isle of Arran, then this is the station to use.

glasgow central station

Long-distance trains usually leave from the lower numbered platforms (nearer to the entrance on Gordon Street), while local ScotRail trains will go from higher numbered ones. The best way to remember is it that usually the further west in Scotland a train is going, the further west in the station it’ll leave from. Platforms 12 to 15 are the furthest from the main entrance, so we don’t recommend leaving it until the last minute to get to them.

Local trains to destinations throughout Strathclyde leave from the ‘low level’ platforms. If you’re changing onto a train that leaves from Platform 16 and 17, then remember that these are downstairs and separate from the rest of the station.

Glasgow Queen Street

This Glasgow train station is served only by ScotRail trains. If you’re going to or from Edinburgh, then this is where the fastest trains depart and arrive. Just like Glasgow Central, this station is split into a ‘high-level’ and a ‘low-level’ part.

Travelling on the scenic West Highland Line to Oban, Fort William and Mallaig? You’ll also need to head for Queen Street. Long-distance trains to Inverness and Aberdeen are also leave from here. If you need a local train to Anniesland via Maryhill, these will leave from the ‘high-level’ platforms.

glasgow queen street station

The ‘low-level’ platforms serve trains to destinations throughout Strathclyde. If you’re using the Caledonian Sleeper train to and from Fort William, it usually picks up and drops off from the low-level platforms, too.

Argyle Street

These next few train stations in Glasgow aren’t quite so major, but you might find them to be useful if you’re visiting the city. Argyle Street is one station down from Glasgow Central, and serves all of the same trains that Glasgow Central Low Level does.

It’s a little better situated for some shopping areas, as well as the Merchant City area. It’s a bit closer to some River Clyde attractions, too.

Charing Cross

This station is the next one after Glasgow Queen Street Low Level if you’re heading north/west. It serves Sauchiehall Street and its wide variety of bars and hotels.

High Street

Heading to Glasgow Cathedral or the Necropolis? This is the best station to get off at. It’s the station before Glasgow Queen Street Low Level.

Exhibition Centre

While this station isn’t in Glasgow City Centre itself, we felt that it was worth mentioning. If you’re travelling to the OVO Hydro Arena, then you’ll need to use Exhibition Centre Station.

How do I get between the train stations in Glasgow?

Wondering where all of these train stations in Glasgow are? Take a look at our handy map below:

If you’ve booked a ticket with Railsmartr, you might have been given a route that involves changing between Glasgow Central and Glasgow Queen Street. Don’t worry though, you have two options for doing this. You can either walk or take bus 398. It runs in a loop connecting Glasgow Central to Queen Street, then Buchanan Bus Station, then back to Glasgow Central.

It takes around six minutes to get from Central to Queen Street, and just over 10 minutes to do the journey the other way around. If you have a valid rail ticket, there’s no charge.

If you’re leaving from Glasgow Central, just pop outside to the main Gordon Street exit. The bus leaves from under the canopy:

bus 398 which links the glasgow train stations at glasgow central station

From Queen Street, the bus leaves from near the George Square exit, at the bus stop adjacent to Anchor Lane. Look out for ‘Glasgow Station Link‘ on the bus stop:

glasgow station link bus 398 at glasgow queen street

You can find the timetable on the West Coast Motors website, as they run the service on behalf of ScotRail.

Alternatively, it’s around a 15 minute walk between these train stations in Glasgow. ScotRail have produced a walking map here.

Is there anything else I should know about travel in Glasgow?

If you’re visiting other Glasgow attractions, then you might prefer to use the Subway. It links everything together in one handy loop.

You can find out more about the Subway, as well as visiting the city, in our Day Trip to Glasgow blog.

Ready to book a trip? You can do it all with Railsmartr. We don’t charge any fees, either. That means no fees when you book, and no extra fees if you need to change your journey or get a refund.