Glasgow Central station’s high level will remain closed for the rest of the week, after a fire devastated a neighbouring building on Sunday.
Network Rail said it would not be possible to reopen the upper concourse of the station, where trains depart to destinations across the UK, because of the instability of the mid-Victorian block on the corner of Union Street and Gordon Street, much of which collapsed during the ferocious blaze.
The low level part of Glasgow Central, used by more local services, will reopen on Wednesday.
There were no casualties during the fire but only the facade of the Gordon Street part of the building remains after the inferno gutted the inside, which housed ground level shops as well as offices and retail space above.
More than £160,000 has been raised on GoFundMe to help affected business owners, many of whom lost their entire stock and tools in the blaze.
Network Rail said the instability of the facade, along with the need for ongoing assessments, meant high level trains would not be able to run this week.
Ross Moran, route director for the network, said: “Our priority is to make sure that we can reopen Glasgow Central as soon as it is safe to do so and we will continue to work with emergency services, the local council and our train operators to restore services.
“We want to reassure passengers that we are doing everything we can to open the high level station, but we must enable the emergency services and Glasgow city council to complete their critical work to secure the Union Corner site and make it safe.”
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that as of 4.30pm on Tuesday, four fire appliances and one high reach vehicle remained at the scene.
The vape shop on Union Street, where the fire is believed to have started on Sunday afternoon, had not paid business rates, according to an investigation by the Ferret news site, and does not appear to be registered to sell tobacco or vaping products.
Colin Borland, Scotland director of the Federation of Small Businesses, said the Scottish government should take lessons from its response to the Glasgow art school fire of 2018, which affected many nearby businesses for months afterwards.
“The Scottish government set up a £5m fire recovery fund and that supported about 250 businesses in the immediate area, giving them a bit of breathing space and no business rates for three months,” he said.
Borland said that the economic impact on the city centre of the closure of Scotland’s busiest station for days was likely to be even more significant and urged the Scottish government to “urgently” replicate a similar support package.
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