Buchanan bus station

Buchanan bus station
Location	Killermont Street, City of Glasgow Scotland
Coordinates	55°51′55″N 4°15′02″W / 55.86528°N 4.25056°W
Operated by	Strathclyde Partnership for Transport
Bus stands	57
Connections	Queen Street Buchanan Street (200 metres)
History
Opened	1977
Passengers
12,927,690 564,553 (departures)

The saw-tooth arrangement used for the bus stands

George Wyllie – The Clyde Clock outside the bus station

Buchanan bus station is the main bus terminus in Glasgow, Scotland.

The bus station is the terminus for journeys between the city and other towns and cities in Scotland, as well as long-distance services to other parts of the United Kingdom and international journeys.

The present Buchanan bus station opened in 1977. Prior to this date Scottish Bus Group services terminating on the north side of the city centre had used two smaller bus stations known as Killermont Street (also known as Buchanan Street) and Dundas Street Bus Stations, as well as on-street stances on Renfrew Street. These facilities were very congested, although the situation was alleviated somewhat in the 1960s by the creation of overspill bus parking between the two stations following demolition of the block of buildings on the corner of Parliamentary Road and Killermont Street. That was only a temporary arrangement, as the demolition presaged the comprehensive redevelopment of this part of the city in the 1970s, sweeping away the original buildings and street layouts. As part of this redevelopment, the new Buchanan Bus Station was built to the east of the previous facilities, on land which had formerly been occupied by the north side of Parliamentary Road and part of the goods depot of the former Buchanan Street railway station, which had closed in the 1960s under the Beeching Axe. The new bus station was accessed from the new Killermont Street (the alignment of which bears no relation to that of the previous street of that name).

Following privatisation of the Scottish Bus Group ownership of the bus station passed to Strathclyde Passenger Transport in 1993, and then to its successor Strathclyde Partnership for Transport in 2006.^[1] Also in 1993 the other former Scottish Bus Group terminus in the city (Anderston Bus Station) was closed, resulting in the transfer of some of its services to Buchanan.

It is the biggest bus station in Scotland, with around 1,700 bus journeys departing from the station every day, with over 40,000 passengers using these journeys on a daily basis. It is within walking distance of Glasgow Queen Street railway station and Cowcaddens and Buchanan Street subway stations. There is a bus link serving the bus station, Queen Street and Central stations.^[2]

Operators

Services to Buchanan bus station are operated by:^[3]

• First Glasgow
• First Scotland East
• John McGinley
• McColls Coaches
• McGill's Bus Services
• Megabus
• National Express
• Orbis Transport
• Park's
• Scottish Citylink
• Sindbad
• Stagecoach East Scotland
• Stagecoach West Scotland
• Stuarts Coaches
• Hannon Coaches ^[4]

Nearby places

• Buchanan Galleries
• Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
• Glasgow Caledonian University

In popular culture

The station was romanticized by local musician Roddy Frame in the song Killermont Street, which appeared on his band Aztec Camera's 1987 album Love. The song deals with escapism to new places from the station, with the recurring line There's a message for us, we can get there by bus, from Killermont Street.^[5] Frame's official fansite is named "Killermont Street" in reference to the song.^[6]

References

External links

Media related to Buchanan Bus Station at Wikimedia Commons