The head of building standards at Glasgow City Council has provided context to discussions over reopening the Gordon Street entrance to Glasgow Central Station.

Glasgow City Council, now leading efforts at the site of the Union Street fire, says there is currently no timescale for demolishing the remaining facade beside Glasgow Central Station. The major fire caused most of the building to collapse on Sunday 8 March and the council’s building standards department declared the remaining structure unsafe on taking custody of the site from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The fire established an exclusion zone around the remains of the building at the corner of Unions Street and Gordon Street. This closed Scotland’s busiest railway station, Glasgow Central, while the building was assessed. Lower-level train services at the station have resumed, but the main part of the station will remain shut until at least Wednesday. Network Rail engineers and other staff were present at the upper level of the station this morning and additional staff were assisting morning commuters on lower level trains.

The council confirmed today that chimney work at the building is now complete, with work now moving to what remains of the Union Corner building, including the southern gable wall and the steel staircase. Raymond Barlow, head of building standards in the city, described the building as “fatally compromised.”

He say it wasn’t possible to put a timetable on the works but it would take weeks to complete. Talking to STV News, he said: “The facade needs to come down before we can consider, certainly the entrances on Gordon Street, can reopen.”

David Ross, ScotRail chief operating officer, said: “We know is it is frustrating for our customers that there will be no ScotRail services running to or from Glasgow Central High Level until at least next Wednesday.

“But Glasgow City Council and Network Rail must be given time to make sure the station is safe for the return of passenger services. We will only restore services when it is safe to do so. We know this closure is causing significant disruption for our customers, and we’re sorry for the impact it is having on journeys.

“Our teams are working hard to keep people moving where possible, and we’d encourage customers to check their journey before travelling using the ScotRail app or website.”

Network Rail says no significant structural issues have been identified at Glasgow Central by Network Rail’s specialist teams. Any damage, including to the glazing and water ingress, has been contained to a small office on the Union Street side of the station.

No Avanti West Coast trains will run from Glasgow Central until at least the end of Tuesday 17 March. Avanti West Coast trains will start and end at Motherwell, which you can reach using ScotRail services from Glasgow Central low level station or nearby stations.

The majority of trains between Scotland and London are able to run normally to/from Motherwell and Edinburgh. Our other routes, such as to Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and North Wales are unaffected by this disruption.

First Bus is accepting ScotRail tickets on its services and has also agreed ticket acceptance with the Glasgow Subway at Bridge Street and Cessnock stations. Customers travelling towards the city centre can alight near either station and continue their journey by subway.