Glasgow Central Floods 1994: How Glasgow Central Station flooded in 1994

In the early days of December 1994, Glasgow experienced rain the likes of which it hadn’t seen in decades, which if you’re Glaswegian you’ll know is an insane amount of downpour.

For nearly three days straight torrential rain fell in Glasgow, so much so that the city experienced the equivalent of an entire months of rain in just 3 days.

Flooding was happening all over the city - in the end leading to 600 Glaswegians being made homeless, and three people tragically losing their life's to the floods. Without a doubt this is worst natural weather disaster to hit Glasgow in living memory.

Two teenagers died after their car was pushed off a bridge by the weather into the raging River Kelvin, which was swelling due to the downpour. A third person died in the borders after being swept into the River Nith in Dumfries.

The scenes on the street were horrifying, sewers were blocked and were rising to the streets. Weather reporters at the time claimed that some streets in Glasgow and the West of Scotland were submerged under 6 feet of water.

It was absolute carnage on the streets of Glasgow, near apocalyptic. Roads were closed everywhere, homes were flooding, and transport had been cancelled nearly entirely. Some train stations were closed for weeks after the event.

None were worse affected than Glasgow Central Station however, which had to shut its lower level for nine months while repairs were made.

The constant rainfall caused the River Kelvin to rise above the retaining wall near Gibson Street - leading to thousands of gallons of water to surge on a course down the abandoned Gibson Street tunnel and onto the main train Argyle line through the Exhibition Centre station.

Some trains were still running, one on the Argyle Line was heading eastward when the flooding began - narrowly escaping the deluge of rapid water screaming through the abandoned train tunnels towards Glasgow Central Station.

The pictures below show the aftermath of the floods, dirt carpeted the platforms and water marks show just how high the water had risen on an empty six-carriage train sitting at the lower level platform.

It was the worst floods Glasgow has ever experienced on record, and damage was estimated at over £100m.

Photos are courtesy of Hidden Glasgow, an old Glaswegian internet forum - whose users added arrows in most of the pictures below which showcase how high the water level had risen. You can read more about the event here.