Commuters face further travel chaos as Scotland’s busiest railway station remains closed following the devastating inferno which left a landmark building in ruins.

Glasgow Central station was out of service again today after the ferocious blaze tore through the neighbouring building on Sunday leaving nothing but its façade standing.

All services at the station, which normally sees 70,000 passengers travel through it daily, have been cancelled – while large parts of the city centre remain sealed off.

Experts are worried about the safety of the remnants of the building – described as looking ‘like something out of the Blitz’ – which will likely need to be demolished.

The extraordinary fire began at about 3.45pm in a vape shop on Union Street, before the flames spread through the building and around the corner on to Gordon Street.

Only the façade of the building can now be seen on Gordon Street, where four fire engines and two high reach appliances remained at the scene early this morning.

While the station itself is thought to have escaped major damage, the impact of the firefighting efforts and the intense heat of the blaze is likely to require assessment.

An amended Avanti West Coast will run to Preston, Carlisle and Motherwell today, so customers can connect with trains to Edinburgh and services to the Glasgow area.

Experts are worried about the safety of the remnants of the building after the fire in Glasgow

A drone image shows firefighters still battling flames next to Glasgow Central station yesterday

The scene of the fire near Glasgow Central railway station is pictured this morning

The fire brigade try to put out the blaze near Glasgow Central station on Sunday evening

Avanti West Coast said an amended service will run to Preston, Carlisle and Motherwell today

ScotRail warned of substantial disruption to its services and urged passengers to check before travelling. No trains will run to or from the high-level platforms, while trains that run through the low-level platforms will not call at Glasgow Central.

Surveyors flew drones around the station, the current iteration of which dates back to the early 20th century, to assess if there had been any structural damage.

Labour MSP Paul Sweeney told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘There’s the cafe, there’s the Blue Lagoon (chip shop), of course, which is famous for many Glaswegians.

‘It’s been completely wiped out, destroyed. The building is a gutted shell. It looks like something out of the Blitz. I spoke to building control officers [Sunday] night on site.

‘They don’t have much hope that the building can be saved at all. We wait and see what their final decisions are, but it sounds like the remaining facade on to Gordon Street is likely to have to come down, unfortunately.’

Owner of Lucky in Love Tattoos, Scott Martin McAnally, told the Daily Mail his entire shop is now ‘rubble’. Mr McAnally, 29, lives on an island north of Scotland and was unable to get a flight to Glasgow on Sunday when the fire had reached his shop.

He is currently waiting for a flight there now and will meet with his ‘best friend’ and owner of neighbouring tattoo parlour Hundred Demons Duncan Sweeney before heading to Union Street to assess the damage in person.

Speaking about how he discovered his shop was on fire, Mr McAnally said: ‘I was sitting in the pub and the guys put in the group chat that there was some smoke coming round the corner.

‘Then an hour later they were like ‘oh there’s a fire above that place now’. Every hour it was just getting worse and worse until the evening and we just saw fire coming out the windows.’

He said: ‘I just bought my first house a few months ago and we found out my wife is pregnant last month and we are renovating the house so I kind of thought I was having my really busy and difficult year already, so this is the last thing I need.

‘I don’t think it’s properly sunk in yet, I sort of just jumped straight into problem-solving mode.

‘I’m ok in a crisis. I’m just trying to make sure everyone else is alright and then I can be sad about it later on once there are some solutions in place.’

Beauty parlour owner Sam Hendry, 32, told the Daily Record ‘everything has been wiped out’. She has estimated she has lost £15,000 in the fire and is now borrowing cash from family members to rebuild her S’Amuse Studio business.

She said: ‘I have lost absolutely everything – everything has been wiped out. I built my studio from the ground up.’

Carina McCreery only opened her Hard As Gels nail bar four months ago and says she will now ‘going to have to do it all over again’.

Hairdresser Joe Diaz, 33, was with a client and his partner when flames began to engulf the building. He said the trio decided to ‘run and get out of here’ when they started seeing thick smoke spreading.

Mr Diaz’s was not insured and he is raising money online towards setting up a new salon.

He told how he, his partner and the client, fled about 10 minutes after the fire began, saying: ‘We were right at the edge of getting out of there in time.’

He said: ‘The first floor was fully covered in smoke. That was really scary.’

As they moved down through the building, they saw ‘really heavy, dark smoke’. He said: ‘We just got our client and said, let’s just run and get out of here as soon as we can.’

The client was ‘paralysed by anxiety’, he said, but they made it out of the building and saw smoke pouring out of the vape shop.

Initially, the fire appeared to be contained and Mr Diaz left to get a cup of tea, but when he returned, he was confronted with a ‘heartbreaking’ scene as the flames had spread and the building was collapsing.

The ferocious fire tore through the building on Sunday leaving nothing but its façade standing

The extraordinary fire began at about 3.45pm in a vape shop on Union Street in Glasgow

A passer-by, Lamin Kongira, told how he tried to extinguish the blaze in a vape shop on Sunday

He said: ‘It was heartbreaking. Of course, it’s your business, you have a lot of business stuff. But you take very emotional stuff with you to work – things that have a lot of sentimental value.’

Mr Diaz, who is originally from Chile, has set up a crowdfunding page on GoFundMe, asking for help to ‘rebuild our little studio after the fire’.

It said: ‘As many of you may already know, our little studio has burned down, taking with it five years of dreams, hard work, and love.

‘We all sometimes think about the three things we’d grab in an emergency but, in a moment like this, you realise none of that really matters.

‘Everything happened so quickly. By pure chance, I happened to be on the phone looking out into the street when I saw the smoke starting to rise.

‘Otherwise, we would have been inside the studio with the door closed, just as we usually are. It’s impossible not to think about what could have happened.’

First Minister John Swinney, who visited the scene yesterday, said the B-Listed building had been ‘immensely damaged’. He added: ‘The disruption from this incident is absolutely enormous because Central Station is the busiest station in Scotland.’

Mr Sweeney added that there were ‘serious questions’ to be asked about the proximity of such shops to ‘critical national infrastructure’. He said: ‘Essentially, Scotland’s busiest station could be wiped out by this kind of situation. I think it’s opened up a real blind spot in our consideration of these type of retail units.’

Mr Sweeney also said some of the elevation of the building had survived the fire and he hoped there could be a ‘reinstatement’ rather than a full rebuild.

Network Rail’s Ross Moran said: ‘Timescales for re-opening will only be confirmed once we are able to safely gain access and carry out all the necessary checks.

The flames spread through the Union Street building and around the corner on to Gordon Street

First Minister John Swinney visits the scene of the fire adjacent to Glasgow Central yesterday

‘It is absolutely devastating. Everyone who loves Glasgow knows that this is a cathedral of the railway. We will overcome this, we’ll get beyond it, but it’s a travesty.’

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said: ‘My thanks go to the emergency services who were quick to respond to the incident.’

David Ross, ScotRail chief operating officer, said: ‘We’d like to thank our colleagues in the fire and emergency services who worked incredibly hard to tackle the blaze and prevent it from spreading to the station itself.

‘We know this closure will cause significant disruption for our customers, and we’re very sorry for the impact this will have on their journeys.’

More than £80,000 has been raised to support a number of businesses which were destroyed in the blaze. 

A passer-by, Lamin Kongira, tried to extinguish the blaze in a vape shop on Sunday, but was forced back by an ‘explosion’ from within the premises. He described hearing another more powerful blast shortly afterwards. No injuries were reported.

People standing watching at the police cordon yesterday spoke of their shock. Emma Reid, from Glasgow, said: ‘It’s just so sad. It’s such an iconic building. It’s so sad.’

Carolyn Bowie stopped to watch as her son was one of the firefighters tackling the blaze yesterday, having started his shift at 8am. She said: ‘It’s devastating and a big blow for Glasgow.’

The Victorian building, designed by architect James Brown of the firm Brown & Carrick, was built in 1851 and pre-dated the station.

The Money Shop and Wimpy once operated out of the same unit which caught on fire before it was a vape shop.

Firefighting efforts after the devastating inferno left a landmark building in ruins in Glasgow

Fire crews pump water from the River Clyde to use as they damp down the remains of the fire

Firefighters damp down the remains of the fire yesterday after it broke out on Sunday afternoon

According to title deeds obtained by the Mail, the building is part of several neighbouring outlets owned by property firm Afton Estates Limited, which paid £540,000 for the block in 2008.

A planning application lodged with Glasgow City Council in September 2024 to convert the unit into a hot-food takeaway was rejected last December.

Companies House documents show Michael and Kenna Tasker are listed as directors of Afton Estates.

Mr Tasker is also listed as a director of the Royal Forth Yacht Club, one of the world’s oldest yacht clubs whose patron is Princess Anne.

He was commodore when the club organised a Parade of Sail to mark the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The Mail has attempted to contact the Taskers and Afton Estates Limited for comment.

Asked if more needed to be done around licensing of vape shops and the fire safety regulations applied to them, Mr Swinney told LBC: ‘I don’t want to pre-judge the investigation but I’m sympathetic to that point of view. The scale of damage… raises significant questions for us.’

He added: ‘An incident of this type is obviously going to give rise to significant costs. The Government is willing to engage with Glasgow City Council about the further financial support that is required.’

Assistant Chief Officer David Farries of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said a ‘huge effort’ had been required to stop the ‘very intense fire’ spreading to a nearby hotel.

Reform UK Glasgow City Councillor Thomas Kerr said his party wants ‘the temporary removal of disposable vapes from sale while a full investigation is carried out’.

Downing Street has paid tribute to the bravery of firefighters who dealt with the blaze.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘Clearly, this has been a devastating incident for Glasgow, the loss of historic buildings that have dominated the city centre for so long. Our thoughts also go to those who have lost businesses and livelihoods.’