11th July 1995

Train crash demolishes Largs railway station

Largs has had a railway station since 1885. Part of the Ayrshire Coast Line, it originally had four platforms, but this was reduced to two over the years. Its most significant remodelling came about because of a crash in 1995 when a service from Glasgow Central crashed through the buffers and ticket office. A significant part of the station was demolished, and the train ended up on the road. Less than an hour later, a different train hit the buffers at Liverpool Lime Street Station.

The Aberdeen Evening Express carried the story of the Largs crash on its front page of 11 July 1995, under the headline “Five hurt in train crash”, it described how “the train ploughed through the buffers went through part of the concourse, then smashed into two shops, demolishing one and half-demolishing the other, ending up buried beneath the rubble…”