IT'S all change at Central Station as preparations begin for the rail link with Glasgow Airport.

IT'S all change at Central Station as preparations begin for the rail link with Glasgow Airport.

Platforms at one of the country's busiest rail hubs are to be renumbered over the New Year, with a new one being built.

The first of the changes will take place when high-level services are suspended from Boxing Day until Tuesday, December 30.

Network Rail today revealed the new numbers for Glasgow Central high-level platforms. Platform 11a will become platform 12; 12 will become 14; and 13 will become 15.

Platform 13 is the number to be given to a new platform being built to accommodate passengers travelling to the airport.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "As part of the works to deliver the new Glasgow Airport Rail Link, we will be constructing an additional platform at Glasgow Central Station over the next two years.

"To accommodate the new platform, some of the existing high-level ones will need to be renumbered.

"The two low-level platforms will also be affected."

Costing £210million, the rail link will be completed in 2011, with five miles of existing track upgraded between Shields Junction and Paisley Gilmour Street Station, and a mile of new track laid between Paisley St James Station and Glasgow Airport.

The project will also involve four new rail bridges - one spanning the M8 - and a railway station at the airport.

Four trains will run every hour between the city and the airport. Each journey will take 16 minutes with just one stop at Paisley Gilmour Street During the Christmas closure, engineers are to switch signalling control to a new west of Scotland centre at Cowlairs.

First ScotRail plans to run replacement bus services during the closure. Virgin Trains will also bus passengers to and from Carlisle and Motherwell to connect with trains to and from England.

Low-line services at Central Station will run normally.