THE boss of ScotRail has confirmed the date when Queen Street Station will be complete and the station fully re-opened.

Passengers have had to put up with building work to demolish the old SPT headquarters Consort House and the extension to the Millennium Hotel.

Alex Hynes, Managing Director of ScotRail has now said the work will be complete in under two years.

He told MSPs at Holyrood’s Connectivity Committee the expected completion date

Mr Hynes said: “The eight car platforms will be complete in December next year and the work on the concourse by spring 2020.

“That’s the end date for the redevelopment of Glasgow Queen Street.”

Work on the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement programme and new trains was already showing improvements he said.

Mr Hynes said: “We are already seeing 42 minute journeys down from 52 minutes.”

From December he said passengers should see trips of 44 minutes.

He added: “I would like to get times down to 39 minutes” to take advantage of the speed of the new trains.

Some trains, he explained, would still take longer between the two cities at peak times and late at night when there are more stops.

The completion date is a year later than initially planned after delay in starting work and changes to the project pushed it back from next year.

Mr Hynes was quizzed by the committee on a number of issues, including a slump in performance with more delays and cancellations across the network in the last year.

The train firm boss also said that investment in the track and trains being made now will provide a better service for passengers in the future.

He said that the performance last year which was below the standard expected was mostly down to bad weather or Network Rail infrastructure problems.

Mr Hynes admitted that the performance level of ScotRail would have breached the minimum standard had the Scottish Government not agreed a waiver.

He said: The weather in the last 12 months has been more extreme than normal. We had the beast from the east then the hottest summer on record.”

He said of the deterioration in performance in the last year half was due to the weather and half to issues with rail infrastructure.

He also said a decision to ban skip stopping, where stations are missed out to allow trains to make up time, has made it more difficult to meet performance targets.

Mr Hynes initially claimed the performance was not below the breach level in the ScotRail contract.

But then admitted that had the waiver not been given then performance would have been below the breach level.