THESE are the first images of the new St Enoch Subway station.

The city centre tube stop is to undergo a £5.3million refurb - and these metal and glass canopies are what passengers can expect.

The upgrade will extend inside the station, which serves almost two million residents and visitors each year. As the fifth to be modernised, St Enoch will have a new station office combined with a travel centre.

Jim Coleman, SPT chairman, said: "The modernised St Enoch station will make it a fantastic asset for SPT and we believe it will prove to be a new landmark for Glasgow. The Subway tops and tails Buchanan Street, one of the busiest shopping streets in Scotland. Once St Enoch is finished, SPT will be a third of the way through station refurbishments."

Hillhead, Partick, Ibrox and Kelvinhall are the first four stations to be revamped under SPT's £288m modernisation programme.

SPT is also taking steps to make the Subway more accessible by installing a lift at St. Enoch. It will be first of two stations with lifts due to be introduced into the Subway, with the other lifts at Govan station.

This will provide accessibility from the city centre to Govan bus station and the new Fastlink service.

Once both lifts are in place it will provide a link from the Subway for onward travel to the new South Glasgow Hospital.

Graham Construction will start work in February and SPT will try to keep the station open throughout.

Bosses said work in areas of the concourse and platform will be completed in advance of the Commonwealth Games. The more complex work to install the lift and new canopy will begin after the Commonwealth Games to minimise disruption to the station throughout the games.

All work at the station is due to be complete in 2015.

Graham Construction regional director Gary Holmes said: "We are proud to have been selected to deliver another Subway station refurbishment.

"This will be our second Subway refurbishment contract We worked with SPT to deliver the revamp of Ibrox Station, which was a huge success. We will be using the knowledge gained from the Ibrox project to deliver what will be an iconic new station at St Enoch."