[2][3] The 1865 branch line to Wemyss Bay had mixed fortunes, from then the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) competed with the Caledonian for parliamentary approvals.

The building is on the corner of Newton Street, which at the point it goes across the railway cutting changes direction to align with the grid plan of the west end of Greenock.

Beneath the upper end of Newton Street, where it merges into Lyle Road, the tunnel curves round towards Fort Matilda railway station.

[16] The extension officially opened on 1 June 1889,[17][18] with the first train departing Gourock at 05:25 taking workmen to Greenock and Port Glasgow, driven by the engineer Dugald Drummond who had designed and got built the Caledonian Railway 80 Class "Coast Bogies" for the route.

[23] At Lady Alice Park on the approach to the town, the burgh corporation had put the burn in a culvert for about 400 yards (370 m), with a children's pond at its inlet, and had filled its valley to form a level playing area (bowling greens) higher than the road.

Water pressure shifted the retaining wall at Platform 2 just east of the Inverkip Street bridge, damaging the westbound line and causing collapse of the gable of an adjacent bookshop with flats on upper floors.

Near the foot of Inverkip Road, floodwater found an outlet into the G&SWR tunnel, and rushed down to their sidings above Brougham Street, damaging houses near Princes Pier.

It needed renewal, and in a major project after 2000 it was replaced by a modern concrete bridge and retaining wall which blocks off access to the goods yard area.

The main A78 road bridge which takes Inverkip Street over the station platforms had to be rebuilt and was closed to traffic for several years with a diversion in operation.