A few station redevelopments - updates please.

[daccer]

I was just wondering if anyone can update me on the following stations which are being redeveloped (photos possibly?) or which have had plans in palce for awhile.

Crewe - what is the scope of work here?It seems to be getting done up piecemeal.
Wakefield Kirkgate - how far along is this? Anyone have recent photos?
Llandudno - is it done?
Luton - what has happened to the plans for this station?
Derby - did it ever get its new entrance?

Thanks in advance

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Can't speak for the others, but I was at Wakey Kakey about a month ago. Work had halted on the platform areas and was concentrating on the main station building on platform 1. This meant access to the station was via a rather circuitous route avoiding the building, but as the saying goes, no pain- no gain!

 

[Qwerty133]

Derby - did it ever get its new entrance?

Thanks in advance

Do you mean the area in front of the station?
If so that's been complete for over a year, bug IIRC there is still some remedial work taking place on a semi-regular basis.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

How many "under the radar" developments are ongoing at the moment? Everybody knows about major projects like Birmingham New Street and Reading, but other ones don't seem to attract as much attention. Birmingham Snow Hill is getting a lick of paint at the moment, there is a new waiting room on the down island and unless I am mistaken the upstairs concourse has been re tiled recently too. There are even reports of a complete rebuild for the main Colmore Row entrance.

 

[318259]

Glasgow Queen Street and Charing Cross are having some minor work done. They've taken away the yellow wall panels that had built-in seats, and replaced them with flat grey wall panels. It's annoying, because the entire platform wall used to be one big, long bench. Now they've just dotted a few benches along the platforms.

Glasgow Central Low Level is having new lighting and wall panels installed in the walkways between the ticket barriers and the platforms.

Jordanhill is having repair work done on the overbridge, so it's closed for a few weeks. It's a long detour between platforms 1 and 2.

Partick has just had all its escalators replaced (just the railway ones, not the SPT Subway ones).

Dalmarnock is being done up for the commonwealth games. They're just putting the finishing touches to it. It was a horrible dingy station before. Half was in a cutting, and half was in a tunnel with only really dim lights.

 

[tsr]

Of note elsewhere in the country...

There are plans - approved by planners - for the majority of the station buildings and pretty much all the car parking at Redhill to be replaced with a major development, incorporating new versions of those facilities - plus flats, a Waitrose supermarket (incidentally, opposite the new Sainsbury's store which should have construction starting soon) and a number of smaller shops. Sadly, there is little in the way of a publicly-available timescale for the works, though I can report the following:

The subway is in the process of having parts of its walls/roof rebuilt, plus there's a new lift being constructed from the current ticket hall to said subway, ensuring that both entrances will be step-free. For practical reasons, the subway and new lift shaft are incorporated in the overall redevelopment plans. The old newsagent's shop in the ticket hall has been used as a shelter for builders, but is now gradually being removed.

Some, if not all, of the toilets have been refurbished, and the waiting room on Platform 3 is now redecorated, with more modern and comfortable furniture. There's also a heated/air conditioned shelter at the North end of Platform 1/2, though that's been in place for a couple of years now.

Lastly, major road layout changes are underway in Redhill town centre, which should hopefully include the area around the station, including more convenient positions for the pedestrian crossings in the vicinity. These changes are not part of the station redevelopment, but those masterminding the regeneration efforts are trying to ensure both projects are completed in harmony.

Information: http://www.redhillforward.co.uk/

 

[Welshman]

Llandudno - is it done?

Thanks in advance

I think Llandudno is just about finished now.
They've now started on the concourse at Rhyl.

 

[daccer]

I suppose it is a sign of how attitudes have changed towards the railways and investment in particular that communities and councils will not accept substandard stations any longer. My local stations (when I'm in the UK) are Northampton and Kettering and both have/are received/receiving a lot of investment recently.

The recent award to Kings Cross for catering does highlight that efforts to make stations more a 'destination' and less just a transport interchange seem to be working.

It will be interesting to see in 2019 what the list of 10 worst stations looks like as the historical candidates will have all been spruced up by then and there will be few major stations that haven't had investment.

 

[nottinghamcity]

Is the Derby new entrance pride park? If so that has been open since the new over bridge was finished (18 months ago?) There has been substantial improvements to the forecourt, which again is mainly finished. The Nottingham project is about there too, and a really good job has been done.

 

[edwin_m]

Is the Derby new entrance pride park? If so that has been open since the new over bridge was finished (18 months ago?) There has been substantial improvements to the forecourt, which again is mainly finished. The Nottingham project is about there too, and a really good job has been done.

The Pride Park entrance has been open since 2002 at least.

 

[route:oxford]

How many "under the radar" developments are ongoing at the moment? Everybody knows about major projects like Birmingham New Street and Reading, but other ones don't seem to attract as much attention. Birmingham Snow Hill is getting a lick of paint at the moment, there is a new waiting room on the down island and unless I am mistaken the upstairs concourse has been re tiled recently too. There are even reports of a complete rebuild for the main Colmore Row entrance.

Dunblane has had the "blue bridge" removed. A new bridge with lifts is planned for the Perth end of the station.

It was planned for the Caledonian Bridge to be removed to a preservation site - but local activists have stopped that for the moment.


New lifts are also planned for Gleneagles I believe.

 

[Starmill]

New lifts are also planned for Gleneagles I believe.

It looked like something of that nature was happening when I last passed that way. Though I'm not sure why given how few passengers use it and how little it serves... there are horribly inaccessible stations with 20 or 30 times more users...

 

[edwin_m]

It looked like something of that nature was happening when I last passed that way. Though I'm not sure why given how few passengers use it and how little it serves... there are horribly inaccessible stations with 20 or 30 times more users...

They'll be able to drive the golf carts all the way to the platform?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Yep, all for some huge golf rave or something up that way.

 

[Helvellyn]

The rebuild of Fleet station is nearly complete, which sees a new station building constructed as well as a new footbridge with lifts. It follows Wokingham station that also underwent a complete rebuild last year.

 

[nottinghamcity]

Any thoughts on "failed" refurbishments? Some seem to either take forever, or deliver very little. Tamworth seemed to achieve both.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Newport Gwent. Horrendous excuse of a railway station.

 

[Class377]

Newport Gwent. Horrendous excuse of a railway station.

Out of interest, are the gates between platform 1 and the main road/car park ever opened in the peaks to deal with passenger flow? I use it frequently in the evenings for football and it seems completely pointless to have everyone trudge to the wrong end of the station to leave!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Any thoughts on "failed" refurbishments? Some seem to either take forever, or deliver very little. Tamworth seemed to achieve both.

Wakefield Westgate is not without its critics. Leaving aside the fact that the building itself IS a vast improvement on what was there before, it is far less convenient for bus interchange. I wait with baited breath whether this situation improves once the old building is completely flattened though.

 

[AndyHudds]

Wakefield Westgate is not without its critics. Leaving aside the fact that the building itself IS a vast improvement on what was there before, it is far less convenient for bus interchange. I wait with baited breath whether this situation improves once the old building is completely flattened though.

This is quite true, I attended the Birmingham City/Town game in Feb/March and went via Wakefield there and back, now at the time there was engineering works and the train was diverted on its way into New Street, adding 10 minutes longer to the journey, this meant on the way back it missed the Huddersfield connection at Westgate. There was a bus around 5 minutes after the train arrived, meaning I had to sprint down to the stop, where as if the old station entrance was still in use I'd have made it no sweat. I did manage to catch it nontheless but yeah the bus connections aren't great now with the stations gravitation away from the city centre, even if its on by 500 yards!!

 

[Starmill]

Wakefield Westgate is not without its critics. Leaving aside the fact that the building itself IS a vast improvement on what was there before, it is far less convenient for bus interchange. I wait with baited breath whether this situation improves once the old building is completely flattened though.

It's so annoying. There are bus stands outside the station though, so maybe Arriva / YT ect could be proposed to re-route a bit. At present it's just the City bus using that stop to my knowledge? It is annoying that they've made integration with buses worse Unpleasant as Bradford Interchange is, for example, it really is an excellent example of rail-bus integration!
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Any thoughts on "failed" refurbishments? Some seem to either take forever, or deliver very little. Tamworth seemed to achieve both.

St Pancras? (Large can of worms!)

 

[61653 HTAFC]

It's so annoying. There are bus stands outside the station though, so maybe Arriva / YT ect could be proposed to re-route a bit. At present it's just the City bus using that stop to my knowledge? It is annoying that they've made integration with buses worse Unpleasant as Bradford Interchange is, for example, it really is an excellent example of rail-bus integration!

Yeah, the FCB goes there, which is a fat lot of use if you've come in on the 232 or 435 with heavy luggage. In future, I'm going to get off the 435 at Subway on Westgate Retail Park to pick up the FCB
The entire redesign of Wakefield's city centre roads leaves a lot to be desired- It really could do with a true ring-road, but there's the small matter of the Prison and the Turnback siding/Wrenthorpe Loop in the way!

I'm not sure I'd agree that BDI is that unpleasant. It's a bit rough round the edges sure, but it's functional and does what it says on the tin. It is great for cross-mode transfer though, I agree.