Work set to start at New Street

[Mojo]

From BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/8194598.stm

Work on a £598m project to transform Birmingham's New Street station will begin in September.

Engineers will start preparatory work to build a new concourse next to the station in what is currently the NCP Pallasades lower-level car park.

The New Street Gateway Project aims to transform the 1960s-built station into a "landmark, 21st Century transport hub".

The station has been criticised in the past for its outdated concrete look.

Network Rail said passengers would not be affected by the work.

Brighter platforms

The new concourse, expected to be more than three times bigger than the present one and enclosed by a light-filled atrium, is due to open to the public in 2012.

The old concourse will be redeveloped during a second phase of work.

Eventually the station will have brighter and clearer platforms that are easier to reach - with 30 new escalators and 15 new lifts.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail, which is funding the project along with the city council, government agency Advantage West Midlands, and Centro, said it was an exciting time.

City council leader Mike Whitby said New Street would be transformed into a station that would be "the envy of the world".

 

[37401]

ill eat my hat if it looks anything like the concept drawings

 

[jamesontheroad]

ill eat my hat if it looks anything like the concept drawings

Trust me (I'm an aborted-architect) ... buildings never look like their concept drawings.

 

[37401]

Trust me (I'm an aborted-architect) ... buildings never look like their concept drawings.

yeah good job too, otherwise I would have to buy a hat and eat it

 

[the sniper]

Is anyone else going to miss the current New Street station a little bit?

 

[Bayum]

Is anyone else going to miss the current New Street station a little bit?

Yeah...

It used to be my favourite station when I was younger... Cos it was underground and dark =P

 

[43034 The Black Horse]

Is anyone else going to miss the current New Street station a little bit?

Yea, liked that one. The 'darkness' was New St in my opinion.

 

[gordonthemoron]

City council leader Mike Whitby said New Street would be transformed into a station that would be "the envy of the world".

so it's going to be crap then?

for a great underground mainline station, you can't beat Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, straight out of Blade Runner

 

[Geezertronic]

I hope they don't screw it up. NR (or Railtrack) screwed up when they didn't take the option of extra space under the Bullring so I'm hoping that it won't become a hack and bodge job

I'll miss the smell of diesel though

 

[37401]

Is anyone else going to miss the current New Street station a little bit?

Yeah big time, I miss how it was standing there with the big "flapper" boards waiting to go off here and there thats how ill remember it

 

[The Planner]

I hope they don't screw it up. NR (or Railtrack) screwed up when they didn't take the option of extra space under the Bullring so I'm hoping that it won't become a hack and bodge job

I thought the option was room so a third tunnel could be put in ?? wouldnt solve an awful lot, you would still have the same amount of platforms, just more trains trying to get in at once.

 

[krus_aragon]

Yea, liked that one. The 'darkness' was New St in my opinion.

The first time I went to New Street was at ~5am one December morning for an hour stopover en-route to London. It was only three years later on a daytime journey from Cardiff to Derby that I realised it's also dark and dingy in the daytime!

 

[mumrar]

The dreams of architects are wild and wonderful. That concept drawing is absolutley hideous. I'm glad that both the budget and logical constraints of engineering will reign it in to a functional and better looking structure. Having said that it will still have it's fair share of disasters and dramas and cost about 1.75x if not more.........

 

[the sniper]

Yeah big time, I miss how it was standing there with the big "flapper" boards waiting to go off here and there thats how ill remember it

Your comment made me smile as that's exsactly the same main memory I'll have of the place when it gone, even though the 'flapper' boards hasn't been up there for what, six or seven years?

New Street lost a lot of it's (relatively little) charm when they took down the old departure boards and switched to automated announcements.

 

[Geezertronic]

I thought the option was room so a third tunnel could be put in ?? wouldnt solve an awful lot, you would still have the same amount of platforms, just more trains trying to get in at once.

It would allow more trains to arrive and depart at the same time which would have avoided queueing at the South end and departing trains being delayed during peak times.

 

[37401]

Your comment made me smile as that's exsactly the same main memory I'll have of the place when it gone, even though the 'flapper' boards hasn't been up there for what, six or seven years?

New Street lost a lot of it's (relatively little) charm when they took down the old departure boards and switched to automated announcements.

Yeah I remember when we went to scotland there was one that carried on flipping for ages its strange how I can remember stuff like that and the HST bash up there but I cant remember much from school Rail-Based selective memory

 

[The Planner]

Platform space is why they queue, nothing to do with the amount of tracks going in there. The best you could have done with another tunnel is seperate the cross city from trains from Landor St or St Andrews. It still doesnt solve any problems of them having to cross in the throat due to platform allocation.