NETWORK Rail has published plans to upgrade Swansea station. NR said it aimed to transform Swansea into ‘a bright, accessible, clean and secure station fit for the 21st century’. It is also promising minimal disruption for the 1.6 million passengers who use the station each year.
The scheme, which is part of the Department for Transport’s national station improvement programme, is led jointly by Arriva Trains Wales, Network Rail and the Welsh Assembly Government. It's also being supported by Swansea Council.
When the work is complete, the station will have a larger concourse with more accessible passenger facilities, as well as a new entrance, renovated station front, new waiting shelters, a new booking office with extra ticket vending machines, toilets, digital information boards, shops and CCTV cameras. The station will have specially glazed walls, which Network Rail said will allow ‘natural light to flood in’, and the platforms will be improved by refurbished canopies and modernised fittings.
However, the cost of the scheme is not being revealed yet, because a tendering process is under way. Arriva Trains Wales said it was hoped to award the contract in March, start work before the end of April and complete Phase 1, which covers the enlarged concourse, by mid-2011. Work on the platforms will follow.
Network Rail route director Chris Rayner said: “Stations are the railways' shop-front and they have been ignored for too long. Over the next five years, stations are among Network Rail’s top priorities and, together with our partners, we will be investing around £85m in stations in Wales by 2014.”
Reader Comments:
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It's a pity that Swansea was so keen to get rid of its railways because the opportunity to create a proper transport hub was thrown away in all the 'yuppie' development around the docks. The place is a traffic nightmare now with yet more development on its eastern approaches, which can only generate more traffic.
The town/city has a very poor record when it comes to railways. Where else in the world would a local authority have put forward an Act of Parliament to close a priceless asset like the Mumbles Railway? Madness!
The Mumbles Road is now regularly gridlocked while the trackbed of the railway is almost wholly unimpeded. I have to travel, from Maesteg, to Mumbles on a fairly regular basis and the journey always takes three to four times longer than it should unless you travel in the middle of the night.
Improvements to High Street station are to be welcomed but as for the rest of the place; I hope it gets choked by its own exhaust fumes.
Meic Batten
Meic Batten, Maesteg, Wales
there's a small station just before swansea called landore close to the liberty stadium which should be reopened.
ian, swansea
WHY DOES'NT THE WELSH GOVERNMENT START SORTING THEIR OWN TRANSPORT NETWORK OUT IN THE SAME MANNER AS THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT
Well said - some of the Scottish stations are far better than English counterparts.
Compare Stirling (welcoming, tastefully renovated, disabled access across the platforms) with Winchester (grotty). Both have great staff but what does it say to visitors?
Good to have upgraded stations in Wales, Newport will soon be 21st Century, Port Talbot Parkway next?
Chris Reynell, Longstock, Hampshire.
WHY DOES'NT THE WELSH GOVERNMENT START SORTING THEIR OWN TRANSPORT NETWORK OUT IN THE SAME MANNER AS THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT & RE-OPEN AS MANY CLOSED LINES TO IMPROVED ALL JOURNEY TIMES TO LONDON,GLASGOW & HOLYHEAD NOW & IF THEY HAVE ELECTRIFICATION PLANNED FOR THE FUTURE!!
Andrew John Blurton, Staffs, United Kingdom