Newcastle station refurbishment progress

[transmanche]

Newcastle's Evening Chronicle has posted a photo gallery and video of the work on the station portico, which has now been completed.

Personally I think it looks so much better than when it had cars driving through it!

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news...k-newcastle-central-station-beginning-6926935

The new-look Newcastle Central Station is beginning to take shape as work has now been completed on its historic entrance.

It has been transformed as part of an £8.6m makeover which has seen the glazing over of the 19th Century arches, turning the once gloomy front portico into a traveller-friendly area.

As part of this the walls of the station have been sandblasted and new lights fitted.

Inside the main station the current ticket office has been reduced in size and the space handed over for shops, with booking facilities moving to a new site just past the Sainsbury’s shop.

 

[edwin_m]

Thanks for posting these. It still looks a little gloomy but that may be down to the photos. I agree this will be a great improvement - those porticos full of idling taxis belching PM10s aren't a good way to start or finish a rail journey! The revamp of Nottingham has done something very similar.

 

[gordonthemoron]

doesn't work for me, preferred it with taxis running through

 

[sprinterguy]

I’ll be very interested to see the changes the next time that I am back up North: I’m pleased to see these changes, I’ll be glad not to have to dodge taxis every time I walk out the front of the station as has been the case for years.

I just hope that they’ve provided sufficient space for the taxis to congregate somewhere else that is still convenient for passengers that require them.

 

[Greenback]

It looks as though there is some much needed additional space for passengers. I quite like it, though I will reserve judgment until I've seen it in the flesh!

 

[Tetchytyke]

I preferred it when I could wait for my taxi in the dry. But taking that facility away and replacing it with yet another Upper Crust is "progress".

 

[Greenback]

Taxi users will be in the same boat as us poor people who had to go and wait for their bus in the wet, while also risking life and limb dodging the cabbies!

 

[Tetchytyke]

Don't even start me on the carnage they've caused to the buses with these "improvement works"! It's taken me 20 minutes to get down Neville Street on the 22. I'm just glad I don't have to deal with it every day anymore.

 

[lincolnshire]

New redesigned portico looks nice, but all that glass needs cleaning reguarly of else it then looks a mess and its no goo just cleaning the bottom ara and leaving the higher part along as that then looks a bigger mess still and as if you didn,t really care about it.

A high maintenance item that you just have to keep on top of.

 

[tankmc]

Look nice. Personally i hated the front of the station so im glad its gone. It was a horrible welcome once you left the station.

What is the new taxi area looking like?... if there is one.

 

[cuccir]

Looked good from inside the station when I passed through on an Edinburgh-Durham train on Saturday - much brighter on the inside.

Details of the new location of taxi pick-up and drop off here. Looks like it will be good for pedestrians, but could result in taxis having to do a round trip from the drop-off point at the west of the station to get to the pick-up points at the east, which will increase overall traffic in the city centre.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Newcastle Central was much better when there was a Yates's opposite with no seats, just brass rails to lean against and the worst looking prostitutes your likely to see

 

[transmanche]

Details of the new location of taxi pick-up and drop off here. Looks like it will be good for pedestrians, but could result in taxis having to do a round trip from the drop-off point at the west of the station to get to the pick-up points at the east, which will increase overall traffic in the city centre.

There won't be any change in what the taxis have to do. Taxis queue in Orchard Street before they reach the passenger pick-up point - as they have done for as long as I can remember. (In fact for many years now, Orchard Street has been restricted to taxis & cycles only.)

So taxis have always had to loop round via Westgate Road, or round the Centre for Life, to reach Forth Street and Orchard Street.

 

[cuccir]

There won't be any change in what the taxis have to do. Taxis queue in Orchard Street before they reach the passenger pick-up point - as they have done for as long as I can remember. (In fact for many years now, Orchard Street has been restricted to taxis & cycles only.)

So taxis have always had to loop round via Westgate Road, or round the Centre for Life, to reach Forth Street and Orchard Street.

Ah, that makes sense now you say it - and indeed is better as the entrance to Forth Street (if that's its name at that point, Google Maps is unlcear) off Westgate Road has always been a bugger to cross as a pedestrian due to being quite wide, with rather fast-travelling taxi drivers.

 

[transmanche]

I was passing through this afternoon and stopped to take a few snaps. Work is also continuing apace on the Central Gateway project. The bottom section of Grainger Street (Neville Street to Westgate Road) has been pedestrianised and paved over. And work was ongoing building a new pavement from Orchard Street.

I'm really quite impressed at the job they've done with the portico. Plenty of ticket machines and departure boards too.




This is the new location for the individual service departure boards, which are a bit bigger than the old ones. The ticket gates closest to platforms 9/10/11 have been realigned, so that platform 12 is now unbarriered. Presumably this is to make more space for people walking to/from the relocated ticket office.

(Strangely, I've been on four or five trains arriving/departing from platform 12 recently - having never seen a service train using it before... ever!)




This one was taken from near the Metro entrance and shows where the old ticket office/travel centre used to be. Now there's more circulation space and some new retail units. The old 'peak time only' ticket gates near platform 1 have not been returned - their place is taken by glass barriers. I'm guessing that the three square holes in the retail units building are where the cashpoints will go.

 

[edwin_m]

Transmanche - I must commend you on the quality of your photography - it looks much better on yours than the Chronicle's!

The retail units in the Nottingham revamp have similar "cashpoint holes".

 

[transmanche]

Transmanche - I must commend you on the quality of your photography - it looks much better on yours than the Chronicle's!

Hehe, thank you! My trusty Nokia Lumia 1020 does take a decent snap.

 

[Starmill]

Changed at Newcastle on Tuesday - had no idea this work had been going on! I knew something was happening to the road under there but not this! Looks great, will absolutely have to go back and have another look once finished. Bit of a challenge finding the new ticket office; is that going to be it's final position? And I wish I'd known about the new toilets before going to the old, dirty as ever ones

 

[transmanche]

Bit of a challenge finding the new ticket office; is that going to be it's final position?.

I believe so.

And I wish I'd known about the new toilets before going to the old, dirty as ever ones

I didn't know there were going to be new toilets. Whereabouts are they?

(As the station is going to transferred to Network Rail management, expect the toilets to cost 30p a go in future...)

 

[TheKnightWho]

Ah, that makes sense now you say it - and indeed is better as the entrance to Forth Street (if that's its name at that point, Google Maps is unlcear) off Westgate Road has always been a bugger to cross as a pedestrian due to being quite wide, with rather fast-travelling taxi drivers.

You're also forgetting that Neville Street is undergoing a massive revamp at the moment, which should make taxis waiting just outside the newly done-up portico quite easy as well.

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/news-story/changes-access-central-station

 

[Starmill]

I believe so.

I didn't know there were going to be new toilets. Whereabouts are they?

(As the station is going to transferred to Network Rail management, expect the toilets to cost 30p a go in future...)

They are on the way to the well-hidden new ticket office, if you know what I mean. I walked in from the bit that used to be the taxi rank and turned right, asking a member of staff at the info shack where the ticket office was, because I really couldn't see any signs for it (you can tell I'm not really from around there haha). There was like a newspaper stand poster holder thing with an EC poster in it which excitedly proclaimed new toilets!

And tell me about it with charges for toilets. Northern at Manchester Vic recently had some posters up about closure of the toilets for 'security enhancements' - introducing a charge! Having said that Doncaster and Wakefield have just had new (free) toilets, although the latter has had a lot of other new stuff recently

 

[L&Y Robert]

Is it really as colourless as it looks in the pics? Better use of space, I think, but what are those big black boxes with seating between? "2001 A Space Odyssey".

 

[Clip]

It does look good but yet another thing now missing that certainly tells me I am 'home' when I go back.... Such a shame...

 

[markydh]

Those 'big black boxes' are actually bronze pods which will house various catering units. I've already seen planning documents for a sushi bar for instance. The Greggs, Costa and that other food pod on the platform side of the barriers will close and be removed once they have relocated to either the retail building where the old ticket office was or one of the pods in the portico.

 

[TUC]

When I visited the station this week it was hard to even find the way in as the front entrance was boarded up for the work but no signs where to go. It was only by seeing the flow of other people that it I found it. Inside, as said above, it was totally unclear where the new ticket office was. As for the reclocated main departure board, I can see now now from the photos above where it is but, coming into the station near where the board used to be, there seemed to be no departure screens at all and it was not clear where the reclocated main board is. I know it is a work in progress but the lack of transitional signage to help passengers was very unimpressive.

 

[trainophile]

We had our first ever trip to Newcastle on Tues last week, staying overnight and departing on Weds 9th. We had no idea until now that the station has just been refurbed, but instantly fell in love with it anyway. We were ushered through Sainsburys on finding the entry to the concourse area barriered off, and thought that seemed a bit strange. Also, trying to cross the road/s to get to the Holiday Inn Express took a bit of ingenuity!

Seems there were a few of us around there last week, what a pity we didn't know! Could have got together for a mutter and grumble .

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Visited it for the first time yesterday. Didn't see the portico etc as I used the Metro station both times but the position of the new booking office is frankly ridiculous, it's probably the worst place to put it on the station and it also seems extremely compacted too, anything more than about ten people waiting and you'll be getting near the door. There were barriers in place for the toilets next to them however they were still OOU. I'll probably just use the ones on p3/4 in future, from what I remember of the last time I used them they're in better shape than the new ones.

I do get the impression again, like with many station developments, the primary focus here is on retail and the money to be made thereof. It's so frustrating that such a mentality leads to basic railway station amenities being treated like inconvenient add-ons.

 

[Andyh82]

I agree with the comments, is that seriously going to be the final location for the ticket office? I've never known one tucked away so far from the entrance, past the toilets and even past staff only doors. I also agree that it is very small.