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Sunderland railway station.

Chunk Love Sloth said:
It is the council that are delivering the project, they have had to push Network Rail to replace the station
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So Network Rail responsible for upkeep?
Hope they keep it decent.
Although if they had to be pushed to replace it in the first place it may not be a priority.
 

Weremuthe said:
They had hanging baskets of flowers which won some award - inner city stations in bloom or something.

Soon after they blocked out the only light in one of the improvements.

The sun only shone in from late morning till about 13:00 methinks.
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PinzaC55 said:
All you'll have is a shiny new building with the same depressing hole underneath.
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Precisely
Wearside Wanderer II said:
Will be covered in seagull shyte from the off. Hope network rail keep on top of the mess otherwise it will look as bad as it’s replacement
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There's at least one dead gull up there already. I saw its wing hanging off the roof the other day
 
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PinzaC55 said:
The point of the scheme was supposed to be to restore the station to it's pre 1966 layout with 2 "island" platforms giving a total of 4 separate platforms and eventually to demolish the former Littlewoods building and construct a new North entrance. "If" they actually intend to do that it makes no sense to build the South entrance but leave the platforms as they are since it will be a huge amount of work not only to alter the platforms but install track, signalling and overhead wires for the Metro. All you'll have is a shiny new building with the same depressing hole underneath.
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Nothing happening underground, they still want to but don't have the money for it. It's the upper station building only atm.

The station is managed by Northern Rail and not Network Rail aswell whoever mentioned that.
 
Zimba said:
Nothing happening underground, they still want to but don't have the money for it. It's the upper station building only atm.

The station is managed by Northern Rail and not Network Rail aswell whoever mentioned that.
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The station is owned by Network Rail but managed by Northern.
 
Dan..Dan..Dan..Dan said:
Oooooohhhhhhh.......Sunderland has a new station, lets go and do our shopping there. Oh, there don't appear to be any. How do I get to Newcastle?
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Clearly you've not been recently. Sunderland centre doesn't have lots of huge chain stores but many independents and is improving all the time. I've not been over the water for some time and happy to spend in Sunderland whenever I get the chance.
 
Football Dinosaur said:
Clearly you've not been recently. Sunderland centre doesn't have lots of huge chain stores but many independents and is improving all the time. I've not been over the water for some time and happy to spend in Sunderland whenever I get the chance.
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Well I was there on Saturday and it was absolute cack. Maritime Terrace could be in Ukraine. The less said about the Derwent/Olive Street area the better.Town centres are history. There are only so many coffee/cake shops, hipster barbers and vape shops a place can take. It may be improving but from such a low bar you wonder whether it's worth the bother.
 
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Chunk Love Sloth said:
It is the council that are delivering the project, they have had to push Network Rail to replace the station
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BAM are principal contractor who were appointed by Network Rail (They own the station). The council is part funding it to the tune of £10m. £16m came from the transforming cities fund
 
Dan..Dan..Dan..Dan said:
Well I was there on Saturday and it was absolute cack. Maritime Terrace could be in Ukraine. The less said about the Derwent/Olive Street area the better.Town centres are history. There are only so many coffee/cake shops, hipster barbers and vape shops a place can take. It may be improving but from such a low bar you wonder whether it's worth the bother.
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You didn't mention Mackies corner or the area around the Empire, Mowbray Park, Sunniside or the Vaux site. Easy to point out those areas that need improvement but those bits that are much better are driving further improvements in a time when interest rates are discouraging investment.
 
Football Dinosaur said:
You didn't mention Mackies corner or the area around the Empire, Mowbray Park, Sunniside or the Vaux site. Easy to point out those areas that need improvement but those bits that are much better are driving further improvements in a time when interest rates are discouraging investment.
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Spending public money on tidying up areas which have been foolishly demolished isn't investment , in my opinion. In the subject of this thread it has resulted in one cack handed "improvement" after another, for no tangible benefit.
 
Football Dinosaur said:
You didn't mention Mackies corner or the area around the Empire, Mowbray Park, Sunniside or the Vaux site. Easy to point out those areas that need improvement but those bits that are much better are driving further improvements in a time when interest rates are discouraging investment.
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But your point centered around the shopping. I agree that musically, things are on the up and there are now two venues that we can be proud of. Pop Recs and Fire Station. I'd suggest any redevelopment that has a significant reliance on retail is doomed to failure.
 
PinzaC55 said:
Spending public money on tidying up areas which have been foolishly demolished isn't investment , in my opinion. In the subject of this thread it has resulted in one cack handed "improvement" after another, for no tangible benefit.
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You are correct with the railway station, it was prob better in the 70s than now but the other areas it is a case of investment. The fire brigade left the fire station empty it was only public money that has brought it back to life, certainly wasn't cack handed improvement after another. Same with Vaux and Mowbray Park. Sunniside was the wrong place, to me anyway,. B&Q should have been where the cinema is and where the cinema is a commercial area but hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think we should be clearing areas now, the railway station side of Blandford St perhaps, similar as to what is happening in Stockton. We need a more open, greener city. Hoping the mess that happened in the 60s and 70s is now behind us. The fume filled bus station, the open concrete windswept shopping centre and even Crowtree (loved the leisure centre but it was an ugly building).
 
mackem35 said:
You are correct with the railway station, it was prob better in the 70s than now but the other areas it is a case of investment. The fire brigade left the fire station empty it was only public money that has brought it back to life, certainly wasn't cack handed improvement after another. Same with Vaux and Mowbray Park. Sunniside was the wrong place, to me anyway,. B&Q should have been where the cinema is and where the cinema is a commercial area but hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think we should be clearing areas now, the railway station side of Blandford St perhaps, similar as to what is happening in Stockton. We need a more open, greener city. Hoping the mess that happened in the 60s and 70s is now behind us. The fume filled bus station, the open concrete windswept shopping centre and even Crowtree (loved the leisure centre but it was an ugly building).
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I don't agree that we need to demolish more buildings or have more green spaces because to me that's not what cities are about. Although it's partly coloured by nostalgia I can remember the city centre in the 60s when every street was lined with shops, some of them very grand and as a small kid it was exciting to go there. I know that with the online shopping revolution there's no way back to those days but I don't think the answer is to demolish more of the city centre and hose more taxpayers money into tidying up the gaps.
 
Football Dinosaur said:
You didn't mention Mackies corner or the area around the Empire, Mowbray Park, Sunniside or the Vaux site. Easy to point out those areas that need improvement but those bits that are much better are driving further improvements in a time when interest rates are discouraging investment.
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How do you do shopping in Mowbray Park or Keel Square? What are you shopping for? Unless you're a criminal thief.

He's not wrong, The Bridges is an absolute eyesore with all those closed down units where Debenhams used to be.
 
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