Sunderland railway station

Wouldn't mind them sticking a shop in there so we don't have to pop into a local boozer and get some bottles to take out for the train home :lol: It's tight enough making that first train back to Teesside after a 3 o'clock KO.
 


Had to google Sunderland train station to see what the fuss was about, one of the top searches was on a bloke who took a shite there in 2017 :D. Oh, aye a see what you all mean now.
 
Patch said:
As someone who has used a fair few trains over the last few years, I can say that a welcoming train station isn't a big deal when visiting a city. Whether for leisure or for work, I couldn't give a shite. I can't think of anyone I know who would either be wooed or put off from visiting somewhere based on a train station. Sure, it's nice to have a welcoming station but as long as you can get a taxi/bus/tube for onward travel then it's not a factor.

Are people expecting a visit to the train station to be a viable alternative to a trip to the tip at Beech Street? Get real people!
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Some toilets, a few shops/food places and a bar would be a simple expectation though surely
Theres also an offy next to where Amy Winehouse used to be, that normally open till 8pm, thats where I go:cool: - I dont thing Supercigs opens that late
 
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aliton said:
Wouldnt be practical to move the station as it shares metro services. The issue is the current set up . Dark dingy no staff. Black roof , dark tunnel. Just a good make over is all you need. City centre has more pressing issues other than just the Station . High steet collapse to start with "gost train coming into gost town !"
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👻👻👻'gosts' everywhere!! 👻👻👻

:lol::lol:
 
PhilY said:
I’m pretty sure Nexus own the station, rather than Network Rail. (Network Rail I think only actually own about 8 stations across the country and these are the massive ones eg Kings Cross). Most stations are operated by a franchisee.
Additional connections could be added through the rail franchise system - the whole point of the franchise is* that the most profitable services underpin less profitable ones.
(*there are a whole range of other considerations too, e.g. subsidy require from operator or premium paid by it).
I did write to my MP (Julie Elliott MP) in 2018 asking whether she would push for Sunderland to be added to the CrossCountry franchise when it came up for renewal, so that Sunderland could have direct connections to, for example, Edinburgh and Leeds (these would be add-ons to existing services to/from Newcastle in the same way that Virgin East Coast added a connection to SUN to attack Grand Central)....

I didn’t even get a reply from her office.
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I'm not surprised. Same with houghton mp. Written 3 times and no response. Safe seats so they don't care.
 
Iballistic George said:
I was only trying to say that Dundee Station didn't actually close during the refurb work. We were still running trains in and out same as normal apart from a couple of days
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sorry agreed. I think it only closed during Xmas or something to demolish the building and then to build the crash deck/bridging structure which then allowed them to progress the main build whilst trains operated.
 
PhilY said:
I’m pretty sure Nexus own the station, rather than Network Rail. (Network Rail I think only actually own about 8 stations across the country and these are the massive ones eg Kings Cross). Most stations are operated by a franchisee.
Additional connections could be added through the rail franchise system - the whole point of the franchise is* that the most profitable services underpin less profitable ones.
(*there are a whole range of other considerations too, e.g. subsidy require from operator or premium paid by it).
I did write to my MP (Julie Elliott MP) in 2018 asking whether she would push for Sunderland to be added to the CrossCountry franchise when it came up for renewal, so that Sunderland could have direct connections to, for example, Edinburgh and Leeds (these would be add-ons to existing services to/from Newcastle in the same way that Virgin East Coast added a connection to SUN to attack Grand Central)....

I didn’t even get a reply from her office.
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Minor correction - Network Rail do of course hold the freehold to the the station (they own all of the railtrack and infrastructure) but then lease stations to franchisees / local transport authorities. In SUN’s case, it is Nexus.
 
I'd think both renovation or relocation would cost a fair packet due to it being buried underground. The station is less used than Hartlepool and Thornaby, so NR probably don't see it as a priority for funding.

We're stuck with our whole in the ground for a while yet.
 
I am a reindeer said:
Seems this is quite comman. I've wrote to her a couple of times too and heard nothing back. Utterly pointless.
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Agreed.

I guess though, why should she bother? As long as she maintains the position of being the Labour candidate, she’s guaranteed to get re-elected. If I had that comfort, I probably wouldn’t bother to do much either.

On a separate but related note, there’s a National Audit Office report out (coincidentally!) today which highlights how the government used a regeneration scheme to channel millions of pounds in government grants to marginal Conservative seats before the last election. 101 towns received £25m each in September 2019 - 61 of those were chosen by ministers led by Robert Jenrick, the housing and communities secretary. All but one of those towns were in seats that were either Tory held or Tory targets. Of the Tory held ones, 80% had majorities of less than 5,000. Only two towns chosen had Tory majorities of more than 10,000 before the election, one of which was Mr Jenrick’s seat, Newark.
 
It needs renovating alright but the problem is it's not owned by the Council, so the council can do fuck all about it.

It's owned by Northern Railway. They call the shots in that area of the transport system, they could even tell Nexus to fuck off using their metros on their line if they wanted to.
 
coyneeee said:
It needs renovating alright but the problem is it's not owned by the Council, so the council can do fuck all about it.

It's owned by Northern Railway. They call the shots in that area of the transport system, they could even tell Nexus to fuck off using their metros on their line if they wanted to.
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Erm, they couldn’t get rid of the Metros if there is a Track Access Agreement in place (which there will be), so no.
 
PhilY said:
Erm, they couldn’t get rid of the Metros if there is a Track Access Agreement in place (which there will be), so no.
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Think you’ve totally mis-read what I’ve said.
Northern Railways own the track on Sunderland station, it they said to Nexus you can’t use it theyd have to build a new a one around it.

Lets not move away from the actual point that the council have zero say in anything what goes on there however.
 
coyneeee said:
Think you’ve totally mis-read what I’ve said.
Northern Railways own the track on Sunderland station, it they said to Nexus you can’t use it theyd have to build a new a one around it.

Lets not move away from the actual point that the council have zero say in anything what goes on there however.
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Should start a petition and badger the fuck out of them to cancel metro, improve services South via rail and move station whilst we're and it!
 
coyneeee said:
Think you’ve totally mis-read what I’ve said.
Northern Railways own the track on Sunderland station, it they said to Nexus you can’t use it theyd have to build a new a one around it.

Lets not move away from the actual point that the council have zero say in anything what goes on there however.
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Network Rail own the tracks & station, Northern rail manage the station.
 

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