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Sunderland railway station.

Shandy drinker said:
What’s transport links gog to do with civil service jobs
There’s at least three buildings round the empire that were built for dhss and tax and left for years

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I only ever see what used to be their old yard at East Boldon on my way back yem on the metro. Thowt they sold out to Biffa or someone.
 

Paddy O'Dors said:
We're not talking a civil engineering project on a par with cross rail here mind.
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No but Crossrail is in London where , as you know, all the money and power is. I knew the guy (dead now) who helped design the signalling for the station when the Metro was built. It was originally intended to restore it to 4 physical platforms and when I asked him why they changed their mind he replied "it was cheaper".
Demolition of anything above the station may be technically possible but if it is an occupied shop you will have to relocate them at the developers expense. When they built the current "north entrance" they installed a lift and that will have to be dismantled. The light box sculpture cost a million and that will have to go. Etc, etc.
 
PinzaC55 said:
No but Crossrail is in London where , as you know, all the money and power is. I knew the guy (dead now) who helped design the signalling for the station when the Metro was built. It was originally intended to restore it to 4 physical platforms and when I asked him why they changed their mind he replied "it was cheaper".
Demolition of anything above the station may be technically possible but if it is an occupied shop you will have to relocate them at the developers expense. When they built the current "north entrance" they installed a lift and that will have to be dismantled. The light box sculpture cost a million and that will have to go. Etc, etc.
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Cannit make an omelette with cracking a few eggs tbf. There's plenty of empty retail units around town. I'd have thought large redevelopment of the station would be dependent on the town centre becoming much busier than at present tbh. An aim rather than a target if you will.
 
Paddy O'Dors said:
Cannit make an omelette with cracking a few eggs tbf. There's plenty of empty retail units around town. I'd have thought large redevelopment of the station would be dependent on the town centre becoming much busier than at present tbh. An aim rather than a target if you will.
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That's true but there have been 2 rebuildings of the station in the last 30 years and both of them have made it worse so the omens aren't good. I suppose one (positive?) outcome of COVID may be that some of the shops above the station won't reopen and if that's the case they should be knocked down or at least no re-let.
 
PinzaC55 said:
That's true but there have been 2 rebuildings of the station in the last 30 years and both of them have made it worse so the omens aren't good. I suppose one (positive?) outcome of COVID may be that some of the shops above the station won't reopen and if that's the case they should be knocked down or at least no re-let.
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They usually offer them on short-term lets if there's demand & redevelopment in the offing.
 
If the “northern entrance” to the train station becomes the main one, it’s going to be aesthetically pleasing. Mackies corner, elephant tea rooms, close to the developments on the vaux, up high street to keel square, the wearmouth bridge and stadium within walking distance. So very promising idea........

Simply giving the current station a make over wouldn’t be long lasting
 
citybythesea said:
If the “northern entrance” to the train station becomes the main one, it’s going to be aesthetically pleasing. Mackies corner, elephant tea rooms, close to the developments on the vaux, up high street to keel square, the wearmouth bridge and stadium within walking distance. So very promising idea........

Simply giving the current station a make over wouldn’t be long lasting
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The wording in the article "In the longer term, this will include a more significant scheme of work to the northern entrance, delivering an impressive arrival point in the Central Business District of Riverside Sunderland." sounds more like an aspiration than a plan.
 
PinzaC55 said:
The wording in the article "In the longer term, this will include a more significant scheme of work to the northern entrance, delivering an impressive arrival point in the Central Business District of Riverside Sunderland." sounds more like an aspiration than a plan.
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The council have a plan and aspirations they'll be criticised, they have no plan and/or aspirations they'll be criticised. Damn if they do, damned if they don't. (not a dig at you BTW).
 
PinzaC55 said:
The wording in the article "In the longer term, this will include a more significant scheme of work to the northern entrance, delivering an impressive arrival point in the Central Business District of Riverside Sunderland." sounds more like an aspiration than a plan.
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The issue is that they will need a plan in order to bid for funding. Also they get berated every other month for not having any ambition to do something with the station even though they don’t own or manage it. They are still getting grief for only managing to get the £26m funding they’ve got. If I’m honest I wouldn’t do anything with the southern station and just build the north however suspect the money will be tied up in funding timescales meaning spend it or lose it rather than doing the right thing - happens all the time with government funding.
 
Osklen said:
The issue is that they will need a plan in order to bid for funding. Also they get berated every other month for not having any ambition to do something with the station even though they don’t own or manage it. They are still getting grief for only managing to get the £26m funding they’ve got. If I’m honest I wouldn’t do anything with the southern station and just build the north however suspect the money will be tied up in funding timescales meaning spend it or lose it rather than doing the right thing - happens all the time with government funding.
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I agree with you about building the north entrance first. It would make sense to have one entrance up and running before knocking down the south entrance. Personally I think the only thing wrong with the south entrance is the way the shops and so on have been jammed into what was supposed to be a large open space. Whatever they do with the south entrance, if they genuinely want to restore 4 platforms it would need to allow for access to the new layout as of course the current building doesn't.
 
I'd forget where the current station is now. Nightmare/expensive to reconfigure. Build a new one/expand an existing Metro station (SOL/Park Lane ?) that has car parking etc. Absolutely no reason why it needs to be smack bang in the Town centre.
 
Paddy O'Dors said:
The council have a plan and aspirations they'll be criticised, they have no plan and/or aspirations they'll be criticised. Damn if they do, damned if they don't. (not a dig at you BTW).
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They are well paid and should be expected to spend public money wisely. When the last bit of the Durham line up to Pallion was closed in 1984 they waited a few years then filled in most of the course of the line and demolished some of the bridges to make it a cycleway even though the Metro was planned to be built. Then ten years later they had to dig all the hardcore out and build new bridges to build the Metro. The waste of public money must have been staggering.
 
PinzaC55 said:
They are well paid and should be expected to spend public money wisely. When the last bit of the Durham line up to Pallion was closed in 1984 they waited a few years then filled in most of the course of the line and demolished some of the bridges to make it a cycleway even though the Metro was planned to be built. Then ten years later they had to dig all the hardcore out and build new bridges to build the Metro. The waste of public money must have been staggering.
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Must be said I grew up a Ford lad and there was no plans to run the metro up it. The line was kept open as a mineral line as far as the quarry and when that was exhausted the line was taken up.
 
PinzaC55 said:
I agree with you about building the north entrance first. It would make sense to have one entrance up and running before knocking down the south entrance. Personally I think the only thing wrong with the south entrance is the way the shops and so on have been jammed into what was supposed to be a large open space. Whatever they do with the south entrance, if they genuinely want to restore 4 platforms it would need to allow for access to the new layout as of course the current building doesn't.
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the problem with the north entrance will always be that it won’t sit directly above the platforms so you’ve effectively got to work the full length of the platform, though the city is migrating northwards now.
PinzaC55 said:
They are well paid and should be expected to spend public money wisely. When the last bit of the Durham line up to Pallion was closed in 1984 they waited a few years then filled in most of the course of the line and demolished some of the bridges to make it a cycleway even though the Metro was planned to be built. Then ten years later they had to dig all the hardcore out and build new bridges to build the Metro. The waste of public money must have been staggering.
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Was it the council that owned the line or network rail? A stupid decision to do so if plans were already underway.
 
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