• The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.
    Some other features of the forum are also currently disabled.

Sunderland railway station.

Brett said:
There do have a qr code which took you to a link but didn't have pricing on for rent.

Should offer it to some local business at a discount rate and get it filled
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if anyone would actually want to open there though, it's not a very good site really. Miles away from most people from Sunderland, in a station where the vast majority of people walk in and go straight downstairs.

The old layout was much better imo with seperate units and a smaller concourse area. The place is spartan as an understatement, similar to dreadful portico at Newcastle which has the exact same problems.
 

Zimba said:
I'm not sure if anyone would actually want to open there though, it's not a very good site really. Miles away from most people from Sunderland, in a station where the vast majority of people walk in and go straight downstairs.

The old layout was much better imo with seperate units and a smaller concourse area. The place is spartan as an understatement, similar to dreadful portico at Newcastle which has the exact same problems.
Click to expand...
It has 2 separate units I think
 
Zimba said:
I'm not sure if anyone would actually want to open there though, it's not a very good site really. Miles away from most people from Sunderland, in a station where the vast majority of people walk in and go straight downstairs.

The old layout was much better imo with seperate units and a smaller concourse area. The place is spartan as an understatement, similar to dreadful portico at Newcastle which has the exact same problems.
Click to expand...
Have they given up on that bar inside the entrance to Central Station now? Feel like I haven’t seen it open for ages now and I was last there a few days ago. Preferred the old system to be honest when cars/taxis could drive through and drop off there and drive out the other end. The short stay car park and taxi car park often seem a bit of a shambles.
 
Brett said:
It has 2 separate units I think
Click to expand...

Honestly, didn't have a clue they were there until looking now. Strange place to have them. Arguably would've been better having the ticket office there so it's right next to the toilets acting as a form of a security - even if they were physically connected and only open with the ticket office.

Sgt Pepper said:
Have they given up on that bar inside the entrance to Central Station now? Feel like I haven’t seen it open for ages now and I was last there a few days ago. Preferred the old system to be honest when cars/taxis could drive through and drop off there and drive out the other end. The short stay car park and taxi car park often seem a bit of a shambles.
Click to expand...

Aye think so, don't think anyone has a clue what to do with it, it's absolutely baltic in the winter and like a green house in the Summer. Agreed with the drop off point being there, worked much better, it was the point of it at the end of the day.
 
Sgt Pepper said:
Have they given up on that bar inside the entrance to Central Station now? Feel like I haven’t seen it open for ages now and I was last there a few days ago. Preferred the old system to be honest when cars/taxis could drive through and drop off there and drive out the other end. The short stay car park and taxi car park often seem a bit of a shambles.
Click to expand...
Biggest waste of money ever that was. Most of the units in the portico failed within the first year of opening. Two of the units had the fronts pointing completely the wrong way from the footfall and they made it nigh on impossible to pick up from outside of the station at the same time. They also had plans at the time to open the station up at the other end into the Stephenson Quarter. Guessing they must’ve been shelved as the passenger numbers were dropping at the time.
 
Just had a look at the cgi images for the proposed railway station and what it actually looks like and there is no comparison. Did the builders get paid and run off the money? We have a large, grey box and ended up with what could be a car showroom. While the outside is an improvement and the interior no longer stinks of old fat from Burger King, its a massive disappointment. Not one bit of colour and seats for 24 people, seen bus stops with more seats. Also, why one ticket machine and why have the ticket office pushed away? It could be so much more but for what it cost the inside is just a nothing space. Better than the old railway station but that wasn't difficult.
 
mackem35 said:
Just had a look at the cgi images for the proposed railway station and what it actually looks like and there is no comparison. Did the builders get paid and run off the money? We have a large, grey box and ended up with what could be a car showroom. While the outside is an improvement and the interior no longer stinks of old fat from Burger King, its a massive disappointment. Not one bit of colour and seats for 24 people, seen bus stops with more seats. Also, why one ticket machine and why have the ticket office pushed away? It could be so much more but for what it cost the inside is just a nothing space. Better than the old railway station but that wasn't difficult.
Click to expand...
I think the outside looks pretty much identical , just needs some art, some flowers, and fill the units
 
mackem35 said:
Just had a look at the cgi images for the proposed railway station and what it actually looks like and there is no comparison. Did the builders get paid and run off the money? We have a large, grey box and ended up with what could be a car showroom. While the outside is an improvement and the interior no longer stinks of old fat from Burger King, its a massive disappointment. Not one bit of colour and seats for 24 people, seen bus stops with more seats. Also, why one ticket machine and why have the ticket office pushed away? It could be so much more but for what it cost the inside is just a nothing space. Better than the old railway station but that wasn't difficult.
Click to expand...
Be interesting to see the link to that

Reading this thread you'd think it was a mini modern day St Pancras that had been delivered

One weekend I'd travelled to Sunderland via Durham city centre

I ended up drawing parallels between the two places

Durham's new bus station is a shit featureless modern box. So is Sunderland's new railway station

Car showroom is a good description
 
mackem35 said:
Just had a look at the cgi images for the proposed railway station and what it actually looks like and there is no comparison. Did the builders get paid and run off the money? We have a large, grey box and ended up with what could be a car showroom. While the outside is an improvement and the interior no longer stinks of old fat from Burger King, its a massive disappointment. Not one bit of colour and seats for 24 people, seen bus stops with more seats. Also, why one ticket machine and why have the ticket office pushed away? It could be so much more but for what it cost the inside is just a nothing space. Better than the old railway station but that wasn't difficult.
Click to expand...
Absolute waste of money isn’t it?
 
AmblerThorn said:
Be interesting to see the link to that

Reading this thread you'd think it was a mini modern day St Pancras that had been delivered

One weekend I'd travelled to Sunderland via Durham city centre

I ended up drawing parallels between the two places

Durham's new bus station is a shit featureless modern box. So is Sunderland's new railway station

Car showroom is a good description
Click to expand...
the images and the reality are identical - dunno what people are expecting from a train station...its a bloody train station
 
6inarow said:
the images and the reality are identical - dunno what people are expecting from a train station...its a bloody train station
Click to expand...
Typical Sunderland reply?

It'll do.

We don't want anything nice/interesting/striking/a focal point to build infrastructure and facilities around, befitting of a vision to be a growing regional transport hub

Just functional will do thanks

The fact that it was laughed at when it opened says it all
 
Sgt Pepper said:
Have they given up on that bar inside the entrance to Central Station now? Feel like I haven’t seen it open for ages now and I was last there a few days ago. Preferred the old system to be honest when cars/taxis could drive through and drop off there and drive out the other end. The short stay car park and taxi car park often seem a bit of a shambles.
Click to expand...
Would have looked good as a big, open light, space. Instead they crammed it with ticket machines, and cheap looking food/drink vendors.
 
When they planning on doing the North entrance of the station - like someone said it needs some art and plants in it to make it look less soulless
 
AmblerThorn said:
Typical Sunderland reply?

It'll do.

We don't want anything nice/interesting/striking/a focal point to build infrastructure and facilities around, befitting of a vision to be a growing regional transport hub

Just functional will do thanks

The fact that it was laughed at when it opened says it all
Click to expand...
your talking to the wrong person about 'that will do mate'....I endorse and push everything Sunderland to as many people I meet - The south entrance was to get rid of an eyesore and replaced with open space with light, thats exactly what it does....the North entrance is where the architecture once laid and that is the main entrance to have the money spent in the coming years coupled with platform works will be. This needed doing out of necessity rather than oppulence.

*Have you read any of my posts before?
 
Last edited:
mackem35 said:
Just had a look at the cgi images for the proposed railway station and what it actually looks like and there is no comparison. Did the builders get paid and run off the money? We have a large, grey box and ended up with what could be a car showroom. While the outside is an improvement and the interior no longer stinks of old fat from Burger King, its a massive disappointment. Not one bit of colour and seats for 24 people, seen bus stops with more seats. Also, why one ticket machine and why have the ticket office pushed away? It could be so much more but for what it cost the inside is just a nothing space. Better than the old railway station but that wasn't difficult.
Click to expand...

It really looks like Network Rail done their part ie. build the structure but then whoever was meant to design the interior went missing.

I personally just don't get the design for it, even if you filled the place with chairs, trees and whatever who's actually meant to use it...? Anyone with sense would go straight down stairs and wait on the platform instead. The old station was an ugly mess falling apart but the layout was fine, much more superior imo if it had some toilets and even that they've messed up as they're miles away from any staff and that's just dumb in a city centre, for the obvious reasons.
 
6inarow said:
your talking to the wrong person about 'that will do mate'....I endorse and push everything Sunderland to as many people I meet - The south entrance was to get rid of an eyesore and replaced with open space with light, thats exactly what it does....the North entrance is where the architecture once laid and that is the main entrance to have the money spent in the coming years coupled with platform works will be. This needed doing out of necessity rather than oppulence.

*Have you read any of my posts before?
Click to expand...
Why would I make a special point of following your posts, no offence

Am saying it looks pretty crap. That it replaced something (admittedly) infinitely crapper isn't much to get excited about

The current architectural vogue for bland boxes I suppose but nothing to be celebrated

Could have been a bit of a gateway building, to the Bridges and beyond.... 🚀
 
Hank Scorpio said:
It’s worth remembering that the new station is hopefully just phase 1. The actual gateway will be North entrance where the old Littlewoods building is.
Click to expand...
That is what will make the difference, bringing 2 additional platforms into use to separate heavy rail and metro services. The current building is little more than a metro station. (Hopefully)
 
Mallamore said:
When they planning on doing the North entrance of the station - like someone said it needs some art and plants in it to make it look less soulless
Click to expand...

Be a long way off that, the council do now own the building but raising the funds will be a lot harder

The southern one was a network rail building so network rail had to stump up most of the cash.

As the council need to demolish the poundland building and build an entirely new one, it's not network rails responsibility
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top