Leeds Station Improvement

yorksrob said:

I see in a Christmas 'gift' NatWest have removed three of their cash points from the North concourse. Soviet style queues were already building up at the one remaining on the South concourse with any money left.

Given NatWest already own the other three, wouldn't it be nice if some of the other players in our feckless banking industry stepped in to fill the breach. Barclays, this means you.

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Mordac said:

Surely Yorkshire Bank would be more appropriate?

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tbtc said:

A new bridge from the bay platforms in the north west of Leeds station over to the TPE platforms in the south west wouldn't solve the problem of the muddle of people congregating around the area immediately inside the barriers - they wouldn't use such a bridge - it'd only be useful for the minority making connections like Harrogate to Castleford. You'd have to close the whole western throat for a while (days? weeks?) to install such a bridge over all of the lines, just for the sake of people who can't do a couple of hundred yards in ten minutes - such people exist, I'm not denying it, I have some in my family, but it really would be the tail wagging the dog. And that's assuming that there's space at the western end of platform 16 etc for a bridge to "land"!

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tbtc said:

Keep it simple, focus on quick wins that benefit the majority - whilst I sympathise with inform people who struggle to get from the Harrogate to Castleford platforms I don't believe that there are sufficient to warrant spending millions of pounds and temporarily closing the western side of the station to give them a facility that wouldn't solve the bigger problems in the station (the crowds around the main entrance.

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yorksrob said:

The seventies footbridge doesn't seem to involve as many steps as the new one. I'm guessing a replacement would need to be a lot higher and involve more steps. (Similar situation with the new footbridge at Wakefield Westgate which is like climbing the Eiger).

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DarloRich said:

Agreed - some people need to get a grip. Easier and cheaper to put on s huttle buggy for those unable to work such as at other large stations.



But is that not because of the available space and the need to get clearance over the OHLE?

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yorksrob said:

All of these bridges need to have clearance over the OHLE, but the newer ones seem to require a lot more clearance than the old ones.

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Major investment in Leeds is set to continue after schemes to improve both train journeys and the look and feel of the station were announced.

A new platform – platform zero – will be the crowning glory of a significant £161m investment in the rail infrastructure that will also see improvements to the track alignment for more efficient journeys into platforms 1-6, as well as a major upgrade to the signalling across the entire station, in a boost to train service reliability. Platforms 1-6 will also be lengthened to cater for longer trains with more seats.

Another major project, funded by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, will see the partial pedestrianisation of New Station Street to ease congestion and improve the flow of people at the entrance of the station, with construction set to begin early next year.

The latest two announcements come hot on the heels of last month’s announcement that the dark, tired wooden ceiling panels in the South Concourse are to be replaced by a transparent, plastic roof that will allow natural light to flood the station – which is England’s second busiest outside of London.

The installation of scaffolding towers in the South Concourse starts next week and will continue until Christmas, when the removal of the existing roof will begin. Passengers are advised that space in the concourse will be reduced during the construction, and so should try to allow extra time to make their way through to the platforms or use the Southern Entrance via Dark Neville Street.

To allow space for platform zero, the number of long stay car parking spaces at Leeds will be reduced in phases from December this year until May 2019, when the long stay car park will close completely until the platform is built in 2021, with Network Rail working alongside Leeds City Council to promote alternative parking sites. Just over 100 spaces of the current 400 will be reduced by early January with the number of spaces reduced further between March and May in 2019. Contract car park spaces will remain in place.

Rob McIntosh, route managing director for Network Rail, said: “Together this trio of projects are the biggest investment in the station since Leeds First in the early 2000s, and I am delighted that they will start delivering benefits for passengers and the city as early as next autumn.

“There will inevitably be changes to peoples’ usual walking routes and routines during construction and we will do everything we can to keep people moving efficiently and safely, in eager anticipation of a noticeably improved station upon completion.”

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snowball said:

The OLE is designed around bridges that are there at the time. Where there are low bridges the catenary is low. At other places it is higher, and new bridges have to clear it.

Also special reduced clearance may be used at existing bridges but presumably not for new ones.

Incidentally this press release has appeared today.

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/feeds/new-platform-part-of-two-more-key-upgrades-for-leeds-station/

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yorksrob said:

I see in a Christmas 'gift' NatWest have removed three of their cash points from the North concourse. Soviet style queues were already building up at the one remaining on the South concourse with any money left.

Given NatWest already own the other three, wouldn't it be nice if some of the other players in our feckless banking industry stepped in to fill the breach. Barclays, this means you.

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superkev said:

I can't help thinking if some of the trans pennines say one an hour each way went via Wakefield K and Castleford some of Leeds congestion would be improved. Pribably faster and great for passengers in the Castleford Wakefield area.
K

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yorksrob said:

I see in a Christmas 'gift' NatWest have removed three of their cash points from the North concourse. Soviet style queues were already building up at the one remaining on the South concourse with any money left.

Given NatWest already own the other three, wouldn't it be nice if some of the other players in our feckless banking industry stepped in to fill the breach. Barclays, this means you.

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rich-leeds said:

The pod that these cash machines were located in is being removed. The similar pod further north (near Wetherspoons) was removed last week. I'm guessing this is all part of the capacity works (i.e. opening up more concourse space).

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bluenoxid said:

It might be preparatory work ahead of the concourse roof works, which will involve substantial amounts of scaffolding.

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class 9 said:

Also pedestrianisation of New station street I feel is misguided, where are the black &white taxis going to go? Losing the bus stops is no big loss as most buses are mostly empty and not many people joining them there, the priority should be the other side of the station.

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class 9 said:

Also pedestrianisation of New station street I feel is misguided, where are the black &white taxis going to go? Losing the bus stops is no big loss as most buses are mostly empty and not many people joining them there, the priority should be the other side of the station.

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bluenoxid said:

The buses are rammed during peak hour. At least four bus stops need to be reallocated and nobody appears to be bothered about rail replacement bus services. I assume Sovereign Street and Neville Street are going to be used or rising bollards put in.

The council are going to have to think carefully. If they block off the northern end of New Station Street under the hotel, they might be able to accommodate a few more bus stops but that will put a lot of movements down Mill Hill.

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Bantamzen said:

Scaffolding has started to go up in the Southern concourse, next to the White Rose, WH Smiths etc, possibly indicating the start of works or at least preparation for the new roof?

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Halifaxlad said:

Its going to get a lot colder!

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Bantamzen said:

so work must be imminent.

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EIKN said:

I assume this upgrade is for' Northern's
New civity trains both D AND EMU, or the Class 800.
What I can't understand is why they can't simply ( off topic I know) upgrade the whole ECML to 160mph running.
Given the length of the UK and time required to slow down for a station and to reach top speed when leaving must Mean there wouldn't be much in it between HS2 And the potential upgrade being discussed of the ECML and WCML. Then we could hopefully see the class 395 Javelin by Hitachi looks near identical to the IEP But runs at 160mph.
That would give us a high speed line far sooner and way cheaper than this unpopular expensive HS2, A,B C etc.
After all even now getting on at Doncaster it's no sooner reached max speed both HST And class 91 and your nearing York, so how they expect to run 250mph + trains to Leeds without missing out the main conurbations does not make sense .
Leeds city station is a dingy mess the train shed needs a glass roof, airport style travelators on bridges with accesses from each platform.
The ticket barriers are a real danger , I. The event god forbid of a serious fire or terror incident your not going to be able to clear platforms quick enough so they should go. The frontage by the bridge looks the same as it did in the 70's.
A terriible station and terriible future plans imho.

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Bantamzen said:

Scaffolding has started to go up in the Southern concourse, next to the White Rose, WH Smiths etc, possibly indicating the start of works or at least preparation for the new roof?

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Halifaxlad said:

Once they get all the scaffolding up which by the looks of things will take a while

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