Inverness Station redevelopment

mullac30 · 24 Mar 2018

Last year, Abellio set out the intention to refurbish Inverness Station with an investment of £6 million to coincide with the introduction of the HST fleet. Recently, slides of a presentation showcasing the project were uploaded to the HITRANS website with the following renders:

Looks like a massive improvement!

RailUK Forums

theironroad · 24 Mar 2018

Look good. The main entrance certainly looks pretty sad and messy at the moment, though they'd better get cracking if they want it ready for the hst introduction.

On closer inspection, I see that the main forecourt still has parking spaces allocated. It be good to keep the whole forecourt traffic free.

Having now also read the hitrans press release, it seems the aim is to make it pedestrian friendly but the Highland hotel seems to have rights to parking spaces which need consultation.

mullac30 · 24 Mar 2018

It also looks like they are going for less Scotrail branding on the station. I wonder if that means that the signage inside will become standard Network Rail style?

Clansman · 24 Mar 2018

mullac30 said:
It also looks like they are going for less ScotRail branding on the station. I wonder if that means that the signage inside will become standard Network Rail style?

That appears to be so at least on the exterior, which is the case for a good chunk of stations in Scotland - ie Aberdeen, Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley and soon to be Dundee and Glasgow Queen Street.

Network Rail signage (or whatever that major station signage is) hasn't come any further North than Edinburgh Waverley so there's no chance or no reason they'll replace any ScotRail signage with it, let alone at Inverness.

cf111 · 25 Mar 2018

theironroad said:
Look good. The main entrance certainly looks pretty sad and messy at the moment, though they'd better get cracking if they want it ready for the hst introduction.

On closer inspection, I see that the main forecourt still has parking spaces allocated. It be good to keep the whole forecourt traffic free.

Having now also read the hitrans press release, it seems the aim is to make it pedestrian friendly but the Highland hotel seems to have rights to parking spaces which need consultation.

This is exactly what the issue is - the hotel have a very long lease on some parking spaces and will not give them up.

The renders posted above look good. The retail units in the station have improved in the last year with Costa and a new bar opening in place of the Pumpkin Cafe and Bertie's. I liked Bertie's but the new place does good food and less dark and dingy inside.

GusB · 25 Mar 2018

mullac30 said:
It also looks like they are going for less Scotrail branding on the station. I wonder if that means that the signage inside will become standard Network Rail style?

Bear in mind that this "render" will have come from some design agency that doesn't realise that we do things slightly differently up here. At this stage it is just an "artist's impression", and I'd hazard a guess that this won't be the final design.

Northhighland · 25 Mar 2018

Looks like that is going to remove the current parking or at least some of it, parking currently is really good and works well. However that looks a lot better, agree would be better to remove parking at the front altogether.

Highland37 · 30 Mar 2018

I am aware of this https://hitrans.org.uk/Documents/Inverness_Station_Upgrade_Presentation.pdf document which is pretty light on information but wondered if anyone had additional information as to what is planned inside the station?

Macwomble · 30 Mar 2018

To my mind the outside isn't really too bad (except for the diesel fumes from taxis waiting with engines running), but having been inside today, Inverness station is looking decidedly "tired".

duesselmartin · 31 Mar 2018

Clansman said:
That appears to be so at least on the exterior, which is the case for a good chunk of stations in Scotland - ie Aberdeen, Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley and soon to be Dundee and Glasgow Queen Street.

Network Rail signage (or whatever that major station signage is) hasn't come any further North than Edinburgh Waverley so there's no chance or no reason they'll replace any ScotRail signage with it, let alone at Inverness.

I thought Aberdeen only had a shopping centre branding outside. That improvement really ruined the station

mullac30 · 2 Apr 2018

Highland37 said:
I am aware of this https://hitrans.org.uk/Documents/Inverness_Station_Upgrade_Presentation.pdf document which is pretty light on information but wondered if anyone had additional information as to what is planned inside the station?

It seems from the renders, that there will be a complete repaint of the interior, and the roof will also be refurbished to some extent. From this article it also mentions that the WHSmiths will be relocated to allow that section of the interior to be opened up, it also mentions the addition of more retail, which is shown in the renders.

Highland37 · 27 Aug 2018

There are now three pop up banners in the station showing the plans. It's almost impossible to see any difference to the internal spaces as it appears almost no alterations are planned.

The banners are cut and pasted from some plans with the writing hard to read .

I will check again later on to see if I can notice anything .

Highland37 · 5 Nov 2019

Is anything at all happening about this or has that been abandoned also?

mikey9 · 5 Nov 2019

Northhighland said:
Looks like that is going to remove the current parking or at least some of it, parking currently is really good and works well. However that looks a lot better, agree would be better to remove parking at the front altogether.

Yup - it will be a real shame to lose the parking to train in 2 mins or less spaces shown int he first picture. Very useful.......

Highland37 · 5 Nov 2019

I really hope they hammer parkers there. There is a problem of staff leaving their cars on the pavement next to a big sign that says no bikes.

Rose Street has 950 spaces and is about a 2 minute walk from the station.

Highland37 · 7 Dec 2019

I have asked Scotrail about this and their response was

As soon as we have information to release, we'll make sure customers are kept up to date. It'll be posted on our Facebook, website and Twitter.

All subsequent messages were ignored. Abellio's a joke.

philthetube · 7 Dec 2019

not sure what you expected?

InOban · 7 Dec 2019

Surely the redevelopment will be the responsibility of Network Rail who own the station? ScotRail are merely tenants responsible for day to day operations.

Chrism20 · 7 Dec 2019

Highland37 said:
I really hope they hammer parkers there. There is a problem of staff leaving their cars on the pavement next to a big sign that says no bikes.

Rose Street has 950 spaces and is about a 2 minute walk from the station.

Is the Rose St car park not to be demolished to make way for a new Hampton by Hilton hotel? Or is there land adjacent to it?

ld0595 · 7 Dec 2019

Chrism20 said:
Is the Rose St car park not to be demolished to make way for a new Hampton by Hilton hotel? Or is there land adjacent to it?

Correct. I would also be pretty confident that design teams are working away in the background to develop proposals for the redevelopment.

I also don't really think that Abellio don't have much of a say in the station redevelopment. I suspect that Transport Scotland ultimately decide whether the scheme will go ahead, so I don't really see what's wrong with Scotrail's/Abellio's comment in that case given that they (probably) don't have much of a say.

Gonzoiku · 8 Dec 2019

Chrism20 said:
Is the Rose St car park not to be demolished to make way for a new Hampton by Hilton hotel? Or is there land adjacent to it?

A car park on Rose St is to be demolished, correct, but not the multistorey car park known as "Rose Street MSCP", which is about 100m east of the car park to be demolished.

GZ

Highland37 · 9 Dec 2019

InOban said:
Surely the redevelopment will be the responsibility of Network Rail who own the station? ScotRail are merely tenants responsible for day to day operations.

I thought the "alliance" would mean that they can speak about it? They have the same MD afterall.

mullac30 · 9 Dec 2019

Hopefully, what's happened here is the same case as what happened for the Dalcross Airport station as that was delayed by a few years because they had increased the scope of the plans.

Highland37 · 9 Dec 2019

It's gone very quiet on that station also....

BRX · 28 Dec 2019

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/new-public-transport-hub-for-city-centre-188766/

This, slightly short on information story is in the current Inverness Courier.

BRX · 28 Dec 2019

By the way, at one time there was an idea to completely redo Inverness Station so that it sat on the north side of the 'triangle', with through platforms. Was that abandoned as a potential option?

Highland37 · 28 Dec 2019

Thanks for the link. I know that friends have been working on an active travel hub proposal and this can only be good in that respect. Mind you, I will believe it when I see it.

mullac30 · 28 Dec 2019

Seems like the delay really could be something to do with the scope of the plan being increased! If Network Rail is infact acquiring both the TKMaxx and Royal Mail sites, they could be on to something quite ambitious, as that is a rather huge amount of land for the city centre.

Carntyne · 30 Dec 2019

Highland37 said:
I have asked Scotrail about this and their response was

As soon as we have information to release, we'll make sure customers are kept up to date. It'll be posted on our Facebook, website and Twitter.

All subsequent messages were ignored. Abellio's a joke.

What should they do, make something up to please you? Bit weird.

Highland37 · 30 Dec 2019

Tell the public what is happening? They have announced that they will redevelop the station after all.

Inverness Station redevelopment

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