Upgrades for Stoke, Longton and Longport

[onlinespotting]

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/revealed-multi-million-pound-vision-3662191

...the authority has revealed further details of what is proposed - including the Stoke Station improvements.

The proposed revamp of the station would also see two large canopies spanning Station Road, an expanded pedestrianised area in front of the station entrance with ‘pedestrian-dominated routes’ across the road, a cycle hub and a new footbridge linking platforms.

The bid also includes proposals for public transport improvements elsewhere in the city, including:

• Improvements to Longton Station, such as disabled access, a cycle hub and public realm;

• Turning Longport Station into a park-and-ride facility, with a new car park and disabled access, to prevent commuters driving into the city centre...

 

[onlinespotting]

Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to ban cars on Station Road and College Road - as well as transform Longton and Longport stations

 

[Bletchleyite]

The bit of Stoke immediately outside the station is one of the few nice-looking bits. I'd spend on the rest of the city first, to be honest.

 

[Jamesrob637]

The bit of Stoke immediately outside the station is one of the few nice-looking bits. I'd spend on the rest of the city first, to be honest.

The walk over to the Wheatsheaf (Wetherspoon) is actually quite pleasant, you're right about that bit being OK. Stoke should become more like Newcastle-under-Lyme.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

The article:

Revealed: Multi-million pound vision for new-look Stoke Station (and it looks great!)

Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to ban cars on Station Road and College Road - as well as transform Longton and Longport stations

Cars will be banned from driving past Stoke-on-Trent’s main railway station – as part of a multi-million pound revamp.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to turn Station Road and College Road, in Shelton, into dedicated bus routes to cut congestion, boost public transport use and make the area around Stoke Station more attractive.

Council chiefs are bidding for up to £59.4 million from the Government’s Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) for a raft of city-wide transport improvements.

Now the authority has revealed further details of what is proposed - including the Stoke Station improvements.

While motorists will still be able to access buildings on Station Road - such as Federation House and the North Stafford Hotel - there will be no through route past the station, except for buses. College Road, meanwhile, would be turned into a ‘bus highway’ all the way to Hanley Park.

The proposed revamp of the station would also see two large canopies spanning Station Road, an expanded pedestrianised area in front of the station entrance with ‘pedestrian-dominated routes’ across the road, a cycle hub and a new footbridge linking platforms.

New shops and food outlets would be created within the station, while vacant offices on the disused first floor could be brought back into use and leased to businesses.

The car park on Station Road is being moved to the rear of the station, along with a new short-stay setting down and picking up facility. And there will be new taxi ranks on either side of the station.

The bid also includes proposals for public transport improvements elsewhere in the city, including:

• Improvements to Longton Station, such as disabled access, a cycle hub and public realm;

• Turning Longport Station into a park-and-ride facility, with a new car park and disabled access, to prevent commuters driving into the city centre;

• New bus priority lanes and pinch-point improvements on cross-city bus routes;

• Improved pedestrian and cycling routes, with more wayfinding signs.

Councillor Dan Jellyman, cabinet member for regeneration, believes that removing cars from Station Road will help to make the area more appealing for pedestrians.

He said: “We’ve found that a lot of the traffic using Station Road is rat-running it to avoid Leek Road, so Station Road would become a pedestrian and bus road. There’ll still be access to the hotel, but we cut down on the cut-through traffic.

“We’ll also have a more regular bus service from the station – there is a regular service at the moment, but it’s about making it reliable because College Road becomes a bus highway.

“We’ve seen the improvements that have happened in other cities when bus highways have been introduced, and areas have been made more pedestrian-friendly.

“We can only reduce emissions and journey times by getting more people to use public transport. So we’ve got to make radical changes, which is exactly what we’re hoping to do here. It’s the start of a process.”

The council has already received £5.6 million from the first tranche of the TCF, which is paying for improvements to Winton Square and Station Road.

Council leaders initially proposed to bid for up to £120 million from tranche two, but the requested funding has now been revised downwards in order to make the plans more ‘deliverable’.

The ‘high package’ of improvements proposed by the council would cost £69.4 million, with £6.6 million coming from the authority and £3.5 million from third parties. An alternative medium package would cost £51.21 million, while a low package would cost £50.3 million.

Each package involves the Stoke Station plan, which Mr Jellyman describes as the ‘linchpin’ for the whole project. But the council plans to carry out as many of the proposed improvements as possible, depending on how much funding it receives.

The Government is expected to make a decision in the spring, and work should start soon after that, with all the TCF projects due to be completed by 2023.

Council chiefs have been liaising with partner organisations, such as First Potteries, as they have finalised their bid.

First Potteries managing director Nigel Eggleton said: “We have been working closely with Stoke-on-Trent City Council on the Transforming Cities bid and we are providing full support towards the railway station multi-modal hub proposals.

"This includes the relocation of bus stops, modern passenger waiting facilities and better customer information; the reduction in car-based vehicular traffic in Station Road coupled with the proposed bus gate at the junction of College Road and Station Road; and the creation of a rapid route for buses to the city centre via College Road.

“This will enhance the crucial ‘front door’ to the Potteries for travellers arriving by rail and help reduce congestion in the area.”

A couple of the pictures:


Looks a bit Kings Crossy to me. Perhaps the consultant has been on a train trip to London recently. Can't wait for a double deck bus to take the roof clean off.

I do wish councillor jellybean would just keep quiet. Or at least deliver on some of the many things he promises.

 

[vlad]

If they want to turn Longport into a park and ride they'll need to persuade the train operating companies to stop far more trains there!

 

[Trainfan2019]

No doubt the new shops planned for stoke station will mean the same overpriced shops found in most large stations. I do like the frontage of stoke station though and it should be left as it is. Has stoke always only ever had 3 platforms but such a large station?

Regarding the Longton station ideas, what's a public realm?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Regarding the Longton station ideas, what's a public realm?

The street, basically.

 

[6Gman]

If they want to turn Longport into a park and ride they'll need to persuade the train operating companies to stop far more trains there!

And park & ride for where?

 

[Baxenden Bank]

One of the other points of the bid (or perhaps the larger bid now cut down) was some kind of enhanced rail service between Longton and Longport. All that spare capacity on the WCML!

My head hurts thinking how much they spend on proposals which never happen.

Realtime information at bus stops - on test for a decade, never implemented, now overtaken by smartphone apps.
A streetcar named desperate - loads spent, nothing delivered. Swansea got rid of their trendy-bendy-buses and had to rebuild the segregated road (currently underway).
A city centre interchange too small for even the reduced levels of services now operating - so some services have to stop outside.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

No doubt the new shops planned for stoke station will mean the same overpriced shops found in most large stations. I do like the frontage of stoke station though and it should be left as it is. Has stoke always only ever had 3 platforms but such a large station?

Regarding the Longton station ideas, what's a public realm?

Yes, always three platforms, although there were two through lines through the trainshed plus freight avoiding lines around the back.

The front of the station ie the main entrance facing Winton Square, was only ever meant to be the back/secondary entrance. The main entrance was meant to be built on the other side (where the new entrance was opened a few years ago) but the North Staffordshire Railway never quite got round to it!

 

[Mugby]

It doesn't appear to address the fact that the present concourse is woefully inadequate and unwelcoming.

 

[onlinespotting]

Living in the area I presume the park and ride at Longport would be a bus link to Festival Park (which formerly had Etruria as its station) and Hanley, maybe a change at SOT for longer journeys : this might see an additional stop at Longport for LNWR services which sometimes stop as extras in the peaks

 

[WatcherZero]

I remember that road as being quite busy, wont banning cars from it seriously affect the University as well?

 

[Baxenden Bank]

I remember that road as being quite busy, wont banning cars from it seriously affect the University as well?

The road directly outside the station is busy, but most of the traffic doesn't need to be there. Very few of the vehicles are used for visiting the station, hotel, sorting office etc, just passing through. Closure of Station Road to through traffic, properly enforced, would allow adjustments to the junction/signal timings at Glebe Street/Leek Road, increasing road capacity there as compensation.

One key problem is the short-stay (drop-off) parking immediately opposite the entrance - either side of the pelican crossing. Vehicles reversing in/out into the carriageway cause delays to other traffic and safety hazards for pedestrians. The parking in question is owned by Network Rail - as was the previous lay-by immediately in front of the entrance - negotiated away a few years ago. Really all private cars and taxis should be directed to the new entrance - but there are few facilities on that side of the station and people naturally head for the traditional exit. There is space available for more parking and a taxi rank on that side, plus the council own the warehouse building (Swift Electrical) at the south end of the site which could be knocked through to create a road through to Glebe Street. It has been talked about for at least 25 years! Time for councillor jellybrain to leap into action and actually DO SOMETHING!!!!

 

[vlad]

And park & ride for where?

Crewe?

 

[Meerkat]

A big canopy over a public area outside a station will inevitably become a tramp shelter, plus a magnet for evening ASB as drunk folk shelter from the rain.

 

[Glenn1969]

Is there any chance of any of these plans getting funding?

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Is there any chance of any of these plans getting funding?

Who knows! The local constituencies all turned blue at the recent election, the first time for decades, perhaps a reward is due from Boris.
I bumped into the bid manager at Morrisons earlier today but didn't ask about the chances of success!

 

[boyaloud]

Drives me crackers there are 3 eating/drinking establishments on one side but NONE on the other side, actually where MORE trains stop as it has the bay platform too. Also like had been mentioned here, if there were more facilities there, perhaps more people would enter and exit at it.

 

[Trainfan2019]

Yes, always three platforms, although there were two through lines through the trainshed plus freight avoiding lines around the back.

The front of the station ie the main entrance facing Winton Square, was only ever meant to be the back/secondary entrance. The main entrance was meant to be built on the other side (where the new entrance was opened a few years ago) but the North Staffordshire Railway never quite got round to it!

Ah thanks for the info there. Never realised the front of the station was meant to be the back!

Drives me crackers there are 3 eating/drinking establishments on one side but NONE on the other side, actually where MORE trains stop as it has the bay platform too. Also like had been mentioned here, if there were more facilities there, perhaps more people would enter and exit at it.

Good point there about no facilities on the bay platform side of the station. Always seems a bit rundown and in need of refurbishment on that side of the station. The station building from the outside is quite deceiving as it has this big building portraying a large station like Crewe but when you get inside there's only 3 platforms. I don't think there's any Avanti branding yet at Stoke.

 

[Meole]

Crewe?

Leek surely !

 

[Steve Harris]

A big canopy over a public area outside a station will inevitably become a tramp shelter, plus a magnet for evening ASB as drunk folk shelter from the rain.

So normal folk have to get soaked when it rains due to council and goverment failures in dealing with the 2 issues you have highlited.

 

[Trainfan2019]

Leek surely !

Shouldn't it be Hanley? Main town in the potteries but without a train station these days.

 

[Steve Harris]

Shouldn't it be Hanley? Main town in the potteries but without a train station these days.

Main town ?? I thought Hanley was referred to as the City Centre now ? (Well, it used to be about 10 years ago by a family friend who lived in Longton, sadly she passed away). I don't know if that is still the case.

 

[Meerkat]

So normal folk have to get soaked when it rains due to council and goverment failures in dealing with the 2 issues you have highlited.

No, you just have smaller canopies. I think people on public transport accept that it rains, they just want cover where they have to wait.

 

[Trainfan2019]

Main town ?? I thought Hanley was referred to as the City Centre now ? (Well, it used to be about 10 years ago by a family friend who lived in Longton, sadly she passed away). I don't know if that is still the case.

Ah yes. Hanley is known as the city centre these days. Sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Steve Harris]

Ah yes. Hanley is known as the city centre these days. Sorry to hear about your loss.

No need to be sorry, unfortunately death is inevitable.