Visit to the new Platform 5 at Stevenage

[TheHSRailFan]

Well, that was intresting. it is a nice platform, and to be a nice ending chapter to a hectic book. I will be editing my view tomorrow since I only had 2 hours of sleep last night.

Also yes I was the dude with the grey shirt and blue backpack. I am a shy person sometimes so I won't instantly come and say hello. It looked like it was a closed event so I wanted to do a little trainspotting on the platform itself. Coincidently, BBC was mainly filming a lot around the time I was on the platform waiting for my train so bit unexpected how many times I was in the background.

 

[malc-c]

BBC was mainly filming a lot around the time I was on the platform waiting for my train so bit unexpected how many times I was in the background.

- you do appear in the background quite a lot

Looking forward to seeing your video...now get some sleep... I'm in the same boat, only had four and a half hours sleep in the past 42 hours, and now the excitement of today's events is wearing off my bed is beckoning !

 

[TheHSRailFan]

Sorry for the HUUUGGGEEEEEE delay, the past week was hellish for me personally and out there so motivation went out the window as soon as Wednesday last week came around.

Anyway here is the long-awaited video! @malc-c
(Video will go live at 12 midday today)

As stated in the video I have created a playlist of all your videos on the works of Stevenage platform 5 and turnback which can be found below:

Malcolm C Stevenage P5

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[malc-c]

Can't wait to see the video, and thanks for creating the playlist. The support is very much appreciated.

1hr 45 min to wait.....

 

[Railwaynerd69]

great video.............. I have a confession to make. I was one of the designers for the Platform and the main reason I joined this forum was to see what you guy's thought of it and if there was anything we could have improved on, more so for future platforms as opposed to this one, as the timeframe for completion was quite tight, so there wasn't much room for change once we had a layout agreed. No doubt there will be things that not everyone is happy with, but all in all I hope you're happy the Stevenage finally has a platform 5 and it solves the problem, at least for now anyway.

Anyway, i hope you don't mind me gate crashing like this, it's just good for our experience and future projects to get an idea of what you all think, especially on a forum like this as it is honest and straight to the point.

 

[malc-c]

We have to be careful here otherwise Yorkie will jump in and split this thread as were entering the realms of what might have been rather than what actually exists (sorry private joke)

It's a shame you didn't make yourself known 18 months ago as you would have been a useful contact to have when we were trying to figure out when events were taking place so I could be around to document them

As it stands I think you did a decent job. It's functional, platform width is decent (unlike Watton where you always feel close to the passing trains). On the day of the opening the tannoy was very loud compared to the announcements on other platforms. I don't think there would have been a better design, without the need to extensively modify the existing station so that the access ramp fitted in with the current structure rather than being a metal structure bolted to the footbridge. But there may be other constraints that we the public are not aware of, such as land borders etc which restricted that.

 

[Railwaynerd69]

Cheers for the comments Malcolm. I know Diane (Spencers) really well so most of our stuff with the public goes through her. She does a fantastic job keeping people informed and trying to get them as close to the action as possible.

I would've liked to have made myself known a bit earlier, but its a little awkward at times for various reasons which is why we have people like Diane.

But yeah there were various challenges along the way, mainly due to existing land boundaries at the time of the design freeze, various issues with allowing access from the Retail Park level which is why the footbridge is the only access and also has a ramp in it. Because of the land boundary issues when we had to freeze the design and positioning of assets on the platform (things have to be a certain distance from each other) we could only fit a 3 flight 12 step stair in (36 rises) which left the top landing approx 600mm below the height of the existing station footbridge. Ideally had the land boundaries been worked out sooner we might have been able to fit in a 4 flight 10 step stair (40 rises). Not the end of the world and to be honest the area is so tight it probably would have been a struggle regardless. We had a lot of services under the platform as well to fit in so there really wasn't any room to differ the design at all.

There were also issues around making it a through platform. One being that the existing station footbridge brick pier is too close to the track which means making it strong enough to withstand train derailment requires a lot of additional work. Not a showstopper as such, but given the advanced programme of works to get this platform done and the fact that the main brief was to provide a turnback it didnt seem viable in the time and budget for the project.

In all honesty though I cannot fault anyone who worked on this project, from Network Rail and GTR and all the other stakeholders to our supply chain and the guys on site, it was a challenging one and a lot of late nights trying to get stuff over the line but thankfully its built and hopefully I'll get down there soon to have a look at it in person. I personally devoted a good chunk of the past 2 years of my life to this project from concept to handover so its nice to see it built and hopefully providing the much needed service that it was designed for. As i said, no doubt we will have got some stuff wrong, but hopefully no showstoppers and it continues to serve a purpose for many years to come.

 

[malc-c]

Diane does indeed do a fantastic job, and it was really nice to have the opportunity of meeting her as part of the site visit that Spencers arranged. I can appreciate how awkward it would have been if you came forward at the time, I would have been bombarding you with questions you couldn't answer for business reasons, and as you say, public relations is Daine's job.... When I was undertaking the site visit with Bob and Lisa, conversations were overheard and information was forthcoming at the time, but whilst I was privy to some of that information, either intentionally or unintentionally, it never became public knowledge at the time (hence the music over the audio I recorded).

In the past I was an assistant project manager in IT, but the projects were nowhere as large, complex or expensive as the turnback, but the stresses, 70 hour+ working weeks, and last minute changes were probably the same !

I would love to do one final video on the project, fancy doing an interview on site where you can point out the trials and tribulations you faced and how you got round them ????

 

[Railwaynerd69]

i dont see why I wouldn't be able to do that in a personal capacity and give my own opinions etc if it helps. Especially now the project has finished and the platform is open. Might give some insight into why and how the platform was designed the way it was.

 

[Hadders]

Stevenage is my local station and overall I think the new platform is a decent job, considering the challenges and what you had to work with.

It's a shame there wasn't a way to be able to access the new platform from the existing ticket hall and gateline but this would have required a new bridge across the down slow and I suspect there would be insufficient room at ground level due to bridge piers. This would have been far more expensive but wouldn't have needed a separate gateline and I suspect ongoing staffing costs would have been cheaper as it would n't have needed separate staff.

During construction I couldn't work out of there was going to be level access from the leisure centre car park but as you've said unfortunately this couldn't be achieved.

Overall what we've ended up with is good, fit for purpose and will do the job for years to come.

 

[malc-c]

i dont see why I wouldn't be able to do that in a personal capacity and give my own opinions etc if it helps. Especially now the project has finished and the platform is open. Might give some insight into why and how the platform was designed the way it was.

Excellent, and as you say, shouldn't compromise your official position as the project is complete and open to the public, and I think would provide a nice insight in to the design elements, and procedures undertaken, especially for those who have followed the construction vlogs.

Drop me a PM with some dates and times that suit you, and we'll make this happen... It would be good excuse for me to get over my anxieties and appear in front of the camera rather than behind it

 

[TheHSRailFan]

great video.............. I have a confession to make. I was one of the designers for the Platform and the main reason I joined this forum was to see what you guy's thought of it and if there was anything we could have improved on, more so for future platforms as opposed to this one, as the timeframe for completion was quite tight, so there wasn't much room for change once we had a layout agreed. No doubt there will be things that not everyone is happy with, but all in all I hope you're happy the Stevenage finally has a platform 5 and it solves the problem, at least for now anyway.

Anyway, i hope you don't mind me gate crashing like this, it's just good for our experience and future projects to get an idea of what you all think, especially on a forum like this as it is honest and straight to the point.

Thank you!
A bit of a tid thing I would say (since I use the Hertford loop route up to Stevenage for leisure reasons) is the access into the leisure park. It's going to be a bit annoying going through the barriers, up the stairs, over the bridge and downstairs straight after... rather than stairs straight into it. But since you where under pressure it's totally reasonable why it happened.

All in all, I think the platform is perfectly ok, I did not test if it had wifi in the shelters so I can't say much about that. But really as a person who regularly uses that part of the line, the platform to be honest is good enough even in the current pandemic crisis!

Good work!

 

[Railwaynerd69]

appreciate the comments guys. It was a really good project to work on and albeit the timeframes were tight, we all did the best with what we had.

Apologies again for the covert ops nature of my visit to this forum, just felt it was best to gather a honest opinion and get some good feedback, as well as not wanting to compromise any sensitive info surrounding the project whilst it was ongoing.

Cant praise the operators and stakeholders enough on this one, as well as Spencers and our supply chain. To get that platform from concept to handover in the short space of time we did considering the amount of work that needed doing, it has been a really successful project and one to be proud of.

 

[malc-c]

I think it is a real shame that Covid came along and put pay to a decent celebratory opening, with the team that actually did the work rather than an MP and a couple of big wigs in the industry. Heck it would have been nice if the Chairman Charlie Spencer had been invited given how well his company have performed in getting the project completed so soon.

From a design point of view you will always get differing opinions from individuals, so will like the design, some will pick fault, you'll never please all the people all the time. But overall, given the challenge and the end result, produced in such a quick time frame I think you should be proud of what has been achieved.

 

[MarkyT]

..It's going to be a bit annoying going through the barriers, up the stairs, over the bridge and downstairs straight after... rather than stairs straight into it. But since you where under pressure it's totally reasonable why it happened.

While understanding the wholly practical legal reasons why it was not possible to provide a level access from the leisure park side, has the design passively provided for such a future feature if the neccessary agreements can be reached at some stage? I understand the new ticket gateline is at platform level, so notionally the work could be as simple as removing short lengths of fencing and adding a connecting path. It is surely in the leisure park's interest to gain better access from this platform as hoards of people from the Hertford direction may wish to avail themselves of, or indeed be employed by, the extraordinary panoply of magnificent entertainment facilities available therein, whose management, I'm sure, would not wish to experience adverse publicity arising from any such traveller falling and potentially injuring themselves through repeatedly having to negotiate stairs that might reasonably be assumed to be unnecessary.

 

[Hadders]

There are never, ever hoards of people travelling Hertford and Stevenage. Single digit numbers on each train maximum in my experience. I expect figures will rise (post pandemic) now that the service has improved but it's from a low base.

 

[malc-c]

There is a low level ramp to the leisure park carpark from platform 5, its sole use is an emergency exit. In hindsight this could have been fitted with exit barriers , but then there would be little to prevent people just accessing the platform and travelling without a ticket.

HSRailFan's comment about having to go through barriers and up the steps to get out of the station equally applies to any platform at Stevenage, including platform 4 where Mooregate trains use to terminate, so can't really see what the problem is really.

 

[MarkyT]

There is a low level ramp to the leisure park carpark from platform 5, its sole use is an emergency exit. In hindsight this could have been fitted with exit barriers , but then there would be little to prevent people just accessing the platform and travelling without a ticket.

HSRailFan's comment about having to go through barriers and up the steps to get out of the station equally applies to any platform at Stevenage, including platform 4 where Mooregate trains use to terminate, so can't really see what the problem is really.

I agree it is no worse than other platforms where Hertford trains used to call, just a bit annoying when a betterment could so easily be provided. Could a similar ramp be provided on the non ticketed side of the new gateline which I believe is at the platform level (am I correct in this assumption?). If an additional gate was provided at the existing emergency exit would that be sufficiently close to the other gateline that it could be supervised by the same attendant?

 

[Hadders]

NRE is reporting that the lift to platform 5 is out of use until further notice. I don't know if it has broken down or whether it has not yet been commissioned.

 

[Ianno87]

NRE is reporting that the lift to platform 5 is out of use until further notice. I don't know if it has broken down or whether it has not yet been commissioned.

Well, I personally used it with my son in his pram two weeks ago...

 

[Hadders]

Typical of NRE to be incorrect. I’ve just passed through Stevenage station and took a quick detour to P5. The lift is working.