Wakefield Kirkgate Redevelopment

[Eeveevolve]

Cafe now open in the station, to the right as you enter. Looks nice and clean, ill get prices this evening.

A ticket machine has appeared on platform 1. Ill give it a week before it is out of use judjing by the kind of people I see waiting on an evening here... :/

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Cafe now open in the station, to the right as you enter. Looks nice and clean, ill get prices this evening.

A ticket machine has appeared on platform 1. Ill give it a week before it is out of use judjing by the kind of people I see waiting on an evening here... :/

When I saw this thread had been updated, my first thought was "I bet it's been trashed by the local citizens!"... Good to hear that isn't the case!

Note to self: must try out the café at Wakey Cakey now...

 

[Eeveevolve]

Cafe review: reasonably priced (about £2 for anything hot and wet). Nice coffee. Independently owned.
4 new sets of seats on each platform and the TVM is still working

 

[Blindtraveler]

Is it still intended to have a staffed booking office there?

 

[HowardGWR]

I visited for the first time yesterday since refurbishment and I agree with one of the posts above, the fact it is filthy and lacking final touches lets it down.

Every surface is full of brick dust, a layer of cement dust everywhere, on all the floors and walls, it's as if nobody has given the place a sweep and a wash down before they left.

Also the signs are still the battered originals and the seats are rusty old red ones from circa 1993

Good to hear today from @EEveevolve that the seats have been changed. Perhaps they cleaned up at the same time. Perhaps your post was read and digested!!!!

 

[Eeveevolve]

Is it still intended to have a staffed booking office there?

Can't see where a booking office would go. The cafe has the only spot.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Is it still intended to have a staffed booking office there?

I don't think it was ever planned to have one, at least not in the short-to-medium-term. It was assumed that NS/Abellio might expand the "M-to-go" concept from Merseyside but only because both Northern and Merseyrail were run by Serco/Abellio.

 

[johntea]

Just found an article which refers to staffing from 6am - 10pm every day once Arriva get their hands on it!

Kirkgate railway station to be staffed 6am-10pm

What staffing that precisely refers to is a little bit vague, it could just mean bacon sarnies and teas on offer from 6am - 10pm or it could mean staffed ticketing facilities, who knows

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Another good review of the café from me, though the café management might want to have a quiet word with the RPIs in the entrance about their overly aggressive approach: they refused to let me into the café until I showed my Mcard, which took longer than usual due to a hand injury. The staffing announcement was presumably just referring to the RPIs, but one of the two on today seems to have a bit of a Napoleon complex!

 

[Eeveevolve]

Another good review of the café from me, though the café management might want to have a quiet word with the RPIs in the entrance about their overly aggressive approach: they refused to let me into the café until I showed my Mcard, which took longer than usual due to a hand injury. The staffing announcement was presumably just referring to the RPIs, but one of the two on today seems to have a bit of a Napoleon complex!

Th eeveening ones do have a problem. They've given up asking me now as they see i go right past them into the cafe.
Ill speak to the owners of the cafe this evening and see if they can do something.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Th eeveening ones do have a problem. They've given up asking me now as they see i go right past them into the cafe.
Ill speak to the owners of the cafe this evening and see if they can do something.

I suppose I can understand the RPIs being cautious of people given the reputation of that part of Wakefield, but it was a bit OTT really. I did notice that the café doors are labelled up as Automatic but aren't functioning as such, yet!

 

[Mugby]

I stopped off the 'Barnsley express' a couple of weeks ago and noticed that the cafe was doing ok for mid-Saturday afternoon.

In my opinion, the whole refurbishment project is let down by the still very bleak platform 2.
When I returned from Leeds the same day, it was snowing and for the reasonable number of passengers waiting, it was either the bus shelter or huddle inside the space at the top of the subway slope.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I stopped off the 'Barnsley express' a couple of weeks ago and noticed that the cafe was doing ok for mid-Saturday afternoon.

In my opinion, the whole refurbishment project is let down by the still very bleak platform 2.
When I returned from Leeds the same day, it was snowing and for the reasonable number of passengers waiting, it was either the bus shelter or huddle inside the space at the top of the subway slope.

I agree with this 100%. If only a canopy (much like the one on platform one, in fact) had been provided... Even a new (bigger, with doors onto both P2 and 3) shelter would've been something.