Tag: rebuild

#365daysofbiking Station approach

May 22nd – Something that’s mostly been happening beyond my notice although I pass through regularly is the rebuilding of Wolverhampton City Railway Station. All of a sudden I notice from a waiting train that steelwork has sprung up and hoardings have been erected at the north end of the old station.

I don’t get the hate for Wolves station. It’s a bland, semi-modernist, semi-brutalist station in the postwar style common in the midlands on the West Coast Main Line. Save for the signs, at Wolverhampton you could be in Stafford, Tamworth, Coventry. It’s light, it’s open, it’s dull but functional.

My only criticism really is the steep access bridge and weird separate bridge for lift access. But it works.

Now it seems we’re in for a new structure, with new facilities and it’ll be interesting to see how it develops. I hope it’s better in outlook and ambition than the risible New Street revamp, and also that it has more aforethought and usability than the monstrous, ill-conceived access bridge at Telford.

Frankly, I’m not optimistic.

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August 3rd – Telford on a quick visit midday, and a surprise: I noted evidence of recent exploratory drilling and a planning application to replace the dingy, 80s footbridge over the railway and adjacent main road with a new structure.

The bridge as it is is corroded and not ideal, but it’s a very large structure and it’ll be interesting to look at the plans for a replacement. 

One of the biggest problems with the structure is it’s greatest asset: being enclosed with a roof makes it an excellent sheltering point in bad weather, but makes it dingy, dystopian and unpleasant at night.

I also wonder what they’ll do with the overgrown vegetation that also make the footways here so grim at night.

The times seem to be changing. Let’s hope for the better.

January 18th – After months of being shut to be rebuilt, the North Street Railway bridge, linking The Butts with Birchills in Walsall is very, very close to reopening. Rebuilt higher to accommodate electrification of the railway beneath, the bridge seems much steeper than before. 

Still, it was fun to ride up and down while traffic free and still closed – and at the top, a decent view of the New College at night.

November 22nd –  I had to nip to Aldridge in the afternoon, and on autopilot, rode up the canal, to find it still blocked off for works between Northywood Bridge at the back of Brickyard Road and the Wharf Bridge in Aldridge, between Stubbers Green and the town centre.

I had, of course, had warning of this previously from TheMadOldBaggage and Stymaster, and forgot; still, the diversion wasn’t too bad.

The closure looks set to continue for a while as they rebuild embankments. Look out for it if you’re up that way. If you remember…

September 11th – A very peculiar day. I had something important to do in the morning, and was expecting to be out of action for the rest of the day. As it happened, the morning didn’t take quite the toll I expected it to and I went to work. Staying late, I came back home as darkness fell. I can’t really put my finger on it, but I’m really taking a serious dislike to the ‘new’ New Street Station. The platform access is now at the one end, and the space down there is restricted and made claustrophobic by the ever-changing hoardings. Passenger information screens are not positioned in useful points anymore, and the cramped lifts, already scuffed and grubby decor in the upper concourse all stink of compromise and bodge.

This is not a transport hub undergoing a Lepidoptera style emergence from the cocoon of renovation, but a desperate attempt to polish a turd that should have been flushed years ago. 

April 29th – Birmingham New Street – new start? Well, it’s bright, and smells of resin, I suppose. It also smells heavily of engineering compromise, forced retail opportunity and bodge.

My first experience of the much vaunted new station access way was this morning, and after all the hype, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s very much unfinished, and some aspects of the project show quite bad judgement.

This is no longer a station, but is a shopping centre with railway platforms. Everything is quite a bit longer to get to than before, and the access points funnel crowds carefully past the new shop units. The platforms themselves remain as narrow and cramped as ever, but with new escalators and lifts that go direct between concourse and platform, instead of via the subway. Sadly, they’re tiny, unable to accommodate a bike and pushchair at the same time, or my bike lengthways. This is dreadful.

The new concourse is nice, the light is pleasant and it’s quite airy. I’m not keen on the stone flooring, but each to his own. The cafe looks nice, and the information up there was good, unlike the platforms where a mixture of old, incorrect signage and new stuff just confused people.

The ticket barriers are much better, and access with a bike is OK even when crowded. However, the exit in Stephenson Place is bizarre, and doubles the length of the journey to Moor Street, meaning I’ll no longer make tight connections. 

My advice to anyone planning to park a bike in racks there and travel is don’t do it. There are woefully few racks, stuck in a dark corner of the Moor Street access subway, a while away from the station. Although covered by CCTV, the Sheffield stands are only bolted down. An industrious pair of scallies with a spanner and some bottle could clear those stands of bikes in minutes. This is unforgivable.

On the whole it’s nicer, but functionally more awkward in many ways. It’s much more walking to get in and out, and I wouldn’t fancy it with limited mobility. The architecture is nice, and they’ve worked hard to make a space with no natural light more human-freindly. But the pokey lifts, poor access to Moor Street and focus of retail jarr with me a little too much.

It’ll be interesting to see how things develop.

April 25th – For the last time today, I passed through the concourse at Birmingham New Street Station. The next time I pass through here, the new one will be open and much will have changed. As far as I can tell, a new entryway and bridge has been constructed parallel to this one, and switchover should be interesting, to say the least.

I took photos at both ends of the commute- the stained cream walls, hard surfaces and harsh lighting always reminded me of the grimmest hospitals. The shape and flow was always odd, but I never hated this place like others did. Yes, it’s dirty, cramped and soulless, but it’s easy to navigate (compared to say, Bristol Temple Meads or Leeds), and is reasonably compact.

I guess new lifts will be nice, and the new cafes and shops – let’s not lose sight of the fact that what is being created here is not a new station, but a retail opportunity. The underbelly, the business end – grim, narrow, diesel-stinking platforms – will not improve, nor will the space on them. 

You can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter. I remain sceptical, and for all it’s faults, I’ll miss the old New Street. Another part of young Bob dies with it’s passing.

January 28th – Birmingham New Street Station is undergoing huge alterations at the moment, and is overrun buy people involved in the reconstruction. Sometimes, they almost seem to match in number the passengers; they emerge from hatches and previously unnoticed doorways, often surveying, taking measurements or gazing at ceilings. There’s clearly a lot of thought going on.

I keep noticing these tiny target symbols in odd locations about the station. About 20mm square, they have a precision cross-hair on them and a unique number , and they’re printed on reflective material. They’re vital to operations here, but I suspect few ever notice them.

They’re measurement datums. A theodolite – either placed in position by an engineer, or permanently sited in an out of the way spot – will focus on this target, and accurate geometrical measurements can be made, indicating if the target, or the wall it’s attached to, has moved, or to precisely locate some other measurement. Automatic systems will do this across multiple visible datums repeatedly, unattended, and alert engineers if there’s any change.

I suspect this is part of an automatic monitoring system as it’s above normal working, and therefore, crowd height, just to the left of the telephone kiosk roof.

Civil engineering is getting more and more sophisticated.