There's trouble at the new Worcestershire Parkway station, says the Ledbury Reporter:
Fed up commuters have called a railway station near the city "the worst in Europe" and also criticised the site's facilities.
People who use Worcestershire Parkway have complained that it lacks a warm waiting area, platform seating, and only has two toilets for the whole station.
And new railway stations generally provide few facilities for passengers and are remarkably unattractive.
Despite this lack of comforts, they are remarkably expensive. A report in the Malvern Gazette from 2020 says this station cost £22m.
Worcestershire Parkway has platforms on two levels, so it was bound to cost more than most new stations, but an article in Rail Magazine agrees that British railway projects are expensive.
It sees a lack of sustained government commitment to public transport as a large part of the problem, but also notes that all British infrastructure projects cost more than they do in most comparable countries.
The picture tells the story - ludicrous health and safety rules and disability discrimination legislation. You can't build a simple village halt anymore without providing full length platforms. safety fencing everywhere and very expensive bridges with very long ramps meeting complex DDA standards (even if the small rural station is never actually used by anyone who is disabled). In many places it would be cheaper to give local disabled people free taxi services than to pay for these DDA facilities
ReplyDeleteThe result is many projects become too costly and never get built at all - so everyone loses.
Two points to make -
ReplyDelete1) Your appraisal of new stations is bang on the money, pictures of the new station at Thanet Parkway reveal narrow platforms with no seemingly covering whatsoever, how on earth was that signed off?
2) The cost of rail projects in this country has become ridiculous - note the estimate of £730 million to make five stations on the Northern Line step free - Stockwell, Tooting Broadway, South Wimbledon, Colliers Wood and Kennington.
With that kind of budget it will take several centuries to make the entire tube network accessible.
Then it is time to have a SERIOUS look at why/how other countries are more successful than we at building them at cost .
ReplyDelete