Work begins in earnest on next phase of city’s new railway station
WORK has begun on a major new building project which will bring Wolverhampton Railway Station well and truly into the 21st century.
The former British Transport Police building has been demolished, as part of the current station building. Piledriving machinery is now in place, with the heavy work already underway on the first section of the new station building.
The redevelopment will cost £150 million, and, connecting to the bus station and eventually the Metro, will provide the city with a modern transport hub.
Customers will be reassured to know that there will be no changes to the platform areas as part of the scheme, which has allowed it to be designed in two phases to ensure train services to and from the city continue to operate as normal throughout.
The first section of the new station building is expected to become operational to customers in autumn 2019, when the second phase of the programme – bringing down the remainder of the current station building and completing the new build – will also start.
The completed, state-ofthe-art railway station building is expected to be fully open in summer 2020.
Councillor John Reynolds, Cabinet Member for City Economy, said:
“Works are progressing well on the first phase of the railway station programme and dramatic change can already be seen.
“We are now looking forward to seeing the first signs of the new station building coming out of the ground.
“It has been a long-held vision for the council to deliver a new railway station befitting of our great city and it sits within a total £3.7 billion of investment currently on site or in the pipeline across Wolverhampton.
Enhanced
“As part of this regeneration it is crucial visitors to our city get the best first impression possible and their travel experience is enhanced – the new state-of-the-art station building we are developing will deliver that.”
Once work on the new station building is completed it will pave the way for the Midland Metro Alliance to begin the final link of the new city centre tram extension.
They are currently delivering the Pipers Row and Railway Drive phases of the extension to the railway station.