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Wednesday 3 Aug 2011

ALL’S WELL AT BERKSWELL

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That’s what passengers are saying at the town’s station (on the Birmingham to Coventry line), now the new ticket office and waiting room have opened for business.

In a £1m project that started last November, Network Rail and its contractor J. Murphy & Sons Limited (Murphy) have demolished the old station master’s house at the end of the Birmingham platform and the single storey wooden ticket office.

Now the 200,000 passengers who use the station each year can buy their tickets from a new, ultra modern looking, purpose built bespoke steel frame clad building designed along Network Rail’s modular station principles. For the first time the new ticket office also incorporates a separate low height accessible counter for disabled passengers to use.

Once passengers have bought their tickets, they can move down the platform and wait for their trains in a new, enclosed and heated waiting room.

The old passenger ramp has been removed and access has been reconfigured to make it easier to get onto the station. There are new handrails and fencing round the entrance, designed to reflect the modern feel of the building, and there is new cycle storage.

Jo Kaye, Network Rail route director, said: “This is an important station on a key commuter route and the new facilities reflect this. Passengers now have a 21^st century ticket office instead of what was essentially a wooden building with a distinctly 1960s feel.”

Alex Hynes, London Midland commercial director, said: "Network Rail and Murphy are to be congratulated for providing our passengers and staff with a fantastic new facility".

The station remained open throughout the work.

Tim Legg, Contracts Manager, J Murphy & Sons Limited, comments: “Murphy put measures in place to minimise the impact of the improvement works on passengers and the train operations, including providing alternative access routes for the rail travelling public, whilst the works was progressing.

“The construction of the new ticket office was an innovative, modular-build type, reducing on-site construction time, with the works being completed in line with Network Rail’s programme and budget requirements.”

Network Rail decided to carry out the work because the old buildings were in a dilapidated condition.

The station master’s house, which dates from 1865, had been empty for many years and it was simply not financially viable to repair and keep it.

Similarly, the ticket office - thought to be built in 1912 - in was in a very poor condition, particularly so far as staff facilities were concerned, and did not meet current standards.