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Monday 10 Jul 2006

NEW ROOF FOR CREWE STATION

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Network Rail has started a £5 million project which will see the old roof over Platforms 12 and 13 at Crewe station removed and replaced with a modern glazed canopy. Andrew Skidmore, area general manager for Network Rail, said: “Platform 12 is strategically very important. It is used by both long distance and local services, and can be used as a diversionary platform if there are problems elsewhere in the station. “It is therefore important that we make the travel experience of people waiting on the platform as pleasant as possible, which will be helped by this new canopy.” The station originally opened in1837 and grew bit by bit until it was rebuilt by the London & North Western Railway between 1903 and 1906. In the1960s the station received a new front entrance incorporating the travel centre, but at platform level it has remained largely unchanged. Built with lofty roofs and canopies to accommodate smoke and smuts belching out of steam trains in the early days of the railways, it has become unsuitable and unnecessary since the line was electrified, also in the 1960s. Platforms 12 and 13 form an ‘island’ platform. The height of the canopies makes the glazing panels difficult to get to and now that platform 13 is unused Network Rail has decided to remove the covering over both platforms. Platform 12, which is still in use, will get a new low level glazed canopy. Work at the north end of the platform is almost complete and contractors have started stripping the remaining roof. Once it is removed, work will start in early 2007 to construct the new canopy along the operational length of the platform. The rest of the station will be considered as part of the overall Crewe Gateway scheme, in which Network Rail is a partner, along with the council and other key stakeholders.