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Friday 30 Apr 2010

STATION REVAMP PLANS GO BEFORE COUNCIL

Region & Route:

Network Rail has submitted plans to Carlisle City Council for a £550,000 revamp of passenger facilities on platform four at the city’s Citadel railway station. The work includes a completely new passenger waiting area towards the southern end of the platform and a £10,000 contribution from the Friends of the Settle – Carlisle Line (FoSCL).

There are three main areas of work, covering two seating areas and a waiting room.

Jo Kaye, Network Rail route director, said: “The station recently underwent a transformation as part of a television advertisement but our plans are more permanent than that. What we are planning will give the 1.7m passengers who use the station every year both extra seating and shelter from the winds that can whistle down the platform.”

Virgin Trains is delivering the work and Sue Howarth, group station manager for north England and Scotland, said: “These improvements will make the station more attractive and comfortable to the increasing numbers of people travelling by train to and from Carlisle. We look forward to working with Network Rail to deliver the enhancements."

The new seating area will be created at the head of platforms five and six where trains for the Carlisle to Settle line and Hadrian’s Wall Country line (Carlisle to Newcastle) depart. It will be surrounded on three sides by a low stone-clad wall topped with glazed screens to cut out draughts. There will be special diagrams depicting both railway lines and the crowning glory will be a sign across the end of both railway tracks defining them as the ‘Gateway’ to both lines.

 

Mark Rand, chairman of FoSCL said: “We very much welcome and support what is happening at Carlisle Station. The world famous Settle-Carlisle Line is getting the northern terminus and gateway it so obviously needed. We have been working with Network Rail, Virgin and Northern to get to this stage and look forward to playing our part in making it all happen.”

At the other end of the platform the existing waiting area will be refurbished to complement its new counterpart. The red hoops that define the seating area and restrict access to the platform will be removed and a new ‘totem’ will be provided for train service information and the station clock.

 

Within the enclosed waiting room half way along the platform, the galvanised metal framework supporting the emergency lighting system will be removed and the lighting relocated so that the wooden beams in the ceiling can be fully appreciated.

Network Rail is hopeful that the work, which will be project-managed by Virgin Trains as the station operator, will start early in the summer and be finished in the autumn.