The government has unveiled £50m of emergency funding to carry out repairs at the country’s 10 worst railway stations, as identified in a report commissioned by the Department for Transport
Manchester Victoria, Clapham Junction and Crewe were judged to be the three worst. Others in line for investment are Barking, Stockport, Warrington Bank Quay, Preston, Wigan North Western, Luton and Liverpool Central. Network Rail will be in charge of spending the extra cash, which a spokesperson said would go through “a variety of procurement routes”.
In June, Lord Adonis, the transport minister, asked Sir Peter Hall, planning professor at the Bartlett architectural school, and Chris Green, a former railwayman, to carry out a survey into the state of the country’s stations and come up with minimum standards to bring them up to scratch.
Hall and Green stated that train operators should be required to keep 80% of their customers satisfied with stations to gain a franchise in the future. At present only 66% of customers are happy. They recommended that the spending on upkeep and improvement of stations should be raised by 25% for the years 2014–24 to £800m.
The news follows an announcement from operator Network Rail that it would make £3.25bn available until 2014 to improve 2,000 stations. This includes more than £100m for large-scale refurbishments such as Birmingham New Street and London Bridge.
