Bolt-on fix for New Street 'eyesore'
"BIRMINGHAM’S New Street Station will not be demolished when work on a £600 million makeover gets under way, it has emerged. In order to save money and keep disruption to passengers at a minimum, it has been decided to bolt on a stainless steel and glass façade to hide the existing 1960s grim concrete walls."
Proof of what we've all suspected, it's cosmetic. [link]
Grrrrrrr. I'm getting annoyed by all of this!!! The phrase complete waste of time and money springs to mind. New Street needs bulldozing not lipstick!
This is no surprise to me, but what seems to be ignored is the possibility of a new station out on the east side to serve the planned high speed rail and then link passengers to the city center at New Street. Such a plan has been proposed.
As one old enough to remember the original twin stations at New Street, the 1960s track design was a great improvement. The bottleneck is not within the station but at the London end where there are only four tracks. When the Bull Ring/Bullring was rebuilt (both times) the tunnel underneath could have been widened. But it wasn't. Therein lies the problem.
And, just to consider, the new St. Pancras International received a similar makeover!!!