200 train stations to get £3.5bn upgrade
More than 200 train stations across the West Midlands will be upgraded as part of a £3.35 billion programme, it emerged today.
More than 200 train stations across the West Midlands will be upgraded as part of a £3.35 billion programme, it emerged today.
Platforms at some stations will be extended to cater for longer trains aimed at tackling overcrowding.
Passengers will be asked for their views on what are the priorities for particular stations and this feedback will be used to make final decisions about the type of improvements to be carried out. Consultations will kick off later this month and will last for up to three months.
There will be on-line surveys, telephone surveys and focus groups brought in to establish what passengers rate as the most important things to have at stations.
In the Dudley borough stations Stourbridge junction, Stourbridge Town, Lye and Coseley stations will be upgraded. In neighbouring Sandwell stations in Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Tipton, Rowley Regis, Dudley Port and Sandwell and Dudley will benefit from improvements including new passenger information systems and more seating.
Passengers boarding trains at Walsall, Aldridge and Bloxwich will enjoy improved facilities as will those using services at Wolverhampton, Codsall and Penkridge.
Meanwhile in Worcestershire stations at Kidderminster, Hagley and Hartlebury are included in the five-year improvement plan.
Network Rail yesterday unveiled its scheme to improve 240 stations in the Midlands as part of a £3.25bn programme of investment to develop thousands of stations across the country.
In total more than 2,000 stations are to benefit from investment between now and spring 2014 with sums ranging from tens of thousands of pounds to tens of millions.
Dudley's cabinet member for transportation, councillor Angus Adams, said with the boom in rail transport this package of improvements was crucial.
He said: "Rail travel is absolutely booming, so it is essential stations are able to cope. We are going to have longer trains so we will need the platform extensions.
"I know Stourbridge junction and Stourbridge town stations extremely well as I use them regularly and they are not bad stations but they do need improving and the more passenger information we can give the better."
