Wokingham Station improvements

[whole diary]

[bobm]

From Getwokingham

Commuters' frustration at station footbridge removal By Jon Nurse
 May 22, 2013

It was removed over the weekend as work starts on a ^6 million revamp. Now to cross the platforms passengers will need to use an external footbridge further down the line closer to the level crossing.
 
Jas Sohal, owner of Steamers internet caf^ at the station, said: ^Customers are disappointed to have lost the bridge, but what can you do? It would have to have been done at some point.^
 
A new station and footbridge linking the platforms will be built, along with a new access road and interchange to improve links with buses and taxis.
 
The borough^s planning boss says work on the scheme is ^on track^, but some passengers have also complained about disruption in the station car park.
 
Car drivers say there is a lack of spaces at the site now.
 
And Mr Sohal feels extra marshalls should be on hand to help drivers. He said: ^People pay a lot of money to use the railway, they don^t want to put up with poor service.
 
^There is a lot of work going on now and there needs to be more people on the ground.
 
^Some customers have complained they are being forced to walk into the station to buy a ticket and then go all the way back to display it.
 
^It^s a bit of a farce really.^
 
Mr Sohal hopes his business will move into the new station and has noticed a 20 per cent drop in footfall since works started in November.
 
He said: ^I think people have had to find other places to park and as a result we^ve seen a decline.^
 
Lucinda Corse posted on getwokingham^s Facebook page: ^It has been absolute carnage. I dropped my husband off on Monday morning and had to drive the entire length of the car park to turn round and come back again.
 
^The surface when wet is muddy and puddly. I feel sorry for anyone who has to park their car to get the train. The lack of spaces is mad.^
 
Christopher James posted: ^It^s been a total and utter waste of tax payers^ money. The car park is now decimated, with people unable to drive their cars to park to allow them to commute to London. Why these works were allowed to proceed is beyond me.^
 
A spokeswoman for South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance said: ^A significant accessibility improvement scheme is currently under way at Wokingham station to deliver a new footbridge with lifts.
 
^We expect to have the new bridge and lifts open during the autumn and in the meantime, passengers using the station will be able to use the alternative footbridge or level crossing for access through the station.^
 
The new station, which is being built by Network Rail and South West Trains Alliance, is scheduled to open in August and will connect to a public transport interchange and Station Link Road.
 
Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for highways and planning, said: ^m extremely pleased progress is being made and everything appears to be on track for completion as they were expecting. The end result is going to be a much better facility for rail travellers, a much more modern station fit for the 21st Century and ready for service changes.^

[stationstop]

My goodness- do the people of Wokingham not have anything better to bitch and moan about?

[stuving]

To be fair, it looks as much like amateurish reporting. If you offer yourself for people to whinge to, they will - wouldn't you? To then just copy it all down unselectively does give that impression. Not that I'd deny it might still be true, of course.

[paul7575]

^It has been absolute carnage. I dropped my husband off on Monday morning and had to drive the entire length of the car park to turn round and come back again...

Yeah right... 

Paul

[ellendune]

^It has been absolute carnage. I dropped my husband off on Monday morning and had to drive the entire length of the car park to turn round and come back again...

Yeah right... 

Paul

Pedant alert

Presumably the person who dropped her husband off was driving a chariot with knives on the axles or at least driving very badly. Otherwise how would carnage result?

[Red Squirrel]

Pedant alert

Talking of Roman times, that word 'decimate' reared its ugly head again... Quinion gives a very good case for avoiding it altogether here.

[stuving]

Here's a quick update on the new Wokingham station:

•   Groundwork has now started on the site of the station itself.
•   The loss of the internal footbridge has some side effects you might not have predicted: for one there is usually a guy in high-vis.  whose job appears to be to stop anyone trying to reach the public footbridge or level crossing off the end of the platform.
•   There is also a hired diesel generator supplying the North side of the station. Presumably this was easier/cheaper than replacing the feed over the bridge with one under the track for a few weeks.
•   The car park is still much reduced by the work on the new road, though new parts are being opened as soon as they are ready.

[stuving]

You can now see the steel reinforcement for the floor slab of the station. There are no foundations to speak of, but I think there are some piles in there (I only saw one).

The new footbridge is going - down, rather than up - into two big holes for the below-ground lift shafts.

Since the footbridge has gone, there's no vantage point to take a decent picture now.

The car park still has lots of fenced-off spaces, as they take ages to put together the fences around the edges of the terracing.

[bobm]

Get Wokingham is reporting the completion date of the new station has been put back.

Work on Wokingham^s new ^6 million station is progressing slower than expected.

Commuters are coping as work bustles around the station car park and the shell of the new building and clock tower is complete.

Apologising for the delay, a Network Rail spokesman said: ^Owing to unforeseen challenges with the ground works, the project has been slightly delayed and the station building, footbridge and lifts are due to open in September, with the waiting rooms opening in November.^

The station, which will have improved waiting facilities, a transport interchange providing better links with other public transport and secure cycle parking, was scheduled to be completed in August.

[stuving]

Now that I am back home (having been bagged by another Tour de France) I find the lads in hi-vis have busy bolting steel bits together. Here's a picture from the platform side of the station building, and one that shows the steel frames of the lift shafts are also complete and being brick clad.

[stuving]

Three weeks on, it is clear that the current phase is one of rapid progress - mainly cladding the roof and brick and block laying. Not only are the lift shafts done, but internal and external walls of the station are shooting up. And they are assembling a multi-storey bike shed too.

The main objection to the planning application for the footbridge was that the lift shafts were a lot higher than the old bridge and would be rather overbearing. In reality I think they are pretty narrow and far enough from the houses that no-one will notice.

[stuving]

More rapid progress. I woke up at 5:00 on Sunday morning and heard some kind of building activity - though I was not tempted to go and look! So I was not surprised to see yesterday that the footbridge fairy had visited. As the crane (which isn't actually an Iron Fairy - too big) was still there I expected more last night, so I went to look after the last train (1:15 ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) to Staines). I was just in time to see a complete stairway being lifted off the ground - followed by a very loud crack and a rapid lowering. It's now in place and the crane's continued presence means I expect the final piece tonight.

When we got advance notice from "South Western Railway", they indicated there would be three extended possessions: one in May and two in July. The first one happened, and was for the removal of the old bridge. There were none in July, and it seems they have concluded the installation work can be done during ordinary overnight possessions. I suspect there may still be some more for the lifts - don't the cabins and shaft-head machinery need to be lifted in?

[paul7575]

I suspect there may still be some more for the lifts - don't the cabins and shaft-head machinery need to be lifted in?

If they use the same lift technology as Fareham, Fratton and Southampton Parkway, (each of which I noted being built over a few months), the lift cabs themselves were delivered in sections and built up onto a framework installed through the platform doors.  The machinery is hydraulic, and again is installed through the doors and is mostly set against the side of the shaft, there is no traditional motor and winding gear room at the top of the shaft.  The hydraulic power packs have typically been installed separate from the lift shafts, under the 'half landings' of the staircases - (the grey blockwork structures shown in your photo above being the typical position of the power rooms).

Paul

[stuving]

In fact, this came up during the planning process. The towers are about 3 m higher than the top landing roof, and this was questioned as undesirable. It also does look too much for the above-roof height of the cabin. As I said last time, I don't think that concern really stands up when you look at the real thing.

The reply from SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) was in part:

The height of the lift shafts is guided by railway standards that need to be adhered to. The lift shafts could potentially be higher to accommodate the lift houses, but at Wokingham the lift houses are located under the mid landing area of the stairs of the bridge which in fact reduces the height of the lift shafts.

Now that doesn't make too much sense, if taken literally. I imagine the standards relate to the ventilation equipment (and anything else?) on top of the cabin, rather than the height per se. And the motor room is actually under the upper flight of stairs, but either way it its separation from the shaft means it can only be hydraulic.

[stuving]

I was just in time to see a complete stairway being lifted off the ground - followed by a very loud crack and a rapid lowering. It's now in place and the crane's continued presence means I expect the final piece tonight.

Indeed, last night after the last train I craned my head out of the bedroom window to see the second staircase dangling above the station. If I'd realised how brightly it would be floodlit I'd have had my camera ready - the lights were cut as soon as it was lowered, and not even down at both ends.

What did surprise me was to see another crane there as well. It was lifting something onto the roof of the new station, which I saw later was two long wrapped packages ... ducting maybe? There's nothing in the plans, but now it's been unpacked and it looks (though the profile makes it hard to see) as if it's sheet cladding. The plans did say the roof finish was zinc, so I guess that's added now to run full length down the slope rather than factory-fitted to the smaller roof modules.

But why two cranes? Even if there are two separate contractors, it seems a bit over the top (groan).