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Fresh hitch for city’s £22m new bus station
Tuesday 16th February 2010, 11:30AM GMT.
Work to create Wolverhampton’s £22million new bus station has been delayed yet again amid ongoing legal negotiations with one of its main supporters.
It is the third time bosses behind the transport Interchange have put it back. It will see the city’s bus and train stations rebuilt and linked by a footbridge across the ring road, with bars and restaurants created to line the canal as part of a wider £174m project.
The current bus station will be demolished and services will be diverted to Queen Street and Stafford Street from the main bus terminus in Pipers Row.
Bosses had hoped to start work creating a new bus station back in November last year, but delayed the start amid fears of damaging trade in the run up to Christmas. A start date of January was then announced, before being put back to February.
Today it emerged negotiations with the council and transport authority Centro, which wants the scheme to go ahead, had delayed the project.
The council is still trying to finish acquiring the Queen’s Building, which houses the current waiting and customer service area, Pipers Row House and its car park, all of which are owned by Centro.
Wolverhampton City Council head of transportation David Orton told a meeting of the council’s audit committee there was still no date set for work to start.
He said: “We are still not in a position to tell you precisely when the start date will be but expect it to be in the next few weeks.”
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Here we go again, all I say just look at Summer Row 2 years delay so far.
How come other Citys have no problums with their plans and go ahead.
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Other cities do have problems like this. Next time you visit one, buy a copy of the local rag and you will see.
At £22 million, this is a massive project and with any massive project would you not rather that they delay it for a couple of weeks or even months to allow every issue to be rectified?
If they just get the tools out and god nuclear, anything could go wrong! Personally I feel that this is a wonderful start to the redevelopement of Wolverhampton and the rejuvination of this great city that the previous Labour administration neglected so terribly.
Hats off to the Tories for getting on with the job. At least they are trying to boost Wolverhampton’s economy and create much needed jobs.
They say Labour is for the working man, yet you are lucky if you have a job under Labour!
CHJ
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But the Tories stole my milk!
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typical wolverhampton cock up….loads of ideas and then nothing!!!!
the town..sorry city is a mess!!!!
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At £22 million, this is a massive project and with any massive project would you not rather that they delay it for a couple of weeks or even months to allow every issue to be rectified?
If they just get the tools out and god nuclear, anything could go wrong! Personally I feel that this is a wonderful start to the redevelopement of Wolverhampton and the rejuvination of this great city that the previous Labour administration neglected so terribly.
Hats off to the Tories for getting on with the job. At least they are trying to boost Wolverhampton’s economy and create much needed jobs.
They say Labour is for the working man, yet you are lucky if you have a job under Labour!
CHJ
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Just like #1 said – Summer Row all over again.
All we get is speculation from the council, they’re all talk & no action. Our council are a joke.
Wolverhampton train station is also well overdue a transformation. Had to laugh when i arrived at the train station this week to see workmen making a meal out of a minor re-paint of the pillars. We need more than that!
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Hey Macca,
Had to laugh when I read you comment.
Perhaps you need to look at what the full project entails regarding the bus and train station. This is phase one!!!
Like I said before, Labour controlled Wolverhampton for 15 years and it was the worst 15 years of this city’s history. The Tories take control and projects like this begin, it ‘aint a coincidence.
And a few weeks delay is a small price to pay for making a state of the art public transport hub in the city!
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Hey CHJ
Phase One?? For the millions of pounds of our money which are planned for this, I would hope for more than re-painted pillars & benches!!!
I hear David Cameron is looking for a bew spin doctor – have you applied yet??
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I think the ‘City’ should sort out what its got already before building new stuff, there are loads areas in the’city’ that need attention, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
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Maybe if so much money hadn’t been wasted on the monstrosity that is the £300,000 “attraction” in Queen Square, it could have been directed towards these negotiations.
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If it is such a monstrosity, why is it always surrounded by people, looking at it.
Even now, in the winter while it is shut down, it still looks fantastic!
I personally think that the council is really showing aspirations of overthrowing the 15 years of neglect from the previous (Labour) administration.
In the spring when it is switched on again, there will be people coming from all over the West Midlands to see and while they are here, they will be spending money in our shops, cafes, bars & restaurants, which in turn will create jobs and also prompt more businesses to come to the city. It is a big cycle which has been started with a small step.
Hats off to the Tories for that.
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You seem to be very defendant against the views from other residents of this city. I have only lived here for 4 years and I have the same views as 70% of wolverhampton resident in that the council waste loads of wod and that £300,000 project in queens square caused enough havock when being built and is a mess. Turn off due to cold weather…. you would have thought the architect would have looked at “Natural” occuarances? When it comes to the £2m project of the interchange I was in full favour of it as the Metro will go around the town and link the Bus & Train together.. however.. at the moment it is 3 delays in and no work. The Summer Row project… I have no idea where summer row is but more to it will spending hundred of thousands of pounds bring customers back to the businesses of the city.. NO because the carparking is horendous and bus fairs are way over priced. Take my home town Chester the bus companies there teamed up with the council and agreed a £1 single fare to which you could return to your pickup area for FREE. Now the bus fare there is £2 return, much cheaper in comparision to NEWM.
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It’s the Summer of 2050 and Tesco and Sainsbury’s are still at loggerheads over the the Raglan Street supermarket site.
The fountain in Queen Square has failed yet again, this time because rust has entered the works and brown foul smelling water is being ejected. The bus and railway station complex is still under review as the Council cannot agree to the changes in plans as required by the newly elected Government and the extension of the Metro through Wolverhampton City centre has been abandoned due to the cost being so prohibitive that the projected revenue returns would take 100 years before breaking even!
If only SOMETHING in Wolverhampton could be planned, built and put into operation in the same century?
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i usto work for a company that worked on the bus station a couple of years ago was all ways talking two managers about what going on with the site they just dont have the money centro has been backed up after back up and can hardly even surport them selfs they told us that they are looking three years from 2008 two get everything up and start ripping the bus station down and then 2 years two compleat the project.
centro is paid by us the tax payer and this shouldnt even be happening
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I mentioned, on another thread, that buses used to stop on the streets and by using cross-city routes the need for a bus station is eliminated.
Why not save £22M and spend it on something more useful on the site? How about an ice-rink or a conference centre… or more modestly a multi-story car park?
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Spot the deliberate mistake with the illustration – where are the chavs, beggars and asylum seekers which inhabit the current bus station? Will they disappear as if by magic?
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whats the point of the new bus station for wton when its top of the empty shops list,i worked in wton years ago it was so full of life and now its just a derelict area,
forget 22 million on the bus station and invest it getting new business to wton.
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on a business point of view if i opened a business now in wton it would be in the wulfren centre but due to high rents/rates etc
just would not be viable.
all the other roads are full empty of boarded up shops.
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Council House Jim – can you at least be a little bit more discrete in your Labour bashing / Tory promoting posts.
Yes, Labour have neglected the city for 15 or so years. It will take another 15 years for the city to be put right, but the Tories are no angels, nor do they have all the answers, nor can they take immediate credit for projects such as this which have progressed (albeit very slowly) under the previous administration.
The old Labour council was slow, bureaucratic and ineffective. It took too long for anything to get done and the business environment they created (transport, education, low tax rates) was never favourable.
Labour wasted a massive 13-year boom opportunity. The Tories will now pay the bills for their massive negligence and over exuberance. I’ll watch their achievements with interest over the next few years.
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I visit the ‘city’ about once a month. I find it astonishing that there are no public toilets open/exist in the ‘city’ centre in the evenings. How about spending money on some basic facilities which you would expect to find in a city now days? Oh, and where are all the buses going to go while this work is being carried out? At £22m is it really necessary?
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It’s about time some one from the council apologised for the mess they make of everything? Whilst no one expects everything to go right first time and I do not want resignations but all the delays to all these large projects must cost the council significant sums of money and is an embarrassment. I’m also sure that some over paid consultant is laughing all the way to the bank every time there is a delay.
I’m not entirely sure that spending £22m on a new bus station that doesn’t seem to be a significant improvement on the old one is a wise use of resources. If we were getting a modern state of the art facility it would be different but it just seems to reduce the size of existing site. Still it might make the walk to the train station 30 seconds quicker if that is ever finished.
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