£800m revamp will never see light of day

JP Sanderson
Sheffield railway stationSheffield railway station
Sheffield railway station

Becket Walk, Sheffield, S8

I read with interest your headline suggesting £800 million may be invested to upgrade facilities in and around Sheffield Station in readiness for HS2.  

As your article confirms, Sheffield will only be served by a spur off the main line by two trains per hour. 

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I must question the amount of money referred to as the HS2 project might yet be cancelled, particularly the extension beyond Birmingham to Manchester and Sheffield/Leeds or downgraded in terms of speed of trains as a cost cutting exercise.

Proposals include a new public footbridge over the tracks. 

Such a bridge is already in place and if barriers were installed at the station, permits could be issued to local residents to allow access, (as in use at Derby), and, any barriers would require to have staff present, who could allow through tram users.

The taxi rank works well in picking up passengers from trains, although there is an issue with delays in exiting the station area to join the main highway. 

The pick up/set down area is a problem, but there is unused land adjacent to the station, currently used for occasional fairgrounds.

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Access to the Interchange and city centre is there by way of light controlled crossings. 

Sheffield station could already accommodate trains the length of HS2 trains using platform 1 alone.

£800 million to be spent for the "potential to change the impression that people get when they come into the city". 

In my view, much of this expenditure is totally unnecessary and to me, this appears to be a money making exercise for architects which will never see the light of day.