Exciting plans! Latest version of Halifax station gateway proposals are on-line, including iconic new pedestrian bridge linking with town and bus stops, car park at ground level and brand-new 2-storey containing shops and café. Slightly worryingly the ticket office is now shown on the ground floor, though pedestrians arriving over the new bridge will access the station at first floor level.
Plans available here Halifax Railway Station | Calderdale Next Chapter include several videos showing routes through the new building. The videos are very good! See for example: https://youtu.be/165g1DbmOkA
The info pages are here.
Continuing concerns include location of booking office. We accept that with online bookings and tickets on phones, ticket offices are being less well used. But staff need to be available, both to help people use the ticket vending machines, and to provide information and advance booking that even the internet can’t provide.
One idea might be to combine the ticket office with the station shop, so ticket sales could be combined with more general retailing. Please tell us what you think, and more important send in your own response to the consultation by 16 January. More thoughts below.
1 Ticket office location. The circulated materials say little about this, which is slightly worrying. The office appears to have moved from the first floor to ground floor and looks to be out-of-the-way for many potential users. OK for people arriving by car, but a long way and on a different floor from the main pedestrian entrance via the town bridge. We can see how this might work in term of having all staff accommodation together. Northern Trains say the use ticket offices had declined during the pandemic. Out response is that ticket offices need to be reinvented to encourage a greater range of functions and dissemination of material not just about rail travel but about local attractions etc with expanded retailing or even combination with other forms of retailing:
- it must be agreed that a ticket and information desk is essential, must be centrally located, and must be staffed throughout most station opening hours;
- there should also be staff on the concourse and platforms not least to help people use the ticket vending machines, which become no less complex for users, especially occasional users and people not familiar with the jargon of ticketing;
- many station users will arrive from the new town bridge at first floor level and if they then have to drop down to a ground-level ticket office then come back up again to access the footbridge that will be inconvenient, annoying, and increase effective journey time;
- alternative solutions for the booking office might be considered:
- it could be located on the first floor as originally planned;
- it could be incorporated into the first floor retail unit giving a combined rail ticket, information, news and wider retail unit; examples of this arrangement exist at Merseyside stations (Southport, Liverpool Central…).
- there could be an island or peninsula staffed desk on the concourse, able to issue tickets and info, provided if necessary with protective glass screens. This could replace some of the seating on the upper concourse. (We expect most passengers to wait for trains on the platform.)
- one reason for having a booking office is for people to arrange longer more complex journeys as well as obtain information in a comfortable environment. Whilst a lot of this type of booking is now done online there are also good reasons why people should not be discouraged from visiting the station to book or obtain info. In fact, they should be encouraged. Interaction with staff should be encouraged. Let’s make it a busy place!
- Location of TVMs is not particularly clear.
2 Lift – We remain concerned that there is only one public lift between ground and first floor. Lifts are not 100% reliable.
3 Lots of good points including the community room though the access route to this is not all that clear, and access via the underpass to the Hebble Trail for walkers and cyclists. Video here .
4 Provision for future platform 3 is welcome. Needs to be direct ground-level access as well as “up and down”.
The above are our instant reaction. HADRAG’s formal response to follow, after the consultation briefing in January.
Halifax and District Rail Action Group 