Blackburn's new £5m bus station move is on

11:40am Friday 25th May 2012 in Transport news Photograph of the Author By Bill Jacobs, Local government reporter

DESIGN A graphic of how the new bus station interior will look DESIGN A graphic of how the new bus station interior will look

THIS is Blackburn’s new £5million glass-fronted bus station which will welcome passengers from autumn 2015.

The covered complex, which will take 18 months to construct, will be sited on part of the town centre’s old market site following a decade of searching for the necessary cash and best location, the Lancashire Telegraph can reveal.

Council bosses said the enclosed, airy, warm and secure Ainsworth Street building will include a cafe and be equipped with the technology for London Transport Oyster-style cards to speed passenger boarding and real time information screens.

The bus station has been designed by Capita Symonds, the firm behind major projects nationwide including the £188 million Library of Birmingham, the BBC’s Salford Quays Media City, and the extension to the British Library.

Design and project manager Richard Saint has incorporated the best features of similar complexes around the UK and Europe while trying to keep the character of nearby retail developments.

The hi-tech terminal using the latest natural ventilation techniques will be just up the road from the existing windswept interchange by the railway station and will offer state-of-the-art passenger comfort facilities.

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The first stage of the long-awaited redevelopment of the former Blackburn market site, the bus station will have a single central concourse with direct access to 14 bus boarding and alighting bays.

There will be a staffed travel information office, cafe, cash machines and public toilets with a disabled access WC and baby change facilities.

It will be closely linked to the new £8 million indoor market and Mall shopping centre while a new smaller bus interchange will be built next to the railway station as part of the town’s £30 million Cathedral Quarter development, with most main services stopping at both places.

The new plan, scheduled to start in April next year and due to take 18 months to complete, is one of the key parts of unlocking the further redevelopment of the town centre.

The bus station plans will go on show for two weeks from today on a special stall next to the visitor centre.

Money for the work on both the new station and bus/rail interchange has come from the £40 million Pennine Reach programme aimed at improving public transport bwteen Blackburn and Accrington.

Labour leader of Blackburn-with-Darwen Council Kate Hollern said: “The redevelopment of the market site and the new proposed additional bus station is a key part of the regeneration of the town.

“It will bring major improvements for bus passengers as well as linking better transport links for the Mall and the market.”

John Threlfall, business director at Lancashire United, said: “We are delighted. It is long overdue. The town centre generally is being enhanced and a new bus station will just add to that.

“It will be an improvement for passengers to have a warm covered bus station rather than the existing wet and windswept one on the Boulevard. The bus station is large enough for bigger buses than we currently operate.

“This new bus station is going to be right in the heart of the shopping centre and we hope to see the number of people coming to the town centre by bus where there will be a warm, friendly and dry reception will now rise.”

Tony Duckworth, president of Blackburn Chamber of Trade, said: “I am delighted to have a new bus station but it seems a pity that it has moved away from the existing railway station.

“It doesn’t place people in immediate vicinity of King William Street which we perceive as being the centre of town.”

Comments(27)

stefjam says...
11:51am Fri 25 May 12

oh great a glass fronted building! a walk from the train station to the bus station, past all the drunkern tramps, chavyobs & trying to get around all the smokers stood outside shops & businesses... SMASHing !

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A Darener says...
12:10pm Fri 25 May 12

The only argument is about the siting, most towns in the country. Would love to have a bus, train terminus on the same site. So what do Blackburn intend to do? Split the two. This has been going on for years. I bet the planners never us a bus or train, they just park their allowance supported cars free on the town hall car park, and are indoors before a single raindrop hits them on the head. No thought for travellers have to haul shopping, suitcases across town in the pouring rain.

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happycyclist says...
12:22pm Fri 25 May 12

A Darener wrote:
The only argument is about the siting, most towns in the country. Would love to have a bus, train terminus on the same site. So what do Blackburn intend to do? Split the two. This has been going on for years. I bet the planners never us a bus or train, they just park their allowance supported cars free on the town hall car park, and are indoors before a single raindrop hits them on the head. No thought for travellers have to haul shopping, suitcases across town in the pouring rain.
My thoughts exactly.

What will happen to the Boulevard?

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cathedral citi says...
12:30pm Fri 25 May 12

Please read the article again, and carefully! It states that not only is a new bus station going to be situated on the old markets site, an interchange, albeit smaller, will be situated next to the railway station, with MOST buses calling at BOTH sites!

It's a sensible compromise.

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sean_brfc says...
12:33pm Fri 25 May 12

Seems like a travesty to me to get rid of the boulevard and to replace it with a soulless hotel or whatever the Cathedral Quarter plans stipulate. For me the boulevard IS Blackburn. It has character and we all know it and associate with it. The more wet and windswept the better! And it limits the development potential for the old market site.

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HU says...
12:39pm Fri 25 May 12

This is good news! its about time we got a proper Bus Station!

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badref says...
12:41pm Fri 25 May 12

I can reveal having seen the plans that the council intends to replace the Boulevard with three "pound" shops, a used needle bin, a skatepark with adequate space for graffiti, and affordable housing for the hundreds of Morrisons shoppers who have previously needed cabs to complete their weekly shop. Taxi drivers are understandably up in arms at what they see as a massive restraint of trade. They fear the Fishmoor benefits trade might be lost for ever.

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A Darener says...
12:51pm Fri 25 May 12

cathedral citi wrote:
Please read the article again, and carefully! It states that not only is a new bus station going to be situated on the old markets site, an interchange, albeit smaller, will be situated next to the railway station, with MOST buses calling at BOTH sites!

It's a sensible compromise.
"MOST" what about those that don't? Why compromise? Either have a transport terminus or don't. Do you expect someone to pay a bus fare to travel a few hundred yards to the new site just to get off a bus and board another one? At what cost? buses are not cheap!

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Mill62 says...
1:04pm Fri 25 May 12

Oh God, not Capita again.

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GrindletonBob says...
1:29pm Fri 25 May 12

Good to see some more investment in the town centre, but the existing Boulevard bus station wouldn't be half as bad if the Council actually bothered to clean it once in a while.

If anyone from the Council/Capita (same difference!) is reading this, it may be worthwhile getting your cleaning contractors to occasionally jet wash the floor and clean the glazing. Looks like it was last done when it was originally built to replace the concrete shelters.

Anyone remember those old shelters? I recall the yobs used to smash the windows on their way home on a Friday and Saturday night on the infamous last buses of the evening!

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doolish says...
1:30pm Fri 25 May 12

other towns have spent millions building bus/rail interchanges, Blackburn got a free one over 100 years ago, now we're spending millions to get rid of most of it. !!! brilliant town planning, then again we have got an orbital route that goes through the middle !!!

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happycyclist says...
1:42pm Fri 25 May 12

cathedral citi wrote:
Please read the article again, and carefully! It states that not only is a new bus station going to be situated on the old markets site, an interchange, albeit smaller, will be situated next to the railway station, with MOST buses calling at BOTH sites!

It's a sensible compromise.
oops. I stand corrected. Thanks, cathedralciti.
I agree with you now; it is a sensible compromise.

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Greenline says...
2:18pm Fri 25 May 12

Let's be honest. The vast majority of people use the shops, not the Rail Station. The new bus station should be as near to the shops as possible, which it is.

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happydaysagain says...
3:01pm Fri 25 May 12

why dont they just keep the bus station where it is n do it up with the glass fronted look like they was going to do on the old market site it would make more sense

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woolywords says...
3:16pm Fri 25 May 12

badref wrote:
I can reveal having seen the plans that the council intends to replace the Boulevard with three "pound" shops, a used needle bin, a skatepark with adequate space for graffiti, and affordable housing for the hundreds of Morrisons shoppers who have previously needed cabs to complete their weekly shop. Taxi drivers are understandably up in arms at what they see as a massive restraint of trade. They fear the Fishmoor benefits trade might be lost for ever.
Buried in the fine print are plans to move the existing cab rank to the rear of the station, while creating disabled parking spaces in their place.

Anyone fancy walking under the station, down a dimly lit walkway, that has no CCTV, to the cab rank? Thought not.

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ROBERTSLUMDWELLER123 says...
4:02pm Fri 25 May 12

if as stated most!! buses will stop at both sites save 5 million and stick bus stops on Ainsworth st,,or will the buses stop at both site for a few weeks???

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ROBERTSLUMDWELLER123 says...
4:06pm Fri 25 May 12

cathedral citi wrote:
Please read the article again, and carefully! It states that not only is a new bus station going to be situated on the old markets site, an interchange, albeit smaller, will be situated next to the railway station, with MOST buses calling at BOTH sites!

It's a sensible compromise.
if you believe that you will believe anything,,after a few weeks all the buses will bypass the train station,,the planners in Blackburn must have got degree's in how to screw a town centre up!!!

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Noiticer says...
5:45pm Fri 25 May 12

As I've stated before the decision to move the bus station is all about the release of the current bus station site for commercial development in which Blackburn Cathedral is involved because, I believe, they own the land and gave it up for transport use on a peppercorn rent at the time the railway was built. If I am wrong then I am sure the Cathedral authorities can correct me. So it's all about money and not about the benefit of the travelling public.

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in it to win it says...
5:46pm Fri 25 May 12

£5m bus station, when Crapita have had their mits on it, it will be £4m.
it will porbably cost £1m to demolish and ready the site, which leaves £3m... waste another £.5m on turning streets into one way, leading to fielding st carpark, which leaves £2.5m for a building that size... it will be a dump in 3yrs...
Option, 1 leave it as it is
Option, 2 give me the money & I will do a betterjob than the captia comedy act...

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Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
5:56pm Fri 25 May 12

Greenline wrote:
Let's be honest. The vast majority of people use the shops, not the Rail Station. The new bus station should be as near to the shops as possible, which it is.
So should it not be close to ASDA?

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Reality50 says...
6:55pm Fri 25 May 12

Bolton start building their new bus station later this year next to their railway station.Sheffield and Bradford and Doncaster have successful bus/rail interchanges and that is the norm in Europe.While Blackburn's bus station looks nice- on that artists impression-,it needs to be near or next to the railway station in my opinion.

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M.DANNY says...
10:11pm Fri 25 May 12

My pipe dream is at last is now on the planning stage.In the 1990s i told Lancashire Telegraph about the Shopping centre extention on Lord Square now we want a modern bus station at the old market sites.When the Thwaites site is sold to Sainsburys and the Cathedral Quarter is completed,Blackburn then once again apply for city status which Blackburn is more deserving than Preston.I have visited Leeds,Wakefield these towns have new modern state of the arts bus station and it does not have to be near a railway station.Blackburn is behind many towns in UK for retail and modern bus station.

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blackburn_man says...
11:24pm Fri 25 May 12

I doubt it will look like that.All the people are white.

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Gaz M says...
9:24am Sat 26 May 12

Why do the simple and obvious, when you can do the daftest and more awkward option ,Blackburn with Darwen council all over!

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kojak10 says...
9:19am Sun 27 May 12

how about bulding 2 disabled toilets? You can tell the planners of any buildings aren't disabled. The 1 toilet the councils and everywhere provide is never enough as it doubles up as a baby changing room. Have you ever needed the loo and waiting for a queue of mothers to change their babies while you cross your legs??
It just isn't good enough in this day and age.

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disgusted tunbridge wells says...
1:17pm Sun 27 May 12

You couldn't make this up, every other town is trying to combine the bus and train stations

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malstar says...
9:52am Wed 30 May 12

Capita didn't develop MediaCity. I'm sure that was Peel Holdings.

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