Fresh details have been announced about the new multi-million pound southern entrance planned for Leeds City Station.
Project bosses at Metro and Network Rail yesterday submitted detailed proposals for the £15.9m project to the Department for Transport (DfT).
And documents made public on the back of that process revealed:
* Around 20,000 passengers per day are expected to use the new entrance;
* On average, each of those passengers will save more than two minutes on the time they currently take to access or leave the station;
* During construction, barges will be used to ferry materials between a loading point at Meadow Lane and the entrance site, which stands on the River Aire.
Coun James Lewis, chairman of Metro, West Yorkshire’s passenger transport authority, said: “We expect around 20 per cent of people using the station every day will take advantage of the new entrance, cutting journey times and relieving pressure on the existing station entrance.”
If all goes according to plan, work on the scheme will start next year, with a view to completion in 2014.
Government ministers have already agreed to meet £12.2m of the cost of the project.
Yesterday’s submission to the DfT was part of the application process for a Transport and Works Act (TWA) Order.
A TWA Order would provide the legal powers that must be obtained before work on the scheme can begin.
Copies of the application documents can be viewed via the www.wymetro.com/lsse web page.
They are also available for inspection at Metro’s Wellington Street offices, Leeds Central Library, Eversheds at Bridgewater Place and Leeds City Council’s Leonardo Building, off Millennium Square. Visitors should check inspection times in advance.
There is currently no direct access to the station from the south, with people having to use the Dark Arches to reach the site’s existing main entrance off City Square.
The idea of opening up the station’s south side pre-dates British Rail’s privatisation in the 1990s.
Details of the current scheme were first revealed by the Yorkshire Evening Post in 2006.
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