Berkswell station, on the Birmingham to Coventry line, now has a new ticket office and waiting room.
In a £1m project that started last November, Network Rail and its contractor J. Murphy & Sons Limited (Murphy) have demolished the old station master’s house at the end of the Birmingham platform and the single storey wooden ticket office.
Now the 200,000 passengers who use the station each year can buy their tickets from a new, purpose built bespoke steel frame clad building designed along Network Rail’s modular station principles.
For the first time the new ticket office also incorporates a separate low height accessible counter for disabled passengers to use.
Once passengers have bought their tickets, they can move down the platform and wait for their trains in a new, enclosed and heated waiting room.
The old passenger ramp has been removed and access has been reconfigured to make it easier to get onto the station. There are new handrails and fencing round the entrance, designed to reflect the modern feel of the building, and there is new cycle storage.
Jo Kaye, Network Rail route director, said:
“This is an important station on a key commuter route and the new facilities reflect this. Passengers now have a 21st century ticket office instead of what was essentially a wooden building with a distinctly 1960s feel.”
Alex Hynes, London Midland commercial director, said: “Network Rail and Murphy are to be congratulated for providing our passengers and staff with a fantastic new facility”.
Network Rail decided to carry out the work because the old buildings were in a dilapidated condition.
The station master’s house, which dates from 1865, had been empty for many years and it was simply not financially viable to repair and keep it.
Similarly, the ticket office – thought to be built in 1912 – in was in a very poor condition, particularly so far as staff facilities were concerned, and did not meet current standards.
