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CHRISTMAS
Growing PAINS
GRAEME BICKERDIKE
ALL PHOTOS: FOUR BY THREE
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eeds is vibrant and thriving, its cityscape undergoing perpetual transformation as glass and steel are jemmied into gaps between historic buildings - industrial, commercial, civic - many of which are, in turn, evolving for modern city living. London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Newcastle, Glasgow: most of our great urban centres benefit from underground, tram or light rail networks. But not so Leeds. The aspiration to develop one here is longstanding; however, until decisionmakers find a way forward, the railway must shoulder the burden. The city’s station has seen its own changes over the past 60 years. It was substantially rebuilt in 1967, when 500 trains per day typically served it. Between 1999 and 2002, the ‘Leeds 1st’ project introduced five new platforms and daylight into the train shed. Additional tracks were laid on the western approaches, whilst signalling control was transferred to York. In 2016, an eye-catching new entrance offered easy access from the residential and business district emerging on the station’s south side, beyond the river which it spans. Passenger numbers have doubled over the past 20 years; 31 million people now use Leeds station annually and daily train
Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020
numbers exceed 1,250. It’s the busiest in the North, ranking 12th nationwide. And, with growth forecast to continue, the pressure is on to increase capacity and improve the customer experience.
Broader vision Time had taken its toll on the station’s southern concourse, becoming tired and gloomy - a far cry from the iconic gateway to which Leeds might reasonably aspire. Within its roof space, redundant assets and legacy asbestos required removal in a safe, controlled environment. Encapsulating it without impacting on passenger flows would involve the installation of a full scaffold crash deck, the estimates for which bent the available budget. Value engineering was called for. With the roof already leaking and approaching the end of its serviceable life, options were developed for its
replacement. The design, produced by TSP Projects, made best use of the existing support structure - which remained in good condition - although some extra steelwork was needed to meet both structural loadings and current security requirements around blast resistance. The safest and most economical roof solution has involved the use of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) - a material already familiar to any traveller who’s prone to looking upwards; the lightweight system introduces natural light into a number of our major stations. Mounting the ETFE panels above the existing roof trusses creates a greater sense of space, whilst the two bays closest to the entrance are raised by a further 1.2 metres to give the new station frontage more presence in the streetscape.
