PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS
Page 66
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The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World.
A £25,000 BUS STATION FOR NEWCASTLE.
Some Details of a Good Scheme Propounded by an Enterprising Passenger-transport Undertaking.
MITE decision of the . Northern .1 General Transport Co., Ltd., of Chester-le-Street, to erect a large new motorbus station in the heart of. Newcastle, at an estimated cost of 125,000, marks one of the most important developments to date in the history of the north-country passenger-carrying business.
The proposal of the company is to build a station which will be the largest I covered-in structure of its kind in the country. The site selected is in Worswick Street, and almost directly in the • line of a proposed new arterial thoroughfare through the city, and in close proximity to tho New ugh Level Bridge, which is to• he opened for traffic in the later part of this year.
Plans prepared for this new station provide for nine loading platforms, each capable of accommodating two buses aud 200 passengers. The total number of People Which can be accommodated entirely under cover is in the neighbourhood of 2,000, and it is estimated that with the existing services at least 12 million passengers would use the station per, annum. . It is proposed that the station should form the starting point of Northern General services working the following routes (amongst others) :—Sunderland, South Shields, Durham, Ilebburn and Jarrow, East and West Boldon, Washington, Houghton-le-Spring, tietton, Easington Colliery, Harden, Blackhall, Birtley, Chester-le-Street, Nib:Ea and Craghead.
The new proposal is an effott on the part of this enterprising undertaking to overcome the acute congestion, and indeed the state cf chaos, which. exists at the terminal points at present used for bus traffic. Some time ago the corPoration decided' to tackle the bus-station question, and the street traffic and licensing sub-committee . of the watch committee has had the matter under con
sideration: It has decided upon the advisability of erecting large bus statidns at the three largest termini, which are the , Haymarket for north and eastbound traffic ; • the Sheep -Market for westward traffic ; and Carliol Square for south-bound traffic. ' So far, how
ever, nothing definite has been done, and the Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., has decided to establish its own station for the purpose of securing a central and single point of departure for its own vehicles.
The plans for the new station were submitted to the corporation for approval, but were rejected. A representative of this journal learns, however, that the objections to the scheme are largely ef a technical nature and the company will shortly re-submit its plans which, there is reason to hope, will meet with the approval of 'the-local authority.
The scheme includes the provision of waiting rooms, bureaux, inquiry offices, and, in addition, a suite of general and ticket offices in a three-floor extension at the west end of the station. The station proper will be glass-roofed.