| First stage of £130m Waverley development begins |
| Sunday, 27 September 2009 | |
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The demolition of a redundant post office depot on the north-east side of the station marks Network Rail's start on the first stage of a £130m scheme to redevelop Edinburgh’s Waverley Station. Covering an area of 23 acres. it is Britain's second largest train station and handles over 16million passengers a year. Over the past 15 years, the number of trains has increased by 50%. The work will involve the isolation and demolition of the compound and the roof level conveyor which once linked the station to the General Post Office building on Princes Street. The work will take place between now and the end of November 2009, with four Sunday closures of platforms 1 and 2 taking place between 11 October and 1 November to allow work to take place over the tracks. Once cleared, the site will be used as a compound for the wider improvement scheme due to take place over the next four years. The renewal of the station’s renowned 34,000m2 Victorian glazed roof is at the heart of the project, with the aim to create a bright and spacious station environment. New entrances from Market Street and from Princes Street via Waverley Steps are also planned, along with improvements to the station concourse and building exteriors. Ron McAulay, Network Rail’s director, Scotland, commented: “This week marks the start of a new phase of improvements for Edinburgh Waverley. In recent years, we have increased the station’s capacity for running trains, introduced new platforms and installed new lifts and escalators. The next stage will see passengers benefit even further from an improved station environment. Not only will the glass in the famous old roof be replaced, shedding new light on the station below, but we will be creating new, fully accessible entrances from Market Street and Princes Street. Also, our general improvements to the concourse and building exteriors will provide a marked improvement to the look of the station. The work has a long way to go, but we are keen to minimise disruption to passengers and the creation of an on-site depot will help us deliver that.” The depot building was originally used by Royal Mail to transfer sorted mail from the General Post Office building at the east end of Princes Street onto train services, which would then dispatch mail to locations across the UK. Mail was originally transferred to the depot via a conveyor which linked directly to the lower levels of the General Post Office building. While the conveyor became redundant shortly before the closure of the GPO building in October 1995, the depot was still used for mail sorting until earlier this decade. In recent years, it has been used as car parking space for residents of the Balmoral Hotel. The space created by the demolition of the building will be used as a depot for Network Rail contractors working on the roof renewal project. Use of the site following completion of the roof renewals has still to be decided. Waverley works programme:
Market Street and Platform 8&9 (March 2011 – September 2012)
Waverley Steps (funded by Transport Scotland) (Early 2010 to autumn 2011):
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