The Toilet Tiles Are Dead! Long Live The Toilet Tiles and Its Subterranian Ambience
It has been hard to find something good from Osborne’s miserly budget. Whereas East of the M60 earlier covered the electrification work and its attendant sting in the tail, two other projects which would have a positive effect on Greater Manchester’s public transport network also formed part of his £30 billion investment fund. One of them involves the return of the cross-city buses.
Another one is a second hangover from the failed Transport Innovation Fund. This one would greatly benefit West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester bus users alike. That of the long awaited Rochdale Interchange.
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“No doubt at all that they will continue to enjoy and appreciate this for a very long time to come” – GMC Chairman, 1978
The present Rochdale Bus Station opened in April 1978 with 24 stands on two platforms (each with 12 stands, 6 either side). Designed by Essex, Goodman and Suggitt Architects, each stand had a bank of wooden corner seats with shallow armrests. Access to each of its stands were linked by means of subways, thus avoiding accidents between buses and passengers. They also linked the bus stands with a central concourse as well as street level leading to The Butts, Smith Street and Drake Street. Overhead access was augmented by a footbridge, leading to the then new Rochdale Shopping Centre (another one-time brown toilet tiled relic!).
Left of the stands is the Metro Rochdale council offices with the ground level passenger concourse housing a Thwaites pub, cafés, newsagents and a SaverSales office. Escalators lead to the footbridge with gloriously toilet-tastic tiling. In 1996, subway access was discontinued in favour of ground level pedestrian crossings. To meet DDA requirements and improve the waiting environment, lighting was upgraded with non-slip flooring also introduced.
Post-deregulation and privatisation related contraction has seen the present bus station having a surfeit of stands. Its gloomy interior and diesel fumes from passing buses made for an ambience akin to Birmingham New Street railway station, exacerbated by a multi-storey car park atop its 24 stands.
The Bus Station of Christmas Future:
Plans for the proposed bus/tram interchange have been on ice prior to yesterday’s announcement. The £11.5 million scheme will the first in Europe to boast integrated hydropower generation, harnessing the River Roch for its power source. Joint contributions will be made by the Department of Transport, Transport for Greater Manchester and Rochdale MBC. It also retains a historical link with one of Rochdale’s best known coach operators. Prior to 1989, the site of Rochdale Interchange was Yelloway’s Weir Street coach station and head office.
Along with Hyde bus station (opened in 2004), it will be one of a handful of GMPTE/TfGM bus stations to have been designed by Aedas Architects. Another example of their handiwork is Bolton Interchange, where funding was sought before Rochdale’s scheme. From above, the new station will resemble three leaves, making for another unique design, and a vast improvement on the 1978 structure. In comparison with the outgoing structure, there is greater use of natural light with everything on one terminal. The Metrolink station will be linked by a pedestrian crossing with a new commercial development nearby replacing the toilet tiled edifice.
The new interchange is slated for completion in 2013. As with previous projects, the design has been developed with consultation between local bus operators, transport user groups and disability access groups.
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On a personal note, I shall miss the old bus station, on account of the memories I’ve had when I was young. I remember it in its pre-deregulation pomp with the subways and how space age it looked in 1986. I loved the wooden bench seats and the subway access, as well as the footbridge. Though it is pretty sound functionally, I would say that it has had its day in terms of passenger facilities compared with contemporary examples around Greater Manchester. Car parks on top of bus stands are not the done thing with contemporary designs these days, given the lack of natural light and claustrophobic nature (Though Huddersfield and Preston manages to balance that neatly).
I for shall be looking forward to using it in 2013.
References:
- Aedas Architects, designers of the new Rochdale Bus Station. Their website is well worth a look.
S.V., 30 November 2011 (St. Andrew’s Day).
East of the M60 