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That's got to be good news for Preston. Last time I was up that way (back in the summer) what struck me was how its not changed at all since I was a regular user of the bus station some 20+ years ago. It's cold, smelly, lifeless ... like an old toilet. I've lived in Reading for most of the last 20 years which has seen major development changes in the town centre and surrounding areas - totally transforming the place.
Good point about where the busess would go though!
JohnH
I remember a few years back they were trying to demolish the bus station but it got stopped on the basis that it was a listed building. How come all of a sudden it's a done deal.?
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I can't see what's wrong with the bus station as it is.
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When I was an LEP reporter, I heard that the bus station (Europe's biggest) had been designed by an architect who'd never travelled on a bus in his life!
Certainly, the airport-style "gates" never worked, with people queuing along one side and spilling out into the walkways at the back and blocking them. Also the illuminated gate numbers and lists of services using each "gate" was wonderfully designed to be the same height as the destination boards on the buses so that when a bus drew up you couldn't tell which it was.
Haven't used it for years, but it was smelly and tatty last time I did.
CD
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quote:
Originally posted by Colin Damp
When I was an LEP reporter, I heard that the bus station (Europe's biggest) had been designed by an architect who'd never travelled on a bus in his life!
That explains a lot ! Would that have been Grenfell Baines ?
Although I'm fortunate as to never have used that bus station, I have spent time looking around it, the venue for a friend's ( a man of the cloth) mugging !
It's absurd that such user unfriendly ( bus friendly ) design could win a design award, I consider such a reflection upon the negative creditability of the supposed committee !
Could that committee be the same group that recommended the replacement of the magnificent old Town Hall with its replacement , Chrystal House ?
Busses may be considered useful when operating /collecting revenue ,not when stationary in a bus station !
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Good Luck with the new Bus Station. Here in South Yorkshire there has been a lot of Urban Re-generation taking place following the demise of the Coalfields. Doncaster has a new Interchange now, walk off the bus straight into a massive Shopping Centre via an escalator. The bus station is adjoining the railway station, with the same access, not called Bus Stations anymore, they`re called Transport Interchanges.
Barnsley is about to open a new Transport Interchange, bus and rail station adjoining each other, another Urban Re-generation which will eventually be connected to the main Metropolitan Shopping Centre. No need to go outside into the open, which seems to be the way things are being planned now. The development which has taken place throughout South Yorks is unbelievable, when I recall the old days of mines and spoil heaps, now only memories.
This brings me back to Preston Bus Station, can it not be built next to the Railway Statiion, a long-term project, I know, but surely worth considering. I`m not too familiar with Preston, but I feel that the shopping facilities are too extended, you have to walk too far. Are there plans to alter this, I know there are shopping precincts existing, but is there a plan?
I would recommend anyone, with the time, to visit South Yorkshire and see what can be done to re-develop redundant ares to the advantage of the people who live there. It can be done.
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Chorley now has a bus and train interchange but sadly not the shops to go with it
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The only thing that sticks in my memory about the bus station is taking a corner in the car park too tight and scratching my beautiful Armstrong Siddleley Saphire. The car park was designed for small cars.
Anyone remember the old bus station, Tithe Barn St.? And of course the old Fox St. station that Fishwicks used.
I guess my memories coming back.
John
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In Mount Vernon, about 20 miles inland from Anacortes, they built a "Transportation Interchange". It combined the local bus system (which I used to work for), Amtrak Passenger trains, Greyhound long-distance bus service, the local taxi systems and a bus system that takes people to the airport in Seattle.
The bus station used by the local system has 8 platforms for about 12 services. It works great. Thw whole complex cost about 4 million pounds. There are 4 trains a day, two going to Vancouver and two headed to Seattle and points south. Greyhound has 8 services a day, 4 in each direction.
Good use of the money?
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
