News: £11.35m coming down the track for Rotherham Gateway Station
Further funding could be signed off later this month for Rotherham Gateway Station - the multimillion pound regeneration project to get the borough back on the mainline.
The board at the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is being asked to set aside £11.35m to enable the detailed design of the project and move it towards procurement.
The total costs of the project, based on estimates from Network Rail, is £133m, and could be as much as £166m for a four-platform station.
The project involves a new integrated station on the mainline and a tram-train stop on land at Forge Way, Parkgate and aims to transform the regional and national connectivity of Rotherham, catalysing a new Innovation Campus around the station.
SYMCA's own website describes Rotherham Gateway has having "the potential to offer the most significant growth and regeneration opportunity across the North of England."
Rotherham Council is leading on the project and so far £1m has been utilised from SYMCA's City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) to produce an outline business case with £10m secured by the council through the Town Deal to prepare the Station Masterplan and acquire land necessary to facilitate delivery.
The new mainline station proposed for Parkgate is a Department for Transport (DfT) retained scheme, held back for further review or development before funding is released, so a business case for the project has been prepared in line with government guidance, including the requirements of the Treasury’s Green Book which has recently been updated to support place-based business cases.
The next stage involves the detailed design of the mainline station, the new tram-train stop and the station ‘floormat’ elements, and to ready the project for procurement. A SYMCA paper explains that this is the equivalent of a ‘Decision to Design’ within the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline.
The paper adds: "This is estimated to cost around £11.35m - funding for this work would use an allocation provisionally included within the MCA’s City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement programme. By accessing the devolved funding for the next stage of design work the applicant aims to ensure the project can progress at pace and ensure that the significant benefits that will be delivered as a result of the Rotherham Gateway Station project can be realised at the earliest opportunity."
Station opening has been pencilled in for "late 2030" creating additional rail services and faster journey times to the adjacent centres of Sheffield, Doncaster and Leeds whilst adding direct and quicker connections to key markets in the North West, the Midlands and the North East, as well as ports and airports.
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The next stage of development work also includes the preparation of a full business case for the government.
The SYMCA report adds: "To the north of the town centre, plans have been developed to establish an exemplar development of high technology industry fit for the future economy that builds on the industrial legacy and supports a thriving local economy, creating employment opportunities for new and existing residents. This provides the opportunity to further develop the advanced manufacturing cluster within South Yorkshire as part of the UK’s first Investment Zone.
"At the heart of these plans is the proposal to radically enhance the connectivity of this site, not only within the borough and South Yorkshire, but to and from other centres of advanced manufacturing, international gateways and London with the development of a new Rotherham Gateway Station."
In addition to the specific facilities associated with the station project, it is envisaged that the whole area will support more than 355,000 sq ft of advanced manufacturing and commercial space and around 250 homes (in addition to the 2,500 planned on the adjacent Bassingthorpe Farm strategic site). There will also be around 100,000 sq ft allocated for green spaces and 32,000 sq ft of public realm.
Around 200 parking spaces have been included and it is not assumed that the new station will require any local highway mitigation over and above the access. Rotherham Council is already considering a scheme to improve the network in the area as part of the Bassingthorpe Farm residential development.
As for the remaining funding, the report notes that sources are being explored, including CRSTS2 (now renamed as Transport for City Regions) "but as yet none is confirmed and so the funding of this next phase including the acquisition of land will be entirely at risk."
Mainliine station costs are estimated at £72,322,000 (upped to £94,300,000 with risk and inflation) with the tram-train stop estimated at £27,714,000 (£39,604,000). Building a four platform station would cost an estimated £94,145,000 (or £127,859,000 with risk and inflation).
Plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail and a 10-year Infrastructure Strategy are expected from the government soon.
Images: RMBC
The board at the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is being asked to set aside £11.35m to enable the detailed design of the project and move it towards procurement.
The total costs of the project, based on estimates from Network Rail, is £133m, and could be as much as £166m for a four-platform station.
The project involves a new integrated station on the mainline and a tram-train stop on land at Forge Way, Parkgate and aims to transform the regional and national connectivity of Rotherham, catalysing a new Innovation Campus around the station.
SYMCA's own website describes Rotherham Gateway has having "the potential to offer the most significant growth and regeneration opportunity across the North of England."
Rotherham Council is leading on the project and so far £1m has been utilised from SYMCA's City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) to produce an outline business case with £10m secured by the council through the Town Deal to prepare the Station Masterplan and acquire land necessary to facilitate delivery.
The new mainline station proposed for Parkgate is a Department for Transport (DfT) retained scheme, held back for further review or development before funding is released, so a business case for the project has been prepared in line with government guidance, including the requirements of the Treasury’s Green Book which has recently been updated to support place-based business cases.
The next stage involves the detailed design of the mainline station, the new tram-train stop and the station ‘floormat’ elements, and to ready the project for procurement. A SYMCA paper explains that this is the equivalent of a ‘Decision to Design’ within the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline.
The paper adds: "This is estimated to cost around £11.35m - funding for this work would use an allocation provisionally included within the MCA’s City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement programme. By accessing the devolved funding for the next stage of design work the applicant aims to ensure the project can progress at pace and ensure that the significant benefits that will be delivered as a result of the Rotherham Gateway Station project can be realised at the earliest opportunity."
Station opening has been pencilled in for "late 2030" creating additional rail services and faster journey times to the adjacent centres of Sheffield, Doncaster and Leeds whilst adding direct and quicker connections to key markets in the North West, the Midlands and the North East, as well as ports and airports.
Advertisement
The next stage of development work also includes the preparation of a full business case for the government.
The SYMCA report adds: "To the north of the town centre, plans have been developed to establish an exemplar development of high technology industry fit for the future economy that builds on the industrial legacy and supports a thriving local economy, creating employment opportunities for new and existing residents. This provides the opportunity to further develop the advanced manufacturing cluster within South Yorkshire as part of the UK’s first Investment Zone.
"At the heart of these plans is the proposal to radically enhance the connectivity of this site, not only within the borough and South Yorkshire, but to and from other centres of advanced manufacturing, international gateways and London with the development of a new Rotherham Gateway Station."
In addition to the specific facilities associated with the station project, it is envisaged that the whole area will support more than 355,000 sq ft of advanced manufacturing and commercial space and around 250 homes (in addition to the 2,500 planned on the adjacent Bassingthorpe Farm strategic site). There will also be around 100,000 sq ft allocated for green spaces and 32,000 sq ft of public realm.
Around 200 parking spaces have been included and it is not assumed that the new station will require any local highway mitigation over and above the access. Rotherham Council is already considering a scheme to improve the network in the area as part of the Bassingthorpe Farm residential development.
As for the remaining funding, the report notes that sources are being explored, including CRSTS2 (now renamed as Transport for City Regions) "but as yet none is confirmed and so the funding of this next phase including the acquisition of land will be entirely at risk."
Mainliine station costs are estimated at £72,322,000 (upped to £94,300,000 with risk and inflation) with the tram-train stop estimated at £27,714,000 (£39,604,000). Building a four platform station would cost an estimated £94,145,000 (or £127,859,000 with risk and inflation).
Plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail and a 10-year Infrastructure Strategy are expected from the government soon.
Images: RMBC
3 comments:
£11.35M for the design? Ludicrous!
and you just know it will end up being even more than that.
Great news
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