Fresh project to upgrade Colchester North Station (From Gazette)

Join bus and train tickets? I think you mean joint bus and train tickets. There are already tickets on sale that combine bus and rail tickets. They are called Plusbus tickets and are available in Colchester and Wivenhoe. Buses service the station? Buses servicing the station!

A cup of coffee at a reasonable price wouldn't go a miss.

Cash machine, clean toilets.

There already is a cash machine at the station.

Something needs to be done about the idiots that park on the double yellow lines outside the equity building the same for the selfish fools who sit blocking the lane through the waiting bays because they can't get a space and are too thick to reaslise their actions have an impact on the traffic trying to access and pass the station.

I agree with ShadowReturns. The traffic flow around North Station is bad enough without adding to it because of the people blocking one of the two lanes in & out of the station. On Friday, there were four cars all parked there, and due to the traffic light sequence, the 61 bus got stuck for a couple of minutes passing the illegally parked cars and by the time the lights had changed again, the traffic was backed all the way around the roundabout getting into the station & backed well under the covered part of the car park trying to get out of the station.

Correct there are already combined tickets available but the bus part is more expensive when purchased individually from the train station.

wardyt wrote:
Correct there are already combined tickets available but the bus part is more expensive when purchased individually from the train station.

Sorry....that reads very badly.

You get charged an extra £80 for a yearly ticket if you buy it in combination with your train ticket. You are best of pruchasing individually.

Not sure how they are going to magically improve " bus, bike and pedestrian access to the town centre". Logistically there is one route to and from the station. You cannot really circumvent the roundabouts at either side of the viaduct and the viaduct cannot be widened.
They could perhaps improve the path linking Turner's Rise with Cowdray Centre but that's about the only option.

Thanks to Victorian Nimbyism, we've had to endure over 100 years of the main station being miles outside the town centre. The best improvement that could be made would be for the station to move - perhaps make the Town station the main one!

Im_Like_HELLO wrote:
Thanks to Victorian Nimbyism, we've had to endure over 100 years of the main station being miles outside the town centre. The best improvement that could be made would be for the station to move - perhaps make the Town station the main one!

No going back now but surely a better solution would be to build new stations at Stanway, St.Johns/Parsons Heath & Ardleigh.

Arthur Fonzarelli wrote:

Im_Like_HELLO wrote:
Thanks to Victorian Nimbyism, we've had to endure over 100 years of the main station being miles outside the town centre. The best improvement that could be made would be for the station to move - perhaps make the Town station the main one!

No going back now but surely a better solution would be to build new stations at Stanway, St.Johns/Parsons Heath & Ardleigh.

Not really sure how new stations would help? Other than creating line congestion and longer journey times.

Im_Like_HELLO wrote:
Thanks to Victorian Nimbyism, we've had to endure over 100 years of the main station being miles outside the town centre. The best improvement that could be made would be for the station to move - perhaps make the Town station the main one!

Not sure how you could do that without demolishing large swathes of the town.

I´ve thought before there could be shuttle train going back and forth from North to Town stations. If it ran regularly and was cheap, it would be a simpler way to get into town. But it might mean closing the crossing at the bottom of Harwich Road, which would probably create problems down there.

Who´d be a town planner, hey?! Solve one problem, but create another.

But it´s not that far into town really.

romantic wrote:

Im_Like_HELLO wrote:
Thanks to Victorian Nimbyism, we've had to endure over 100 years of the main station being miles outside the town centre. The best improvement that could be made would be for the station to move - perhaps make the Town station the main one!

Not sure how you could do that without demolishing large swathes of the town.

I´ve thought before there could be shuttle train going back and forth from North to Town stations. If it ran regularly and was cheap, it would be a simpler way to get into town. But it might mean closing the crossing at the bottom of Harwich Road, which would probably create problems down there.

Who´d be a town planner, hey?! Solve one problem, but create another.

But it´s not that far into town really.

There are trains that just run between Town and North station. Just not enough if them perhaps. Especially on Sundays.

There is no cost either as any train ticket is for Colchester stations not the individual ones.

ColchesterBelgian wrote:

Arthur Fonzarelli wrote:

Im_Like_HELLO wrote:
Thanks to Victorian Nimbyism, we've had to endure over 100 years of the main station being miles outside the town centre. The best improvement that could be made would be for the station to move - perhaps make the Town station the main one!

No going back now but surely a better solution would be to build new stations at Stanway, St.Johns/Parsons Heath & Ardleigh.

Not really sure how new stations would help? Other than creating line congestion and longer journey times.

There would be less people using North Station so less traffic around it.

But as you say longer train journeys.

I'm pretty sure you can get a bus from North station to the high street for £1? Well you could last time I used it!

But as TheCaptain has pointed out a Colchester stations ticket covers both, although it's hardly much of a walk from North Station to town anyway.

A ticket from outside Colchester to Colchester North or Colchester Town is the same cost. A ticket between the two stations isn't free though, it's £3 return (I think). Unless that wasn't what was meant, in which case, I apologise.

TheCaptain wrote:

romantic wrote:

Im_Like_HELLO wrote:
Thanks to Victorian Nimbyism, we've had to endure over 100 years of the main station being miles outside the town centre. The best improvement that could be made would be for the station to move - perhaps make the Town station the main one!

Not sure how you could do that without demolishing large swathes of the town.

I´ve thought before there could be shuttle train going back and forth from North to Town stations. If it ran regularly and was cheap, it would be a simpler way to get into town. But it might mean closing the crossing at the bottom of Harwich Road, which would probably create problems down there.

Who´d be a town planner, hey?! Solve one problem, but create another.

But it´s not that far into town really.

There are trains that just run between Town and North station. Just not enough if them perhaps. Especially on Sundays.

There is no cost either as any train ticket is for Colchester stations not the individual ones.

That´s true if you arrive from outside Colchester, but there is a cost to go between them if you start either end.

The benefit of the train is that hundreds of people can potentially get into the town without needing to drive and park.

Much of Europe gets the deal with public transport, but for some reason, we don´t really embrace it so much here, and it´s a real shame.

romantic wrote:

TheCaptain wrote:

romantic wrote:

Im_Like_HELLO wrote:
Thanks to Victorian Nimbyism, we've had to endure over 100 years of the main station being miles outside the town centre. The best improvement that could be made would be for the station to move - perhaps make the Town station the main one!

Not sure how you could do that without demolishing large swathes of the town.

I´ve thought before there could be shuttle train going back and forth from North to Town stations. If it ran regularly and was cheap, it would be a simpler way to get into town. But it might mean closing the crossing at the bottom of Harwich Road, which would probably create problems down there.

Who´d be a town planner, hey?! Solve one problem, but create another.

But it´s not that far into town really.

There are trains that just run between Town and North station. Just not enough if them perhaps. Especially on Sundays.

There is no cost either as any train ticket is for Colchester stations not the individual ones.

That´s true if you arrive from outside Colchester, but there is a cost to go between them if you start either end.

The benefit of the train is that hundreds of people can potentially get into the town without needing to drive and park.

Much of Europe gets the deal with public transport, but for some reason, we don´t really embrace it so much here, and it´s a real shame.

Very true, yes if you only want to travel between the two Colchester station there is a charge. shockingly its £2.60 return.

I was under the impression that if you travelled on the train at the weekend it was a joint train and bus ticket as there is constant engineering works .......