The steelwork for Gloucester’s new bus station will soon be coming out of the ground, with completion currently on track for late August. When the city finally gets its 21st century, state of the art facility, it will be in stark contrast to the current state of our railway station – meaning the need to improve it becomes even greater.

There have been some improvements in recent years, from new waiting rooms to the covered bridge between platforms and the station art project led by Richard Graham MP. In 2007, I unveiled another piece of art on Platform 4 – a series of mosaics created by the Look Forward Day Centre. But even the plaque to mark that event is starting to look a bit tarnished. More importantly, the station building is tired, the forecourt unattractive, the car park access less than ideal and the subway to Great Western Road as grim an experience as ever. The subway has been a problem for 30 years or so. I remember it being an issue in the 1997 general election, but despite the noise then nothing has ever happened apart from the odd coat of paint.

Creating links with the city centre
Thankfully there are plans to address these issues. The City Council, with the support of Great Western Railways and Network Rail, has put in a bid to the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for £4.2 million of government funding. We were unsuccessful in the last round of bidding, but I’m hoping this time we will get a positive outcome. The project will see a disabled-friendly access to the subway, with it straightened out to improve visibility. The station building would be reclad, the forecourt improved and a new access created onto Metz Way to prevent huge traffic queues building onto Bruton Way.

But this project isn’t just about having a better railway station and presenting a better first impression of Gloucester – it’s about linking the city centre with the development sites on Great Western Road and achieving a stronger link with the hospital, where thousands of people work.

A lot of preparatory work has been done already for what is a hugely complex project. If we are successful, there will be a lot more to do before we can start on site – so it will be 2020 before we see work get underway. But when we’ve been waiting for 30 years, what’s another couple of years to wait?

It would mean that we would get a railway station to be proud of, alongside our shiny new bus station. So it’s fingers crossed for a ‘yes’ from the LEP! When the station gets its much-needed revamp, I hope they don’t forget to polish my plaque on Platform 4!