News

£100,000 makeover for Harrogate

18th October 2007

NEW FIGURES SHOW 8% RISE IN JOURNEYS

HARROGATE station has been given a £100,000 makeover with new seating, signs and better lighting as new figures show a big rise in the number of people travelling from the station.

Northern Rail, which manages Harrogate station, asked customers and employees what they liked, didn’t like and what they felt could be improved at the station. In response to their feedback a variety of improvements have been made, including:

• New seats on the concourse and platforms
• New signs inside and outside the station
• New flooring in the waiting room, which now has colourful artwork by children on the walls
• The station has been repainted in Northern’s colours
• Improved lighting in the toilets
• New plants and floral displays
• A major deep clean of the station

The number of journeys made from Harrogate station has risen by 8% to more than 430,000 so far this year compared to the same period last year, and follows the introduction of extra carriages on busy Northern Rail routes last December in a £20m partnership between Northern Rail, West Yorkshire PTE, Yorkshire Forward and North Yorkshire County Council.

David Sidebottom, Passenger link manager for Passenger Focus, the rail passenger watchdog, said: “Northern has listened to what passengers are saying in our surveys and is improving its facilities at stations including Harrogate. We are pleased with the investment and the effort that Northern is putting in and that they are working closely with us."

Malcolm Brown, Area Director, Northern Rail said: “We have invested £100,000 to make a lot of small changes that we hope will make a big difference to customers using Harrogate station. The increase in journeys from Harrogate this year shows the success of providing newer and bigger carriages to increase our capacity on this busy route.”