Hereford city transport hub details confirmed

Plans have been revealed confirming what Hereford’s new multi-million-pound transport hub at the railway station will look like.

A formal planning application from Herefordshire Council shows the entire area in front of the Victorian station building redesigned as a new public forecourt and bus terminal.

Serving as what the application describes as “a gateway to the city centre” that will “capture the essence of Hereford”, the hub will have extensive landscaping and planting, which will leave the grade II listed main building still largely visible from afar.

Wide, “intuitive” routes will run through this, encouraging more use of cycling and walking to and from the station. Cyclists will also have a large new part-covered cycle storage area and even a repair station.

There will also be 11 short-stay car parking spaces in front of the main station entrance, along with three taxi spaces. The 151-space NCP car park to the southeast of the station will remain.

Centrepiece of the design will be a “pavilion-like”, L-shaped shelter for passengers awaiting buses on two sides, with waiting room and toilets.

The plans confirm that, as well as stopping on the road side, some buses will operate a “drive in, reverse out” pattern, which has been criticised in the past over alleged safety issues.

There will also be a new bus layover area on the far side of the Station Medical Centre to the northwest.

The entire project “aims to be a model of sustainable development”, the application adds.

Part of the funding for it will come from an award totalling nearly £20 million from the Government’s Levelling-Up Fund – half of which is to go to the transport hub. The council has already invested £3 million in the project.

Comments on the application, numbered 233009, can be made until November 16.