Hundreds of construction jobs available due to railway improvement
Hundreds of construction jobs are to be offered, after it has been announced that ten railway stations around the country are being renovated. A total of £50 million will be spent on improving stations, which are said to be mainly in north west England.
The Stations Champions Report recently stated that Britain's train stations need an introduction of minimum standards in the UK. Transport secretary Lord Adonis said that he agreed with the report's findings, saying: "I want every station to be a good station, a hub of local community life and somewhere that you wouldn't mind spending time, with adequate facilities."
The new construction work will offer new jobs in engineering and construction for those who have previous experience in the railway construction sector.
The work will be carried out at Manchester Victoria, Preston, Stockport, Wigan North Western, Liverpool Central and Warrington Bank Quay. Other stations in the South which are also benefitting from the construction funding will be: Clapham Junction, Barking, Luton and Crewe.
In addition to this, Network Rail have also announced its own plans to improve the state of the UK's railway stations. It plans to spend around £3.25 billion on upgrading more than 2,000 sites by 2014. Robin Gisby, Operations and Customer Service Director for Network Rail, agreed with Lord Adonis, saying: "Stations are the railway's shop-front and they have been ignored for too long. Much is planned in this area over the coming years and we must invest wisely."
Network Rail have launched a passenger consultation, to allow passengers to express their views on what they think the investment should be spent on.