I was back in Peterborough the other day to help make sure Steam Railway magazine reached the printers on time. The trip gave me a chance to have a look at the recently completed improvements, including new platforms, that the city’s station now boasts.
Taken as a whole, the station is far, far better than the one at which I arrived in 1997 take up my job on RAIL – issue 308, not that I’ve been counting! Yet the detail of some of the work smacks of a rushed finish that’s still not been tidied.
The photographs show what I mean – cement spilled onto platforms, corrugated cable pipes poking from surfaces are just a couple of the problems I saw. It seems a shame to spoil such good work in this way.
Yes, perhaps I’m being picky. And yes, perhaps some of the older bits of the station are in worse condition but it’s the fact that something new is like this. It won’t improve with age, it will just deteriorate.
Peterborough Platform 3 boasts a new waiting shelter but the quality of the finish leaves something to be desired. East Coast told me this work was on the snagging list for its contractor.
Messy cables and ducting detract from the improvements at Peterborough station.