Demolition starts at Wolverhampton railway station

Work has officially started on the demolition of Wolverhampton’s railway station as part of plans to create a £150m transport hub.The scheme has been designed in two phases to ensure train services from City of Wolverhampton continue to operate as normal throughout.Contractor Galliford Try started on Friday to bring down the former British Transport Police building, with a small section of the current station building next to platform one to also be demolished.The erection of the first section of the new station building will follow and will become operational to customers by autumn 2019, when phase two of the programme – bringing down the remainder of the current station and completing the new build – will also start.The new railway station to serve the city will be fully open in summer 2020.Wolverhampton Interchange Partnership consists of City of Wolverhampton Council (CWC), Ion, West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), West Midlands Trains, Virgin Trains, Network Rail, Midland Metro Alliance, Canal & River Trust, and Black Country LEP.Once work on the new station is completed it will pave the way for the Midland Metro Alliance to begin the final link of the new city centre tram extension.The Midland Metro Alliance is currently delivering the Pipers Row and Railway Drive phases of the extension to the railway station.