Broad Marsh back in business

Thursday 6th October 2022

Nottingham’s Broad Marsh bus station has finally reopened after a five year demolition and rebuild programme. It’s part of a £250 million regeneration of what’s called “Nottingham Southside” and also includes a new intu Broadmarsh centre, a Nottingham City Hub incorporating a new library and a redveloped Nottingham Castle.

Within “Nottingham Southside” is a sub project called “Southern Gateway” which incorporates re-routing of traffic, new public spaces, landscaping and enhanced pedestrian and cycle provision.

The new bus station and car park (as well as the shopping centre) were due to be ready for Autumn 2021 but delays in projects of this kind are not unusual and Broad Marsh has been true to form. National Express began using its two departure bays in June but Trentbarton and sister company Kinchbus only moved back in from Sunday when the bus departure area opened.

There’s been a subtle name change too.

It’s now called Broad Marsh, rather than Broadmarsh, although I see there was some confusion with both nomenclatures being used as a taste of what was to come when the bus station closed its doors in July 2017 and the “is now closed” poster gave a hint of the new regime.

Trentbarton has been a bit choosy in which bus routes it’s moved back to the new facility with high profile routes such as indigo and i4 continuing to terminate and layover in Friar Lane right by the centre of action next to Old Market Square.

Only seven bus routes comprising 20 buses an hour have returned to the new nine bay bus station, aside from Nat Ex’s exclusive two bays for its express coach departures said to number around 58 per day.

Oddly, despite click through links from the above online announcements to timetable pages none of them have been updated and at the time of writing still show the various ‘temporary’ departure points around the city centre which won’t inspire confidence in using the new facility.

No doubt it will also take time for passengers to adjust travel habits formed over the last five years but it struck me just how quiet the gleaming new facility was when I visited on Tuesday lunch time, its second weekday of being open.

The new bus station is located in exactly the same location as previously and looks to have the same square shape ‘footprint’ as before.

Demolition and redevelopment work is still continuing north of the site, including the former huge Broadmarsh shopping mall and other buildings as you can see from a wander around that area.

So for now the main entrance is on the south side of the site in Canal Street as you walk towards the city centre from the railway station.

Canal Street was at one time a major thoroughfare for traffic heading east to west around the city centre, but as part of the “Southern Gateway” project this has been subject to calming and restricted to buses and cycles with other traffic banished further south.

It certainly makes for a quieter and more pleasant approach to the bus station.

Entering through this southern entrance you’ll find the two side loading bays allocated to National Express which has a ticket/information office as well as machines for the purchase of tickets.

Electronic departure signs list upcoming departures.

Initially I was puzzled how to get to the nine bays for bus departures on the north side of the bus station, but then spotted a sign directing passengers left to the “Bus Station” (which I thought I’d already entered).

You’re directed past stand 11 …

…. past one of many electronic departure signs around the bus station …..

….. and then along a long corridor around the west side of the bus manoeuvring area ….

….. until you reach an area of seating …

…. and then the departure stands along the north side of the bus station.

The main thing you notice is the whole bus station is dependent on electronic screens for information.

They seem to be everywhere.

It’s a true digital bus station.

The screens show upcoming bus departures in time order as well as train departures at the nearby rail station which alternate with upcoming tram departures from the station tram stop.

At each of the nine bays there’s another screen with displays of a route map and reference to the service frequency alternating with a display showing the next few departures and a smaller version of the route map.

On the reverse side the screens display various images from around the city centre. Well, why not?

I didn’t spot it on my visit but blog reader John contacted me to explain “there are information screens on the reverse side of the real time stop screens that refer to transport options outside be it bus, train or tram. Under bus times option are real time departures for bus stops outside. You can click on each stop number to the left of the map to see departures from each specific stop.”

Apparently these are appearing at other ‘hubs’ around the city centre.

There are no ‘hard copy’ timetables on display or lists showing departures for later in the day or on other days of the week. I guess it’s assumed everyone has smartphones so such information doesn’t need to be publicly provided.

There’s also no ‘hard copy’ detailed information showing ‘where to catch your bus’ (by bus number/brand) not only for departures from the bus station but for the myriad of other stops in the city centre for all those bus routes which don’t use this bus station or the city’s second, Victoria bus station, north of the shopping area. There’s also no ‘hard copy’ network map/maps.

Electronic displays are all very well but they don’t necessarily mean comprehensive information provision is always on display, especially if screens are alternating and you don’t happen to catch the display you want. And what’s going to happen when there’s an inevitable failure? Showing an Error Code isn’t much good to a visitor unfamiliar with the bus station layout.

Furthermore the brightness of the concourse and the darkness and gloom of the manoeuvring area means it’s not easy to see when buses are on the stands.

There are plenty of seats in a communal area but only half a dozen by each departure point which seems odd.

The new bus station doesn’t feel quite as subterranean as its now demolished predecessor mainly because of modern lighting and segregation between passengers and the bus manoeuvring area. Previously passengers waited on a wider concourse alongside the buses in drive through bays which extended across the whole area but now the nine bays are all drive in on a staggered line up and reverse out.

Whereas previously Trentbarton and Nottingham City Council had Travel Shops alongside other commercial retail units ….

….. now there’s provision for two retail units with one looking like it’s been rented but I’m thinking the tenants may find the footfall disappointing.

It’s not clear whether Trentbarton are taking one of them.

Toilets are available and for those interested in ratios the Gents has five urinals, five cubicles, six wash taps, two soap dispensers and three hand dryers. The logic of this relative provision always mystifies me. Not surprisingly the facilities were all sparkling and clean.

A man with “Security” on his high-viz was on patrol to give passengers reassurance and limited information as needed.

Exits and entrances from the north, east and west side of the bus station concourse are still not quite completed and are a little confusing to visitors.

The bus station concourse is described as being on the “Lower Ground Floor” and although the sign indicates the escalator will take you to the Collin Street exit on the “Ground Floor” …

…. when you reach the top you find it looks as though it’s blocked off which confused another person wandering around trying to leave, as well as myself.

This is where the link used to be to the Broadmarsh shopping area. I didn’t spot the actual exit to Collin Street around the corner so instead headed back down to the Bus Station.

The Collin Street exit/entrance is still in the middle of a public realm makeover.

Over on the west side of the site the entrance/exit in Carrington Street is next to the new Library that’s been constructed as part of the project and has yet to open.

The bus station site also incorporates a new 1,304 capacity multi-storey car park run by the City Council.

Unlike the bus station it was doing a roaring trade according to the coloured light space availability guidance system by the barriers when I visited on Tuesday with four of the six floors showing “Full”.

The car park opened as long ago as November 2021. Bearing in mind this is a prime city centre site and controlled by the City Council I’m surprised the parking charges aren’t even higher.

The work to transform the area around Broadmarsh continues. As explained, it’s a £250 million project with £25.3 million coming from the Local Growth Fund for the new bus station and car park as well as pedestrianisation and public realm improvements in the surrounding area.

The intu owned shopping centre which used to link into the old bus station has also been partly demolished. Google images shows how it used to look….

…. and this is how I found it on Tuesday.

There’s no doubt Nottingham City Council are characteristically persuing a radical overhaul and regeneration of this high profile part of the city centre and it’s always welcome to see investment in a brand new bus station, but what a shame it had to be a subterranean affair which despite the installation of good lighting and all the electronic monitor screens, or perhaps because of them, feels like a very sterile place to wait rather than offering a welcoming friendly atmosphere,

And I can’t help thinking it would have really been radical if the 1,304 capacity car park idea had been ditched in favour of more Park and Ride capacity on the edge of the city with further investment in the city’s already excellent bus network.

Roger French

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