Altrincham Interchange is finally set to get a facelift after redevelopment plans got the green light from Trafford Council.
The new-look facility will feature new concourse; a single ticket office for all modes of transport, and improved links between bus, train and tram services. There will also be a new cycle facility, which Coun. Brian Rigby, Trafford spokesperson for TfGM says “will allow people to cycle in, freshen-up and then either get the bus, train or tram to complete their journey to work, or head off to destinations around the town centre itself.” Freshen up? He means there’ll be showers? We’re not sure.
Detailed plans will now be drawn up and work is set to begin next summer, lasting 18 months.
Manchester Transport blog 
The artists drawings convey a spacious and light construction and far more welcoming that the current shelter situation you meet, when coming from the station into the bus shelter area.
But a lot fewer bus stands with bigger area for pedestrians. Looks like lost and entire row of shelters/ island. Hope the reduced number of stands can cope with the number of buses. Altrincham Interchange in its day had buses connecting with trains every 15mins. Guess with trams every 6 minutes (or thereabouts! ) means no need to connect directly.
So, it looks like that the new Interchange will be Altrincham’s Christmas present for 2013.
I would imagine that this should be warmly welcomed by anybody who has used Altrincham Interchange’s bus station over the years. I think to say that it was a bit small and cramped in the waiting areas at the stands is a bit of an understatement. It’ll make it more convenient when changing buses having one row of stands rather than two rows and having to try and find your way around from one island to the other.
I think the worry, as mentioned, would be the amount of traffic on each of the stands and whether it would get too crowded. It’s one of the problems at other stations, such as Eccles and Oldham, where you’ll get two, sometimes even three, buses all arriving at the same time or within a minute or so, which causes a queue of waiting buses to get in to their relevant stand. Certainly is a problem at Oldham, even with the newer station built around the corner on West Street, which was supposed to alleviate the build-up of buses at the Cheapside bus station.
When all the bus station remedial works are in progress, with the bus stops block nearest the clock tower being totally removed and the bus stops block nearest the station being re-roofed, etc, where will all the buses be terminating during that period?
They will likely do it phased, do the main stand while the far stand remains open then vice versa. When they did the Wigan Bus station resurfacing they just closed one row at a time.
Will the other stand be able to cope with all the services that use the existing two stands? I know that no contractor has been employed to date but why do the artists drawings only show one stand for all the services that will be using the newly reconstructed interchange?
Because their reducing the number of stands, they decided there were more stands than needed and if they concentrated them people would have less far to walk.
Pingback: Altrincham upgrade begins with footbridge demolition | Manchester Transport blog
I have heard the terminus is being moved during refurbishmemt can u tell me where?
The taxi rank outside the bus station where is this going to be, no mention of this section of the transport link never seems to get mentioned in any of the plans