Morgan Sindall was appointed by Leicester City Council to create a new building to replace the old bus station and create more attractive routes for pedestrians and cyclists
Leicester’s new bus station building will have glazed walls and feature a curved aluminium roof that appears to float above the main concourse hall.
Bus passengers will benefit from a completely redesigned and improved internal layout with a new café, better seating, modern toilets complete with a new Changing Places accessible toilet, and real-time digital passenger information.
There will also be increased capacity for national and regional bus services, with the number of bays increased from 18 to 24. Electric bus charging points will be installed, and the new building will feature secure storage for up to 150 bikes.
Improvements to footpaths and roads next to the bus station will also take place. This will include better facilities for cyclists and pedestrians, safer crossings to soften the impact of the ring road, new landscaping and more tree planting.
The work will help strengthen and improve links between key development sites and the city centre, including the new Savoy Street which will provide a direct link between St Margaret and Haymarket bus stations.
The £13.5m bus station redevelopment is part of the St Margaret’s Gateway regeneration project.
This is supported by a £10.5m allocation from the Getting Building Fund, a pot of government funding awarded to the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) for shovel-ready infrastructure projects to create jobs and support economic recovery across the country.
Demolition of the old building was completed on time and on budget. All that now remains is the partial steelwork frame which will be reused in the new construction, in line with the high eco-standards of the project.
Construction of the new bus station building is expected to be complete by summer 2022.
An ambitious and important step forwards
Deputy city mayor for environment and transportation, Adam Clarke, said: “These exciting plans to replace St Margaret’s Bus Station with a striking, new and net-zero carbon building represents an ambitious and important step forwards in our efforts to become a carbon-neutral and climate-adapted city by 2030.
“It shows our commitment to decarbonising buildings and will build on our work to promote sustainable transport and support bus operators to convert to low emission fleets. In many ways, this new carbon-neutral bus station building will be a flagship for what we are striving to achieve in Leicester.”
