Railings Look The Part At Simonside Station

A new £3.2m Metro station has been built in South Tyneside to provide a vital access link for people seeking work, learning opportunities, healthcare, shopping and other activities in the area. Simonside will be the 60th station on the Tyne and Wear Metro system, which first opened 28 years ago.

The station, expected to be used by up to 500,000 passengers every year, was built by main contractor Balfour Beatty, which chose high quality railings and balustrades from bespoke metalwork manufacturer Alpha Rail.

Alpha Rail supplied 600 metres of railings, plus balustrade for the pedestrian barrier on the walkways, access stairs and perimeter of the station.  The company design-assisted, manufactured and installed the railings and painted them on site to an exacting Network Rail specification.  All railings were four part-coated in grey, with balustrading painting to the same high specification but in white.

Phil Ball, Sales Director of Alpha Rail explains: ”This was a great project to be involved with.  Our team were on site for a number of weeks and it involved some great partnership working between ourselves and the contractor.  The railings were produced specifically for this project and it is very satisfying seeing them now in place!”

Duncan Manning, project manager for Balfour Beatty explains: “The design and installation of the balustrading was technically challenging due to the geometry of the station area and Alpha-rail carried out a number of detailed site surveys to ensure that the bespoke design fitted exactly when installed by their experienced on-site team. ”

Alpha Rail, which is based in Nottinghamshire, has over 25 years’ experience in urban regeneration, green space and park restoration. The company provides a bespoke service for architectural metalwork and has supplied many prestigious projects as well as many new and refurbished housing estates with new gates and railings, making a real difference to the local community.

The station will be served by five trains every hour in each direction connecting Simonside with nearby South Shields, Gateshead and Newcastle. It was commissioned by Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, with the help of an £800,000 grant from the European Regional Development Fund.