OREANDA-NEWS. Almost 20,000 passengers used the new southern entrance at Leeds station during a successful first seven days – saving commuters almost an hour a week thanks to quicker access to the platforms.

The entrance, which provides access to the south of the city as well as the Dark Arches, saw a steady increase in users throughout the week after it was first opened on Sunday 3 January, peaking at over 4,000 people using it on Thursday 7 January.

Network Rail station manager Helen Dawson said: “The feedback we have had from customers has been excellent and as we expected, the number of passengers using the entrance has increased as more people realise that it is now open.

“The entrance will save over five minutes per journey for those working to the south of the city, which adds up to nearly an hour a week, and is also helping to reduce congestion in other parts of the station.”

The southern entrance forms part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan and with steps, lifts and escalator provides a fully accessible route to Leeds’ Granary Wharf area adjacent to the Leeds Liverpool canal.

Leeds station is England’s second busiest outside of London and sees over 100,000 passengers a day pass through it.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority Chair Cllr Peter Box said: “I am pleased to hear that people are starting to use the new entrance.

“It has been designed to save journey time for the large proportion of Leeds station users who get off the train and head for the city centre’s fast-growing south bank area.

“We have been out providing passengers with directions and information about the new entrance and it will take a while for everyone to adjust but I am confident we will see these figures grow.”

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing ?38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.