MEMBERS of the public will be asked how they would like a major £17m revamp of Bradford Forster Square station to look.

The station is in line for a complete transformation by 2021, under a project unveiled by transport bosses last year designed to coincide with new direct services to London.

‘Pods’ housing waiting rooms and other facilities would be built under the railway arches and a piece of scrubland next to the platforms would become a green ‘pocket park’.

The existing lift structure would be removed and new lifts would be set further back to open up views of the historic railway arches behind.

And whereas passengers currently struggle to buy a hot drink, the revamped station would have a new cafe and a shop.

Artists’ impressions of how the new station could look were first unveiled last year and now Bradford Council has released more detailed architectural drawings, with parts of the design further tweaked to create a grander entrance with a taller roof.

Part of the station is now also planned to have a green ‘living roof’.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Bradford Council’s executive member for regeneration, planning and transport, said currently the structure housing the lift blocked the view of the original arches and protruded into the station.

“It’s not a great space,” he said.

By stripping this out, he said, they would create a more imposing open space to welcome people into the station and make more of a feature of the the original railway arches, which he said were “architecturally fantastic and quite under-valued”.

He said: “It will be quite a unique station, I think, because we will have these fantastic architectural qualities, linking in with our railway heritage, being brought back into use.”

And transport bosses will soon be heading out with these architects’ designs, asking passengers to chip in with their thoughts, such as whether the eye-catching new arched roofs should have Gothic-style points or Roman-style curves.

People will also be asked about what facilities they would like the station to have, such as whether the waiting rooms should be heated, what kind of bicycle storage should be offered, whether there should be two lifts instead of one and how the pocket park should be landscaped.

Tom Jones, senior transport planner at Bradford Council, said: “There are some key questions we want to ask, focusing mainly on facilities.

“We have got facilities we think are important and we want to run that by the public.”

The consultation sessions will be held at the station over a few days next month, with the exact dates still to be finalised.

The final designs would then be drawn up by next spring, around the same time as the West Yorkshire Combined Authority is due to give the official go-ahead for full funding of the scheme from its £1bn West Yorkshire Plus Transport Fund.

Building work could then begin by the end of 2018 and finish in 2020/21.

The rebuilding of the station comes as Virgin Trains East Coast prepares to start running services from Forster Square to London every two hours from 2019.

Transport bosses say this means passengers taking longer journeys will be waiting in the station for longer and will expect better facilities.

Cllr Ross-Shaw said: “At the moment, you just need to go for your service and you are in and out straight away.

“That isn’t ideal and the retail offer isn’t great.

“This is just a more modern, functional rail station.”

The new East Coast services from Forster Square will be in addition to the existing four trains a day which run from Bradford Interchange to London King’s Cross, operated by Grand Central.