A £5.2 MILLION revamp of Newcastle’s Central Station due to start in the New Year will not start until next June.

Train passengers had previously been told to expect the major redevelopment of the station to begin early next year and be completed by March 2021, but will now have to wait until next summer for work to start.

Plans were revealed back in February for a series of dramatic changes to the station.

They will include a new entrance opposite the Centre for Life, a new short-stay car park and taxi pick-up point, and a striking new concourse inside the station.

The Orchard Street tunnel, recently revealed as the most polluted location in Newcastle, will also be shut to traffic once the existing taxi rank moves to Bewick Street.

Newcastle City Council bosses hope that the upgrades will mean that a multi-storey car park, homes, and offices can later be built on the Forth Goods Yard behind the station.

A council spokesperson said: “The refurbishment works at Central Station require Listed Building Consent. 

“An application will be submitted in the next few weeks for consideration by next April, and subject to consent work on the station will begin in June.”

Passenger numbers through the station are expected to rise from 8.7 million to 12 million by 2023.

Newcastle City Councillor Ged Bell, a member of the local authority’s cabinet, said earlier this year that the redesign was needed to avert a “crisis” caused by an influx of new passengers that the existing station could not cope with.

The council has also pledged that the works will be significantly less disruptive to traffic around the station than during a previous renovation of the rail hub’s entrance.