Park Lane Interchange

Park Lane
Tyne and Wear Metro
Park Lane Metro station was purpose-built for the Sunderland extension in 2002.
Location
Place	Sunderland City Centre
Local authority	Sunderland
Fare zone information
Network One zone	4
Metro zone	C
Original (1979) zone	57
Station code	PLI
History
Opened	2 May 1999
List of stations

Park Lane Interchange is a busy transport interchange on the south-western fringe of the city centre of Sunderland, North East England. It offers Tyne and Wear Metro services, long distance coach services and also local bus services. It is on the site of the Park Lane Bus Station that was built in the 1930s, and a Go North East bus depot. The Metro station opened in 2002.

History

Park Lane is the busiest bus station in the United Kingdom outside of the capital. It replaced Sunderland's Central Bus Station (operated initially by Sunderland Corporation Transport and then Tyne and Wear PTE) and the original Park Lane Bus Station, operated by Go-Ahead Northern / Go North East.

An underground Tyne and Wear Metro station opened at the site on 28 April 2002 enabling speedy travel within Sunderland and much of Tyne & Wear. The opening was a few weeks after the rest of the Sunderland extension, due to the late delivery of wall panels.

Congestion issues within the station led to Stagecoach in Sunderland withdrawing all of its services (apart from the early morning express service X1 to Doxford Park and the acquired contract service 39 when heading to Pennywell) from calling within the Interchange, switching to street concourses on nearby Green Terrace (now used at all times since implementation of a one way system, previously only used before 19:00), Vine Place and Holmeside.

Overview

Park Lane's westbound platform is used for trains to South Hylton, while passengers for north Sunderland and Tyneside use the eastbound platform. The Metro station is one of three serving the City Centre, the others being University and Sunderland Central.

There are a number of amenities at Park Lane, including two newsagents, a Nexus Travelcentre, a Greggs Bakery, and public toilets. The Interchange also hosts a busy taxi rank, as well as National Express and Megabus coach services to London, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham and other destinations across the country. Along with others on the Sunderland extension, the Metro station has vitreous enamelled panels in a colour scheme ^[1] created by Morag Morrison. Each station uses a different arrangement of colours.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Park Lane Metro station.

• Train times and station information for Park Lane Interchange from Nexus

Coordinates: 54°54′09″N 1°23′04″W / 54.9024°N 1.3845°W / 54.9024; -1.3845