COUNCILLORS have given their approval to a planned £190 million revamp of Haymarket Station.

The council's transport committee has finalised plans for a revamp of the 164-year-old station to cope with an expected doubling of passenger numbers to nine million a year in the next two decades.

Controversial moves to demolish the grade A-listed station and neighbouring Ryries Bar to make way for a transport interchange have been abandoned in favour of developing around them.

The scheme, which has no funding at this stage, features a giant glass roof over all of the new public areas. The £1.4m feasibility study has resulted in a masterplan for the area, which will be known as the Haymarket interchange, aimed at improving bus, train and tram links. Among the details of the plan are:

• The station concourse and public areas nearly trebling in size to 8700 square metres.
• A space in front of the station for the monument to Edinburgh's footballers killed in the First World War, currently housed next to The Haymarket Bar.
• Retaining and refurbishing the A-listed station and neighbouring Ryries Bar.
• New offices, shops and flats to restore the frontage on to Dalry Road and Haymarket Terrace.

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