Further progress is being made to open up a tram stop in Nottingham that could serve a new NHS diagnostics centre.
Foundations for the Broad Marsh tram stop were built on the viaduct along Middle Hill during the construction of the first phase of the NET network in 2004.
The foundations were built into the viaduct, just south of the Nottingham Contemporary, to provide an option for future expansion, were it to be needed.
Tram bosses are now looking to begin discussions over the stop with the relevant parties involved in the regeneration of the wider Broad Marsh site.
Back in March, the Government’s housing and regeneration agency, Homes England, agreed to buy the former Broadmarsh shopping centre site. It has promised to work with the city council to realise its vision for the land.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust will also be building a new diagnostics centre in Lister Gate, which will be able to quickly test patients without them having to go to hospital, cutting down the backlog of people waiting for MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound scans, and other tests.
Alison Sweeney, NET Head of Marketing, said meetings are planned with Homes England and the NHS Trust to discuss the new stop.
“There is what you call a ghost tram stop that was put in when the extension took place for the lines south of our railway station,” she said, speaking at a council meeting on Tuesday (16 July).
“It is something that is not in use at the moment. Plans are that we have meetings with Homes England and the NHS around the diagnostics centre, as we understand there is going to be a flurry of development works in and around that area.
“I think we are all in agreement the benefits of having a tram stop at that position where there is this ghost tram stop are clear for all to see, with easy access to the diagnostics centre and developments being the main one really.”
However, she added: “One thing I would say from Tramlink’s point of view is that it is not within our gift to fund such a project. We will wholeheartedly attune to those discussions as something that would be a positive enhancement to the network, but funding would have to come from another party.”
Nottingham City Council, which took on the site in 2020 upon the collapse of the shopping centre’s former owner, intu, agreed to put the land up for sale in March.
The site Homes England purchased includes the remains of the shopping centre, the cleared site west of the Green Heart, the NCP multi-storey car park, Severns House, and the old college site on Maid Marian Way.
The Green Heart park and marshland area has already opened alongside the new Central Library in Collin Street.
The next stages of the wider redevelopment of the site will see most of the remaining shopping centre demolished and a new NHS diagnostics centre built.
However, the opening of the centre has been pushed back to 2026 by the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust.
Engineering students from Nottingham Trent University’s civil engineering and product design courses were recently asked by NET and the council to come up with designs for how Nottingham’s tram stops could look in future.
NET says the project will be “crucial” in shaping its future plans.
