Councillor praises collborative work at The Hard

Cllr Jim Fleming, Portsmouth City Council’s cabinet member for traffic and transportation, said Network Rail and the council have been able to work on separate projects alongside one another at The Hard.

The council is currently in the final stages of building a £7m transport interchange on the site, while at the same time Network Rail has invested £7m in maintaining the structure supporting the adjacent Portsmouth Harbour Station.

This could now lead to further improvements to one of the city’s main train stations.

Cllr Fleming said: ‘We have spent two years working very closely with Network Rail and Southwest Trains to make sure our projects could be delivered side by side, while minimising the impact on residents and disruption for those travelling through the area.

‘It’s been a collaborative approach with everyone keen to make this key gateway into the city as attractive as possible.

‘As well as building a state-of-the-art new transport interchange, we’ve also worked with Network Rail to improve the surfacing on part of their site.’

The Hard is important to Portsmouth as a transport interchange as it’s a site where bus, train and ferry services come together and for many people, the first thing they see on arrival in the city. Visit portsmouth.gov.uk and search ‘The Hard’ for more details.