The Leeds Station Gateway delay has extended by another month, with Balfour Beatty continuing installation and testing of new lifts before the £46.1m scheme can open to the public. Leeds City Council now expects phased completion across October, after works that were originally due to conclude in autumn 2025 and then deferred to this summer slipped again.
Phased opening planned for October as Leeds Station Gateway delay continues
According to Leeds City Council News, the Leeds Station Sustainable Travel Gateway is expected to begin opening in October, with partners working to negotiate the earlier release of some elements ahead of full completion. The public realm area and the steps connecting Bishopgate Street with New Station Street could open in early to mid-October, subject to ongoing progress on site.
The lifts between New Station Street and Bishopgate Street are targeted for mid-October. Their opening is tied directly to the relocation of the taxi rank from Princes Square, at the rear of the station, to Bishopgate Street, providing step-free access between the two streets for the first time. The cycle hub lifts beneath the station are expected to follow in late October.
‘I know it’s taken time, however, Leeds City Station is built on a massive and historic set of Victorian brick arches which need maintaining and the two schemes have gone ahead together,’ Leeds City Council leader James Lewis said.
Victorian infrastructure and the Mill Goit: the engineering behind the delay
The council has attributed the programme overrun to ‘complex’ engineering challenges that emerged from working within and beneath a functioning Victorian railway station. When the station was originally built in 1869, New Station Street was constructed as a bridge over the Mill Goit, a man-made channel off the River Aire that once directed water to power a nearby mill and has long since run dry. Maintaining and upgrading that buried infrastructure while keeping the station above operational has driven much of the complexity.
The scheme required the removal of 13 iron beams, each weighing up to 40 tonnes, to gain access to the Mill Goit space, followed by piling work to reinforce the underground structure. New 13-metre-long steel beams were then inserted at 2.7-metre intervals across the channel to bring it up to modern standards.
Works were delivered in parallel with essential maintenance by Network Rail to reinforce the underground structure beneath New Station Street, which supports much of the station above. The council described the combination of the two schemes as ‘a significant feat of engineering which has ensured value for money and reduced disruption for passengers and the city compared to delivering two schemes separately and at different times.’ The project is delivered by the council on behalf of Network Rail, in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Beyond the structural and underground works, the completed scheme will deliver a new station entrance, two new lifts providing step-free connectivity, more pedestrian-friendly streets, the relocated taxi rank on Bishopgate Street, and improved cycle storage facilities.
Balfour Beatty’s wider Leeds programme
The Gateway project is not the only major Leeds commission on Balfour Beatty’s books. In July, the council appointed the contractor to deliver a seven-year programme of maintenance and structural improvements on the Leeds Inner Ring Road, valued at up to £120m. The work will be delivered through the Leeds Contractors Major Works Framework, which Balfour Beatty joined in 2023, and the firm has been named sole contractor for the programme.
The scope covers planned maintenance and major structural interventions along the 4km route of the A58(M), a corridor that carries more than 83,000 vehicles each day and encompasses more than 135 structures, including bridges, tunnels and retaining walls. The scale of that appointment underlines the depth of the relationship between the contractor and the council, even as the Gateway scheme’s timeline has continued to extend.
With lift testing under way and partners actively negotiating an early partial opening, the council’s stated aim is for at least some elements of the Leeds Station Gateway to be accessible to the public before the end of October.
