Battle stations over new capital gateway

One of Scotland's leading architects has attacked long-awaited plans to overhaul one of Edinburgh's two main railway stations - and is putting forward his own striking designs for the project.

• A model shows how Richard Murphy's wider plan for the Haymarket area would look from above

Richard Murphy, who has designed a controversial new hotel and office development in the city's Haymarket area, is now pursuing plans to transform the nearby railway station and create a new public precinct outside.

He has produced a rival scheme to the one for which station owner Network Rail unveiled plans in September and has warned that the current scheme - which would see a more modest black granite structure built next to the existing two-storey building - will be a "huge missed opportunity" for the city if it goes ahead.

He wants the city council to reopen talks with Network Rail to try to get it to drop its plans for the redevelopment and consider his proposals as an alternative.

The Edinburgh-based architect - who claims formal approaches to Network Rail have been rebuffed - has urged the city council and Architecture and Design Scotland, a government advisory body, to try to ensure the new-look Haymarket reflects its status as a "transport hub and gateway to the city".

However, both the city council and Network Rail have insisted they are not responsible for wider improvements to the area.

Plans to expand the station have had to be drawn up to accommodate a predicted growth in passenger numbers from 4.1 million currently, to nine million by 2030.

Mr Murphy, who is calling for a public debate over how the station should be overhauled, has branded Network Rail's plans "seriously inadequate" and ridiculed the station extension for "facing the wrong way".

The proposals have also been criticised by heritage groups who yesterday branded the plans "not ambitious enough".

It is feared there will be a lack of public space when passenger numbers increase and the capital's tram starts running through the area, as a stop is planned next to the station.

Network Rail's plans involve the creation of a major extension behind the current station building, which would create a new concourse, with a glass bridge linking the new building to existing platforms.

The scheme to overhaul Scotland's fourth-busiest railway station was drawn up after previous attempts to create a more ambitious joint development with the city council - which would have seen offices, flats and shops built around the station - foundered due to funding problems.Network Rail insists its new plans were drawn up after a range of options for the station alone were explored during a previous feasibility study and have been approved in principle by the government agency Transport Scotland, which will be largely funding the scheme, estimated to cost up to 30 million.

Mr Murphy has produced images showing how the site could be transformed by a huge glass-framed building covering the existing A-listed station house.

His scheme would see a new pedestrianised space created outside the building, part of which would be built over existing railway lines, as well as a new tram and bus interchange.

Mr Murphy's practice was forced to scale back plans for a 17-storey hotel on an old railway goods yard site at Haymarket after they were rejected by the Scottish Government, despite winning the backing of the city council.

Edinburgh's planning convener, Jim Lowrie, yesterday said he would like to see Mr Murphy's ideas come to fruition, but a lack of funding from Network Rail was the main stumbling block.

Mr Murphy said Network Rail's plans failed to contribute to the future of Haymarket as an urban place.

He added: "A major part of our thinking on the redevelopment of the Haymarket former goods yards has been the wider context of what Haymarket as a public space could become.

"The station itself has been subject to a number of studies and proposals over the years and there is a proposal currently tabled which shows development behind the listed building.

"Haymarket is the fourth-busiest station in Scotland, with passenger figures projected to increase dramatically, and the existing arrangements are already seriously inadequate.

"We have been working with Architecture and Design Scotland and have volunteered as part of that ongoing debate a more ambitious proposal to stimulate discussion.

"Network Rail's new building is actually facing the wrong way and does not seem to be very practical, bearing in mind the sheer numbers of people who use the station."Marion Williams, director of heritage group the Cockburn Association, said of Network Rail's plans for the station's redevelopment: "We feel that this project is not ambitious enough and that there are opportunities to create a more dramatic approach to this arrival point into the city from the west.

"We are disappointed to see that little has been proposed to create the transportation hub that Haymarket is meant to be.

"For the fourth-busiest railway station in Scotland, this is unacceptable and something that must be tackled in the general layout of the new station, even if it can't be achieved immediately."

Mr Lowrie said: "We have seen more ambitious proposals for the station in the past and we helped draw up plans for a covered shopping mall and a whole new active frontage for the station.

"However, it is really down to Network Rail, as they have not been willing to spend the money. Richard Murphy has produced a very good scheme and we would like to see it happen, but funding is the big problem."

A spokesman for Network Rail said: "Haymarket station is a major transport hub with more than four million passengers a year currently passing through it. Passenger numbers are expected to reach nine million by 2030 and Haymarket needs to be capable of supporting this growth.

"We are delighted to have been asked to deliver this project as an integral part of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme. When complete, Haymarket will be transformed into a fully accessible modern interchange facility. Wider improvements to the area would be welcomed, but that is not Network Rail's role."The Architect:

RICHARD Murphy, a graduate of Newcastle and Edinburgh universities, formed his practice in Scotland's capital in 1991, and it is now one of the best-known in the country.

It made its name designing extensions to houses and mews conversions, but is now best known in Scotland for its arts and cultural building projects.

These include the Dundee Contemporary Arts complex, the Tolbooth Arts Centre in Stirling, the Eastgate Theatre and Arts Centre in Peebles and the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh.

Other flagship projects in the pipeline include a museum and art gallery in Dunfermline, a revamp and extension of Perth Theatre and the transformation of Biggar's Corn Exchange into a modern theatre.

Among Mr Murphy's most successful projects of recent years have been the creation of a new home for the British High Commission in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a low-security dementia and mental health unit in Stratheden, Fife.

However, many of the practice's most controversial projects in Edinburgh have failed to come to fruition, in particular a proposed new home for the Filmhouse cinema and Edinburgh International Film Festival, conversion of the former Donaldson's deaf school into housing, and a 17-storey hotel next to Haymarket station.