Swindon Railway Station Set for Major Makeover with Regeneration Funding Boost

The "long story short" on this project: Swindon station is currently surrounded by an absurd amount of flat surface carparking. The majority owned by Network Rail, some owned by the Council, and some bits in private ownership. There's also a major brownfield site (some listed buildings which were part of the original GWR factories) owned by the Council, and a massive derelict tower block owned by Network Rail.

The project aim is to build a new multi storey carpark north of the railway line, along with a new station entrance (currently it is only accessible from the south), and then redevelop all the surface carparks into something more productive.

UKRI are already based there, and Bath Uni, Oxford Uni, and the Royal Agriculture Uni all have outposts there too, so the hope is that they and other universities could be persuaded to take a significant chunk of the new real estate. Oxford Brookes Uni and a performing arts college called Wilkes Academy both also have campuses elsewhere in town and there's hope that both of them may consider taking new campuses there.

Swindon's town centre is exceptionally dire, so a lot of hopes are pinned on this as being a catalyst for some regeneration.