Courtney Pochin
Published January 18, 2026 6:04pm
Updated January 18, 2026 6:04pm
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The station’s makeover cost £27,000,000 (Picture: Charley Atkins / SWNS)
A UK train station has been branded a ‘massive embarrassment’ after £27 million was spent giving it a makeover.
Work began on Sunderland Station’s redevelopment in 2022, with a new southern entrance opening in December 2023.
The large glass-fronted space was praised as ‘stunning and ambitious’ by Labour council leaders at the time, but locals weren’t overly impressed.
Flash forward to today, and it seems they still aren’t.
Just over two years on from the grand reveal, people in Sunderland have shared their honest thoughts on the station, describing it as a ‘massive embarrassment’, ‘underwhelming’ and ‘cold and uninviting’.
There’s just one small coffee kiosk inside the giant space (Picture: Charley Atkins / SWNS)
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The redesigned entrance was described by Network Rail as featuring ‘a large glass wrap-around design’ and includes a new ticket office, reception, public toilets, ‘comfortable’ waiting areas, as well as a mezzanine level that has office space for staff.
There’s room for three large retail spaces, but filling them has proved ‘challenging’, according to the rail giants. Inside, there’s just a small coffee kiosk, called Caribe Coffee, which opened in September 2025.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Paul Edgeworth claims there are plenty of other issues with the station, too, especially when it comes to the loos.
He told the BBC: ‘Whilst the world’s smallest coffee shop is better than nothing, this station building is still a massive embarrassment for our city.
‘Labour’s council bosses hailed it as “stunning” when it opened, but in reality it is a massive let down and a stain on our city centre – a cold, uninviting, empty shell where toilets, escalators and doors are permanently broken.’
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZyVCksoQdz/?img_index=3&igsh=MWFuaTFmMW5wZTIyYQ%3D%3D
And he’s not the only one who feels this way, as rail passenger Alistair Wright, 35, from Sunderland, said: ‘I use the trains a lot for work and was quite excited by the new station.
‘When it was unveiled, I just thought “is this it?” You don’t get much for £27 million quid.
‘It’s a bit like walking through a weird art installation.’
Another said: ‘It’s basically an aircraft hangar with a few cold metal benches like the ones you see in prisons. People joke that it represents Sunderland pretty well because it’s cold, grey and dull.’
Over on social media, Daniel Burlinson couldn’t get over how ‘empty’ the new station was, claiming it needed more seats and some artwork to ‘brighten the place up’.
‘From the outside it looks nice, but inside I’m a little bit disappointed,’ he added.
And on Reddit, many were quick to brand the revamp ‘underwhelming’ and ‘lifeless.’
One user, known as u/Sgreaat, said: ‘It’s like a Grand Designs episode where they blow the budget on the building and have to live with chipboard furniture.’
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However, Sunderland Council leader, Michael Modey, has defended the station, which was partly paid for from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund.
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‘There are improvements that can be made, but the station we have today is 100 times better than what was there before,’ he told the BBC.
Northern Rail claims it’s ‘working with local and national agents to market the retail units and attract the right tenants’ but says that Sunderland’s struggling high street makes it ‘a challenging market’.
They added that the biggest unit in the station is currently ‘under offer’ and promised that vending machines will be added in a bid to boost footfall.
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Pop-up markets, such as The Mackem Market, are also now being held in the station, with live musical performances every Friday from 10am to 2pm.
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