This £6.9 million refurbishment project, funded by Nexus will see the station completely modernised at platform level with escalators to the concourse above.
The station is used by up to ten Metro services an hour as well as Northern Rail regional train services. There are also plans by a third operator, Grand Central, to run direct inter-city services to London.
Sunderland station is owned by Network Rail but we saw an opportunity to significantly improve facilities with support from the Department of Transport.
The new station will be of the same standard as our own stations on the Sunderland line, such as Park Lane.
We are funding this project using money saved by increasing Metro services to Sunderland in December 2005, in place of subsidised Northern Rail services.