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STATIONS OFTHE FUTURE

INTEGRATION IS KEY

‘A successful railway station will add to the passenger experience as well as support the economic, social and environmental bene� ts of rail. Integration with other modes and the surrounding area can provide for an end-to-end journey experience that makes sustainable transport an attractive alternative to private vehicle usage.’ – Network Route Utilisation Study – Stations, 2011

Dilemmas and opportunities for future stations was the � rst subject to be tackled in the Railway Study Association’s new Thought Workshops programme

What is your favourite station? Is it one of the modernised railway cathedrals such as St Pancras, King’s Cross, Manchester Victoria or Newcastle? A classic of its time such as Arnos Grove or Wemyss Bay? Or an example of good new interchange with a touch of style, such as Reading or the emerging London Bridge?

Clear information, easy ticketing and good access, capacity, safety and security must be on most people’s list of station ‘must haves’. But

beyond that, is it scale, style, homeliness, an award winning station garden or a good co� ee shop that you value? The 21st century focus on station retailing is sometimes lampooned, but we all seem to be willing customers.

DILEMMAS AND OPPORTUNITIESAttempting to tackle these practical and qualitative issues, plus many others, ‘Stations of the Future – Dilemmas and Opportunities’ was

the � rst event in the Railway Study Association’s new Thought Workshops programme.

The Thought Workshops programme sets out to bring together the railway’s leaders, subject matter experts and bearers of fresh ideas to explore and rethink from di� erent perspectives how the railway’s service for the future is delivered.

Drawing on the wealth of insight in the RSA membership, the multi-disciplinary events

are aimed at everyone who works in rail who has an appetite for driving improvement – including commercial managers, property managers, operations managers, lawyers, marketers, technologists and engineers.

While the number of people joining the workshops has to be kept manageable, there is a broad representation of job roles – with the aim of providing focused debate and developing new insight.

Adam Stead, RSA leadership board member, introduced the � rst workshop this summer, explaining that stations had been chosen as the topic for the � rst event as they are the hub of the rail journey, including the customer service and information elements but also the built and moving environments – and so the topic is relevant to a wide range of disciplines.

The workshop, hosted in London by law � rm Dentons, was opened by industry leaders who shared their di� erent perspectives on stations at their best – from operations to customer service and redevelopment.

HS1 – SURPRISE AND DELIGHTWendy Spinks, Commercial Director, High Speed 1, introduced some themes relevant to HS1’s St Pancras International and other major stations.

St Pancras International has pushed at the boundaries of what people think a station is like and it achieves good satisfaction scores.

The station has to meet basic needs (such as ‘safe, secure and clean’); then provide convenience and connectivity. Next in line, its teams set out to o� er retail essentials (and wi-fi is now more of a need than a ‘nice to have’); and � nally they work to surprise and delight users, such as through events, music, art and special retailing such as a champagne bar.

This approach can make stations much more than just the start or end of a journey; they can become a destination in themselves. They form part of the working life of users, where dwell time can be used to connect via social media, meet and eat, or shop and treat. One third of St Pancras station diners come there just to eat.

Major stations must respond to changing needs – many people are carrying more baggage and the population is ageing, so more lifts may be needed, for example.

And what will tomorrow’s customers expect? Connectivity, wi-fi, charging and new methods of ticketing are likely to feature. Rising to the challenge will need collaboration across the industry to make it happen, suggested Wendy Spinks.

VTEC Tim Hedley-Jones, Major Projects Director, Virgin Trains East Coast, suggested that the franchising model can have the e� ect of � xing plans and investment for a franchise as it begins, but customer expectations change and the railway needs to respond.

Virgin has attempted to identify the factors most likely to in� uence future needs and expectations, including the political, economic, legal and environmental factors – and also to identify emerging behaviours and attitudes and how these are going to a� ect what people want from stations.

Stations should not just be a well-designed space but also take into account what people are going to do. Recent new First Class Lounge refurbishments on Virgin Trains East Coast stations try to respond to the challenges, for example with innovative chair designs as well as traditional ones; humorous messages; odd pieces of furniture as talking points; and individual artwork responding to the location’s unique environment.

Tim Hedley-Jones o� ered three principles for station plans, embracing past, present and future themes. First is to work with what you’ve got – taking advantage of heritage buildings rather than seeing them as a problem: for example, the transformation of Newcastle station’s portico into a customer space.

Second is to connect with the community you serve, mentally and physically, including by blurring the boundary between stations and the surrounding community, making journeys from home to train as smooth as possible.

Third, don’t be afraid to embrace new technology – whatever’s big now was once small, for example wi-fi was not so long ago a ‘nice to have’ but is now essential.

The formula seems to work, with VTEC’s station facility satisfaction scores now the highest in most categories.

PASSENGER EXPERIENCEThe third speaker was Liam Henderson, Rail Planner & Director of Transporting Cities, whose mission is to review and promote world class passenger experience in transport. It does this by undertaking system visits and reviews, and contributing to the development of new initiatives to ensure that the passenger is at the heart of transport decision-making.

He introduced some ideas on the things that most matter to passengers – focusing on the basics, looking for an end-to-end journey experience. It doesn’t matter who runs what, passengers are concerned about the ease of buying tickets; communication; physical access and on-board layout, power

Gateway to the city: artist’s impression of southern entrance to future HS2 platforms at Euston. Courtesy HS2

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points, wi-fi and space to work; ease of interchanges, signage and cycle space.

Priorities for service delivery include journey planning and service information, sta� knowledge and attitude, responsiveness on social media and e� ective disruption management.

SOARINGBuilding upon the insights of the three speakers, the participants then worked as groups to create some new ideas about what stations of the future could be and outline thoughts about how change could start.

Gill How, RSA Leadership Board member, introduced the group sessions, with the � rst asking participants to re� ect on today’s stations, and consider di� erent types of station and their Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results (SOAR):■ Strengths – What are the greatest features

of this type of station – the things that are done well and people rely on?

■ Opportunities – What does the future hold and what opportunities exist in future for these stations?

■ Aspirations – What does the ideal station of the future achieve for its customers and stakeholders?

■ Results – What are the measurable results that will demonstrate these stations are a success?

REALISING THE OPPORTUNITY‘Realising the opportunity’ was the theme of the second session, and in this the groups considered � ve di� erent types of stations: city, parkway, town, rural and commuter (two of which are considered in more depth below).

There are often common strengths of heritage, space and location, while a key opportunity is to join up di� erent transport modes such as bikes and buses with these interchanges, o� ering potential to apply good design standards and provide retail outlets, and also o� er innovations such as pop-up shops.

The results should be seen in terms of corporate social responsibility as well as in � nancial terms through ticket and retail revenue.

Stations of the future could be a bigger part of the community and become ‘owned’ by the community – a symbol of their area, an obvious focus for third party engagement – feeling safer, with a buzz created by the feeling that something is happening every day.

PARKWAYParkway stations may not quite o� er a blank sheet of paper for ideas, but the context for development on a green� eld or brown� eld site can be very di� erent from an established urban station.

Among the � ndings of the Thought Workshop’s ‘SOARing’ groups, the team re� ecting on Parkway stations suggested that these stations’ strengths included the bene� ts of park & ride, keeping tra� c out of town centres and reducing congestion, and potentially reducing car reliance for long journeys, giving environmental bene� ts. Access to out-of-town facilities such as stadiums and retail parks could also be linked strengths.

Opportunities considered were stimulating development in an area, the ability to do shopping or ‘click and collect’ facilities for retail and supermarket shopping on the way home, better connections to other modes, better access for people of all needs, � exible parking, bike hubs and hubs for shared vehicles.

Innovations could include drop-o� by personal autonomous vehicles that park off-site, or by community autonomous vehicles that go on to make further pick-ups.

Aspirations discussed included for stations to become a destination and a gateway to the city, not just a starting point for a journey; and weekend usage, perhaps linked to events programmes, which could help create a sense of ownership for a station.

Better security for cars/bikes and safer access – perhaps by dedicated cycle highways – were other aspirations.

The end results? These could include growth in the number of onward journeys, growth from using the parkway as destination and growth in the proportion of people not using a car.

Revenue could therefore be boosted through growth in passengers from existing users and new users, and more cars accommodated per square metre.

The group’s ideas for a ‘future perfect’ parkway station included a focus on pedestrians, an e� cient total journey (for example, choice of mode to get there, seat-to-seat and direct access to the car park, free-flowing through the station with no gateline and payment validation on car park entry). Adaptable construction to allow the station to � ex and grow in response to demand was also envisaged, with a clean and uncomplicated station design.

Signs of progress would be realising an integrated/multi-modal design brief, achieving multi-headed sponsorship with joint incentives / partnerships – relaxing vested interests to achieve more together. Parties involved would include local government, national government, community and developer. Measuring the value of stations in broader terms and private interest in rail investment would also be signs of progress.

The next steps towards the vision could include ‘bounce back’ of speci� cations to encourage broader, more commercial development, packaging adjacent land into development opportunities for stations, engaging stakeholders and customers to understand their needs and encouraging clients to look longer term and wider for ‘win-win’ development opportunities.

COMMUTERCommuters hate their station, don’t they? Or at best barely notice it? One of the RSA groups had the chance to undermine such negativity.

The group re� ecting on today’s commuter stations believed that the strengths of a good

PARTICIPANTS’ FAVOURITE IDEAS

■ Integrate trains with buses and other modes / Personal Rapid Transit links with parkway station hinterland.

■ Third party investment / involving developers earlier.

■ Specifying adaptable buildings that can � ex or be easily modi� ed as needs change.

■ Improve passenger � ow and pe rmeability / station � ow lanes / commuter fast lanes / consistent way� nding.

■ Humanise – sta� should be friendly / approachable.

■ Community ownership / involvement: integration of stations into the wider community, with artwork, activity fairs etc.

■ Integrate crèche services into commuter stations.■ Consider strategy for improving stations: study trip to another country

to learn best practice and publish that in guidance.■ Dynamic real-time system for understanding customer needs

and predicting them, rather than being reactive.

Have your say: Adam Stead, RSA leadership board member, collates views from one of the workshop sessions. Ken Cordner

one include the quality of car parking and signage, with convenient and e� cient ticket sales and helpful sta� , and the whole package perhaps topped o� by a warm identity for the station and a positive sense of place.

Opportunities for innovation could be pop-up shops, market stalls and community use, with other commercial and lifestyle opportunities to give the station multiple uses – such as food retailing, click & collect for internet shopping, dry cleaning and even children’s day nurseries.

Making the station a focus for intermodal transport (train/bus/cycles) was another area of aspiration – along with new-generation, quicker ticket gates and systems.

The results could be a happier commute, more pro� t for train operating companies and other commercial interests, and more sustainable travel and lifestyles.

In essence, the group believed that the commuter stations of the future would be multi-use with a stronger link with the community; friendlier and cleaner; would o� er a positive, energetic, welcoming environment; would be more permeable and spacious (as opposed to closed o� and cramped?). To give a station a sense of identity, the target should be to humanise it, exploiting local history as well as o� ering a positive modern image. A strategy for improving stations

should be developed – and should not forget the small but human-scale things, like � ower displays!

CREATIVE IDEASThe RSA’s new workshops got o� to a highly promising start, with a conference room buzzing with ideas – resulting in a high rate of creative idea generation per minute. The RSA’s concept for its new workshops – of working with people from a wide range of backgrounds to broaden understanding of the subject – seems set to provide a steady supply of bright ideas for a better railway, harnessing the best of railway and non-railway thinking and approaching issues from all perspectives.

As you can see from the collection of participants’ favourite ideas from this Thought Workshop, the brightest ideas cross the boundaries of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ concepts, old and new railway – and not railway at all. a Ken Cordner

Details of Association Membershipcan be found on page 14. Hear thespeakers, ask the questions and thenread all about it in Modern Railways

The train as backdrop: the champagne bar at St Pancras International. Paul Bigland Integrating with the community: Newcastle Central station illuminated for the city’s Pride event. Courtesy VTEC

Meeting future needs: artist’s impression of through platforms at Manchester Piccadilly

after quadrupling as part of the Northern Hub project. Courtesy Network Rail