Beaty-Pownall is talking about the medium-sized stations that are at the heart of cities such as Exeter or Oxford, buildings that he says are very important to the communities they serve but which are not central to the train operators’ business plans because they contribute little financially.
His firm has designed stations at Hassocks (for Southern) and at Wolverton (funded by Milton Keynes Council), and has recently submitted a planning application for West Hampstead station for Transport for London.
“Train companies get a return from passengers buying tickets, so they invest in that. They get a return from running trains up and down. But it’s hard for them to spend money on a station building in the context of a short franchise. They won’t make a return on it.”
There has been a big push to expand retail to get some revenue from the buildings. This is tinkering at the edges, he says.
“Their function serving the railway has perhaps had its day. So we have to get stations to turn around, to face their local communities. For the people nearby, they are really important - most other public buildings have already gone, or are targets for privatisation, but stations will remain public buildings for a long time.
“Station user groups have immense passion and energy. They’re often more passionate about them than they are about the trains themselves, and certainly more passionate about them than train operators are about their own buildings.”
Beaty-Pownall questions whether the right people are in charge of smaller stations. To the train operators they are a liability, rather than a source of revenue. Over the next decade, could they be transferred to organisations that could help them serve other purposes as well, attracting more people - and not just as passengers?
“Passengers’ experience now starts on a website,” he says. “They buy their tickets, get their information, plan their journeys. They move from the home to the train by some other transport, and would like to get straight onto the train, with all the information they need on their mobile device, reinforced by further information on board the train.
“The only point they need the station building is if they are in the minority of passengers who do not make that journey regularly, and need additional support.
“The station building has not yet had its day. But that time is coming. We expect very significant growth in passenger numbers. A lot of the obstacles that are currently in the way of passengers will have to be removed - gatelines, fences, buildings. The challenge is to adapt old buildings to accommodate that growth, given the lack of return that companies get from them.
“If you spend £10m on the area round the station, the local community benefits. It draws people in, property values increase, and the public realm improves. But the rail industry doesn’t necessarily gain much from it. So station development needs to start locally - local developers with local authorities driving it, because they are the ones who benefit from it. The rail industry does not need to contribute to it if it does not get a benefit.”
David Hunter, who has responsibility for station design at Atkins, says: “Network Rail is doing a lot more to collaborate with developers than ten or 15 years ago. But it could do more. We all acknowledge that. People demand more from stations now.
“But win-win partnerships have been difficult to find, because just putting some shops above the station is not going to fund the level of work Network Rail wants to achieve.”
NR’s Biggs comments: “At Epsom we set up a joint venture with Kier Property called Solum Regeneration. There was a commercial redevelopment - 116 flats, a Travelodge and three retail units - which funded a brand new station. It was all on land the railway needed. We just built above it.
“At Haywards Heath at the moment there is a bleak car park that needs expanding. We are putting in a significant increase in parking by making it multi-storey, and then bringing in Waitrose as well, which will fund station improvements.
“But these ideas are getting harder to spot. My job is more difficult now because we carried 1.6 billion passengers last year, up 50% on a decade ago. We are now planning for two billion in 2020. And new trains always seem to need new depots.”
Beaty-Pownall continues: “With increasing passenger numbers, as travellers we want to get through a station quickly. We don’t want the airport or Ikea culture, where you zigzag through retail areas to reach your train. So retail has to be a convenience, not a hindrance, generating money without obstructing. Waterloo has done that.
“There is less reason to do administrative tasks at a station now, like buying tickets. But there are more reasons to stay. I hold meetings at King’s Cross - we meet in cafés rather than offices. The reasons for using a station are changing. We want an environment for socialising and doing business. So stations can be destinations in their own right - getting a train isn’t the sole reason for being there.”
But does this just apply to the handful of major stations run by Network Rail, with their tens of millions of passengers a year?
Atkins’ Coburn says: “Network Rail used to have a reputation for doing nothing with fantastic sites, slow and uninterested in contributing to the areas in which it had properties. Now things have changed. There is good liaison with local authorities. But this is focused largely on the stations it runs, not the vast majority of stations run by train operators.
“The franchise documents control how much train operators are incentivised to develop stations. Contractual obligation tends to be at a minimum level. It is harder on a short contract to work with local councils. But there are some places where there is enough incentive, such as a new station for Cambridge Science Park.”
Beaty-Pownall adds: “Network Rail finds it difficult to communicate with local authorities. And local authorities find it difficult to communicate with them. With the devolution of Network Rail into route groups, I have quite high hopes that can improve. Locally is where these conversations need to start.”
Biggs reckons 250 railway stations can support what he calls “a retail offer”. Outside the major stations run by Network Rail, he says that is for the train operating companies to manage. And the remaining 2,250 stations have no commercial facilities.
“But there is a huge amount of value our transport hubs can generate with developers,” he concludes. “The value is in urban living, places of convenience where people want everything on the move - drop-in business lounges. We need to provide environments that encourage people in. Our customers are very interested in the built environment, and we need to meet their rising expectations.”
The last word goes to Beaty-Pownall: “Train companies are now beginning to see local transport partnerships as part of their strategic planning. But we are only going to see this taking shape in the next round of franchise awards, because it’s not encouraged in the current ones. Any franchises currently running have been given no incentive.
“People are now becoming drawn to the areas around stations, instead of to their cars on the ring roads. For a long time town centres have had stations in their back yards. The front door has been the motorway, the ring road, the multi-storey car park. That trend is reversing.
“Property values around the station are going up again, as property values around the motorway junction or circular road are starting to go down. So the civic space and the value of stations to the urban realm is increasing. There is a new opportunity.”
