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Mainline upgrades
The rolling stock on Britain’s rail network might have been renewed in the last 10 years, but the stations it serves have seen little change. Developments have, for the most part, been merely cosmetic, but adding a few coffee shops does not in itself make for good stations. Scratch the surface and the structure remains, for the most part, unaltered.
At last, however, Britain’s aged stations look set to be dragged into the 21st century. It’s a daunting project. Britain has 2,057 railway stations, with the 28 largest used by an average 90,000 passengers a day. Network Rail owns the vast majority, and has announced that it is working under the watchful eye of the Department of Transport on a strategy to update them all.
And such is the glamour of the prize that three of the world’s top accountancy firms – Ernst and Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and KPMG – recently slugged it out for the right to run the next stage of National Rail’s makeover programme. Ernst and Young emerged victorious, in a deal said to be worth billions, and will now turn its attention to encouraging private investment in London’s Euston and Victoria stations, with both having remained largely undisturbed by the developers for over 40 years.
Further north in the capital, and signs of progress can already be found. Paddington has seen major work on platforms, accessibility, information and security, while King’s Cross and St Pancras will soon be completely redeveloped.
The catalyst has been the decision to shift London’s main Eurostar hub from its southerly Waterloo home to a new base north of the river. From 2007 all Eurostar trains will be routed through the Channel Tunnel Rail Link – itself a standout success story of public/private investment – to a new London terminus at St Pancras. And the knock-on effects will be felt far and wide.
King’s Cross will also undergo a makeover, while the eyesore that is the Thameslink on the Pentonville Road will shift to a subterranean base below the new St Pancras. Additionally, the station will become the main link for the Olympic Javelin, the much-heralded seven-minute shuttle train that will link central London with the Olympic Village in Stratford.
With the Eurostar relocation designed to improve access from the North and the Midlands, it is expected that stations further up the line will also reap the benefits. For example, a £249m plan to overhaul Birmingham New Street was agreed just last month, and though much private sector goodwill is needed to secure funds, confidence abounds. If all goes according to plan, the new Birmingham Gateway station will arrive in 2013 complete with airport-style departure lounges, an enlarged station concourse and atrium, and improved pedestrian access.
While there have been churlish claims that the plans could be more ambitious still, local council chief Mike Whitby is looking forward. “It is a question of gelling together ambition with what we can deliver. This will be a world class travel experience,” he has promised.
Back in the capital, and the consequences of the Eurostar’s latest journey are also apparent. Waterloo can expect major changes over the next few years, with the redundancy of its international terminus freeing up space for easier access and amenities. Meanwhile it is likely the mainline station will go under the engineer’s knife, as demand for access to the south of England rockets. Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has been quick to slate decades of poor planning in the area, and has vowed that plans to overhaul ‘the gateway to the Southbank’ will see the UK’s largest station evolve into a major 21st century transport hub. Further west and Victoria, which sees 115 million passengers a year pass through its turnstiles, will also benefit from the Ernst and Young-led drive.
Major mainline stations are also going to have to adapt to the added security threat faced by the UK. The recent pilots of airport-style security systems may hint at a future direction for mainline stations, though as yet there is no answer to the puzzle of how to increase safety while keeping commuters moving at speed.
But the promising noises must not be allowed to run out of steam. Unrest is growing at the slovenly rate of improvement in the UK’s stations, and any delays are likely to be met with scorn.
Last month the Commons public accounts committee laid down the gauntlet. “There is a whole lot that the Department for Transport, now responsible for stations strategy, can and must do... as it is, a large number of Britain’s railway stations are a poor advertisement for our country,” warned committee chairman, Edward Leigh. In other words, all change please.
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