Posted 17th November 2009 | 13 Comments

£50m new fund as report warns 'stations becoming an obstacle to rail growth'

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis today announced a £50 million fund as Station Champions Chris Green and Sir Peter Hall warned that station upgrades must be accelerated dramatically. In a new report, the two Champions warn that the poor condition of many stations is becoming an obstacle to rail growth. Spending needs to be increased by 25% to £800m a year in the decade from 2014 passenger satisfaction is to reach acceptable levels. The improvements include better integration with other transport modes, as well as more car park spaces. Signage is also singled out for criticism: TOCs should no longer be installing their own designs, it says.

Lord Adonis, announcing an immediate £50 million fund for ten stations - Clapham Junction, Barking, Stockport, Manchester Victoria, Preston, Wigan North Western, Liverpool Central, Warrington Bank Quay, Crewe and Luton - said he supported the Champions' call for a comprehensive list of minimum standards for all stations, aimed at improving the daily travelling experience of passengers and attracting more passengers onto the railways.

The report, 'Better Rail Stations', has been compiled after extensive research in Britain and other countries. The main finding is that many busy British stations are slipping behind the standards achieved by other businesses with a public face, such as retail chains, and that present investment plans will only deal adequately with the largest, flagship stations. For now priority should be given to introducing minimum station standards when new franchises start and dealing with as many problems as possible with existing funding.

It acknowledges that considerable progress has already been made in many places, but finds that modernised or new stations are often accompanied by older, unrefurbished examples in the same area. Examples include Manchester Piccadilly/Manchester Victoria, and Luton Airport Parkway/Luton. It says the 'the main areas of dissatisfaction with stations' in recent research by Faber Maunsell were 'not with face-to-face customer service, but with physical facilities such as shabby environments, deteriorated stations and lack of real-time information'.

Major improvements are needed in bus/tram/rail integration, as well as facilities for cyclists. It also points out that signage is 'tending to fragment into different lettering styles and colours through individual branding. This lack of consistency makes it harder for customers to focus on the relevant information, and can cost up to £2m in resigning when franchises change hands'. It says all signage should in future be based on the style used at Network Rail managed stations, with only a simple branding strip to identify individual passenger franchises.

The report follows hard on the heels of Network Rail's own stations report, which was published last week and summarised plans to invest £3.25 billion between now and 2014. Much of this, however, will be spent at a relatively small number of key locations, such as Birmingham New Street.


Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

  • Joseph Pestell, Newbury

    Sadly, I believe that we have let some of the Victorian stations (particularly Manchester Victoria and Preston) get to a state where they are beyond any prospect of sensible economic repair. This is not recent. It has been this way for 60 years plus.
    They should be replaced with modern functional buildings - preferably ones that can pay for themselves through associated commercial development.
    If architectural historians are that desperate to save these buildings, the funding should be coming from elsewhere. The transport budget should be spent on transport.
    Ironic that Chris Green of all people now wants a unified style across the whole network - but he is right.

  • Andrew John Blurton, Stafford, United Kingdom

    WHY DOES'NT NETWORK RAIL MAKE MORE RAILWAY STATION'S IN THE UK & THE BIGGEST & THE BUSY JUNCTION'S ALL WEATHER CONDITION PROOF & DRIER WITH BETTER SHOPPING CONCORCES'S & ENQUIRY CENTRE'S & BETTER CAR PARK'S & BETTER TOILET FACILITIES & MORE WAITING ROOM'S & RESTAURANT'S RESOURCES & ALSO BETTER CHARGING TECHNIQUES FOR ALL PASSENGER USE TO KEEP TO THE HIGHEST STANDARD'S LIKE AIRPORT'S WHEN BEING USED & WHY DON'T ALL THE TRAIN COMPANIES ADOPT THESE PRICIPALES & TECHNIQUES IF HIGH SPEED TRAINS ON RAILWAYS ARE TO COME THEIR WAY & MAKE MORE RAILWAY STATION'S LOOK EFFIECIENT & CLEAN & MORE SMALLER AIRPORT'S COULD CLOSE IN THE U.K IF NEW ONES HAVE TO BE BUILT LIKE BIRMINGHAM & EDINBURGH FOR HIGH SPEED!!!!

  • Andy Bell, Wakefield, United Kingdom

    The fact that Wakefield Kirkgate is getting very little funding is a disgrace. Lord Adonis described it as the worst medium sized railway station in Britain and what are they going to do with it? Put a few paltry CCTV camera's in it!

    Andy Bell, Wakefield, UK

  • rob, worcester, england

    It was the destruction of the 1960's, 70's and 80's which made our rail stations look bleak and tacky. All the lovely Victorian designs were ripped out where possible and rebuilt like third world stations all thanks to B.R. It is not about re-designing a station it is all about doing up the Victorian architecture and making it gleam once again, like when it was new. People do not want new glass and plastic stations which all look the same. They want a functional station with character and the Victorian stations like Preston are this. Crewe, Manchester picadilly, Stafford, Birmingham new street etc etc have all been ruined thanks to BR and the electrification of the mid 60s and the ill thought out managment who at the time looked at concrete as the way forward. They may aswell all be demolished and rebuilt. Shame that the wrong people are always put into the wrong jobs. In order to get something to work you must employ people who love and care what they are working for and not employ them for a cheap fix.

  • sj, cardiff

    Whilst this report and funding is welcome, does no one think that after more than a decade of running the West Coast franchise that it is a disgarce that 50% of the stations in the top ten are operated by Virgin? Even more worrying is the fact that the rest of the stations operated by Virgin have been totally neglected. It would be interesting to know how much Virgin have recieved as an average per passenger journey either through the fare box, management fees or compensastion for delays on the West Coast route modernisation in comparision to there investment in station refurbishment.

  • Geoff R, Westhoughton, UK

    Manchester Victoria is an absolute disgrace. It doesn't help having the MEN arena plonked on top. So, shut the arena, have your concerts somewhere else, redevelop the space into a food court and some retail outlets, open up two more platforms beyond platform six and have ALL the TPE and Arriva North Wales services using Victoria (like they used to do) instead of throwing everything at Piccadilly, Electrify from Liverpool into Victoria and on to Stockport then have through electric services from Lime street to Stockport or Stoke giving passengers from the south access to the above services. I've just read that Theresa Villiers, our transport secretary elect has said that longer franchises will mean the TOC's will invest more. Oh dear, oh dear, another utterly incompetent, clueless, useless or absolutely naive politician who is going to make a complete and utter arse of herself and the railways. Christ give me stength, it's enough to make you weep.

  • Paul Cook (Proj Mgt Services Ltd), Gloucester, England

    All investment to improve the rail network is encouraging. However, will the communities who are served by these stations have a chance to influence these updgradess.

    Have they identified a need through a recognised community planning tool which could be integrated into the new station footprint. I think the comment on the bus station at Blackburn goes some-way in highlighting this point.

    This planned investment, where applicable, needs to be integrated with existing action on the ground. You'll get more for your money this way, and get a lot more community buy-in.

  • S, Stockport, UK

    To be fair Stockport station isnt that bad. Network Rail rebuilt the front entrance of the station a few years ago.This is now alot better compared to the previous dingy 1960's structure. Some of the retail space on Platform 2 is now empty, hopefully some one will move in. Having said that the link between the station and the bus interchange could be alot better as currently you have to walk down a steep staircase, which is poorly lit and there is limited signage to tell if you are heading in the right direction.

    Manchester Victoria is unfortunately Piccadilly poor sister having little investment in the station since the latter was rebuilt in the early millenium. The problem with Victoria is that unfortunately some bright spark decided to built the Manchester Evening News Arena on top of the station leaving it poorly lit to passengers on the platforms below. Much of the western side of the station (if you are looking towards Salford) has hardlly changed since the IRA bomb in 1996, when this part of the station was worst hit by the bomb blast nearby at the nearby Arndale Centre.

    Preston station is horrible. After visiting the station earlier this year it really does need a bit of TLC. The Virgin Trains first class louge resembles a shoe box, surely they VT/NR can do something better for fare paying passengers? Also Crewe could do with a major rebuild for that matter, which although has had platform 12 spruced up a bit, the rest of the station really is suffering from years of underinvestment.

  • Craig Ward, Blackburn, UK

    I hope the councillors and planners in Blackburn read the report as they are planning to move the town's bus station, which has been outside the railway station for more than a century, to a location elsewhere in the town. It's hard to believe that a local authority could actually conceive such a move in this day and age. I wonder if Lord Adonis is aware of this?

  • leslie burge, leicester, england

    It's about time we started to standardise things like signage.
    On cost grounds and also to make it easier for the genral public.
    Whenever I am travelling by train it's amazing how many times I'm asked
    by other travellers is this the train to (Wherever?). And I often think surely the signage is obvious but maybe it isn't.
    Also rebranding stations when a new franchise takes over is a waste of money.
    It would also be nice if we could have a standard way of informing the public
    what buses run from the station and also the timetables for each service.
    Also if it is not possible to have many bus services from railway stations at least have bus connections from major stations to the bus stations .

  • Martin, Luton

    Luton Parkway Station is new.... Nothing wrong with it. Its the main Luton station which is an eyesore.

  • Dominic, Prestwich, Manchester

    Manchester Victoria Station is a disgrace. Manc Vic should be a real gateway to the northern end of Manchester city centre. Manchester Victoria already serves 4-5Million passenger per year and yet there is enormous potential for growth. Expanding and redeveloping the station and the east-west routes through Salford Central, Manc Vic, Ashton and Stalybridge etc offer some very cost effective ways to improve rail services across the north of England and relieve the bottleneck through Manchester.

  • Chris Reynell, Longstock, Hampshire., UK

    There are some stations like Norwich and Settle that are a pleasure to visit and others like Port Talbot a disgrace. Stations rely on the design and quality of building as well as the operator.
    Whilst the privatised rail policy has created a "not my responsibility" or "that will come out of our profits" attitudes; the professional and friendly staff make a huge difference even with shabby stations.
    Ticket barriers can recover revenue and make the platforms safer, we still like to have the staff about for information, help with luggage and the feeling of security.
    With some urgently needed refurbishment or rebuilding, more retail and more staff we could have the best stations anywhere.