Three lessons for delivering complex station upgrades

Britain’s railways may be booming, but its major stations are buckling under the weight of success. Train journeys have doubled over the past two decades, with passenger numbers set to increase by another 40% by 2040. The recent planning approval for Liverpool Street marks only the first in a series of complex major station upgrades that will shape the next era of rail travel. As that scheme moves into its next critical stage with a decision from the Mayor of London expected soon, other major hubs across the UK are grappling with similar demands.

Against a backdrop of planning delays and passenger disruption, the UK has the opportunity to not only expand capacity, but genuinely future‑proof its stations. Given the many pressures at play, maximising long‑term revenue, minimising construction risk and engaging stakeholders with a collaborative approach is essential if these upgrades are to succeed more efficiently within time and budget.

Maximise retail revenues while elevating the passenger experience

Stations are more than just platforms for boarding and offloading passengers and freight. They are places where people meet and wait, community hubs, shopping centres, residential areas and everything in between. While the ever-evolving retail offering significantly enhances passenger experience, it is also important for a station’s commercial viability. The lesson here for designers is that what is essential for people should seldom be an afterthought.

Advances in railway-based engineering solutions, the use of lightweight structural materials and a growing number of successful precedents are making it easier to unlock sites

While bustling coffee shops may seem like a world away at design stage, integrating retail into station design provides the station owner the best possible platform for maximising future revenues. This includes designing in foundations for future oversite development as part of the station structure, and engaging with local planning authorities early to help capture the value of potential market rents and interest joint venture private delivery partnerships.

Attention should also extend to potential opportunities to build above the railway itself, not just limit the footprint to the confines of the station. Advances in railway-based engineering solutions, the use of lightweight structural materials and a growing number of successful precedents are making it easier to unlock these sites, helping to streamline technical approvals and re-risk delivery. It is in this space that engineers have driven significant value from development on railway land across London and other cities. While the commercial strategies of major stations will continue to evolve with the market, embedding this thinking at the engineering stage is what ultimately lays the groundwork for long-term success.

Reduce construction risk by bringing station teams on board

The success of any station also lies in reducing cost and construction risk. Crucial here is bringing together complimentary yet distinct disciplines and teams to think about the bigger picture from day one. During the planned regeneration of Liverpool Street Station, the client brought together the design team, train operators and other stakeholders from the outset to proactively address potential challenges and constraints during construction. Aecom’s engineers worked alongside Network Rail’s station teams, who supported an iterative design process with operational insight and on-the-ground expertise.

This new way of working inverted the traditional architectural and engineering timeline, fostering a more open and collaborative working culture between disciplines

By conducting pedestrian models of passengers, for example, we were able to identify optimum solutions for the locations of the primary structural supports to facilitate a phased construction for the oversite development sequentially across the concourse. This collaboration significantly reduced risk ahead of planning, ensuring that construction areas can be safely isolated from the live station concourse. In turn, it will also enable new station entrances to be handed over sequentially, minimising disruption to passengers compared with an entire station closure.

This new way of working inverted the traditional architectural and engineering timeline, fostering a more open and collaborative working culture between disciplines. The result is an approach that will introduce clever phasing to keep the station operational throughout redevelopment, while carefully balancing operational constraints with financial viability to enable progress at pace.

It is worth some short-term pain for long-term gain

A station remaining fully operational during redevelopment is important, but often not essential, and effective stakeholder engagement is a core consideration for making successful station regeneration possible. While fundamentally, station upgrades are for the long-term benefit of passengers, this can be cold comfort in the short term if works cause painful delays and daily commutes are met with seemingly endless diversions and the constant sound of drilling.

Meaningful stakeholder engagement means enabling concerns to be listened to and addressed early, including engaging with the infrastructure protection teams and expediating solutions. A culture shift can also bring down capital expenditure costs and reduce construction programmes. Not so long ago it was common for stations to close entirely during major refurbishments. Have we become too reluctant to accept that level of disruption, or is the reality that today’s network simply cannot absorb the displaced demand? Stations can often be too constrained for phased building, so in some cases, accepting short-term inconvenience maybe the trade-off that enables faster construction programmes overall.

While passenger’s opinions are paramount, we should not lose sight that people vote with their feet. Aecom deployed virtual reality technology during the construction works at Waterloo Station for the Wessexcapacity upgrade programme, giving commuters the chance to experience the finished station long before completion, helping to demonstrate that the short-term disruption was justified by the long-term gains. It’s worth remembering that not everyone passing through a station is a passenger. If stations are to become true destinations, places people choose to spend time, then residents, retailers and visitors must all play a role, becoming the lifeblood of these evolving stations now and into the future.

Station redevelopments are multi-layered and complex challenges, but maximising long-term revenue, reducing construction risk, and engaging stakeholders effectively are three critical lessons that future projects can draw from the delivery of recent major terminus upgrades.

Adam Parkes is regional director – stations & transit-oriented development, at Aecom