Making transport interchanges work for their living

Transport interchanges play an important part in any community, as gateways, as concentrations of activity, as links to other modes of transport and the wider area.

It is therefore essential that they are as efficient as possible, both in terms of the way they physically function and also in the way they are perceived as points of arrival, as places in their own right and the values local people attach to them.

A range of key issues have to be taken into account – although the priorities differ depending on the size of the project, the location and the wider economic context – centrally:

- Interchange efficiency
- Managing movement
- Maximising retail
- Opening up residential and commercial development opportunities
- The particular interchange’s role as a gateway to the wider area
- Any need to deliver neighbourhood regeneration
- Implementation, finance and funding
- Stakeholder management
- A long term view taking into account possible changes in policy, demographic mix and changes of use

When transport interchanges are working efficiently, they can have a real influence on the success of an area and in attracting residents, visitors and businesses.

But to do so they must provide a 24 hour, safe, inviting and attractive environment with lively public spaces and a range of amenities such as shops and restaurants, with a constant flow of pedestrians. They must be convenient, accessible, easy to walk through and providing seamless links between different modes of transport. They must also play a central role within their respective local communities, attracting people even when they do not plan to travel.
This is where, looking at the wider urban context and identifying opportunities for local development, growth and regeneration rather than simply focusing on modal interchange efficiency is so important, because an integrated approach makes it possible to deliver a real transformation.

Realising commercial, retail and residential development potential as part of the interchange improvement is a win-win for both the transport authorities and developers. Successful transport interchanges offer significant development opportunities, which in turn, release the funds to create places that are not just gateways but are also attractive destinations in their own right where people can live, work, shop and enjoy their leisure time, rather than just pass through.

It is this approach that Atkins is taking at stations including Birmingham New Street, London Euston and Barking.

Birmingham New Street Station
The redevelopment of New Street Station is a hugely important project to Birmingham. At the moment, it acts as a physical barrier cutting the city in half. The redesign will see the whole area opened up, knitting the city together as well as greatly improving the passenger’s experience.

Network Rail is leading the project, which will cost around £600m with contributions from Network rail, AWM, Birmingham City Council, Centro and the Department for Transport.

Advantage West Midlands and Birmingham City Council have both long recognised that the West Midlands economy, as a whole, is driven by the growth in the services sector in central Birmingham and the jobs associated with this growth.

The opening of the new Bull Ring development – now linked to the Palisades shopping centre above Birmingham New Street station by footbridge – showed what was possible and has stimulated demand for city centre sites close to the station.

However, although Birmingham City centre has good rail links from across the region, the poor environment of Birmingham New Street Station has undermined efforts to attract investment to the city until now.

As a result, when Network Rail, Centro and the now-abolished Strategic Rail Authority approached them with their ambitions for the station, AWM and Birmingham City Council came prepared with ideas of how a gateway scheme could deliver a larger scale solution that would meet the needs both of rail passengers and of the local economy. The new station should be an inspirational gateway commensurate with Birmingham’s status as Britain’s second city and blend strong urban design with real improvements to the station environment.

Atkins has been appointed as lead consultant and will be responsible for all the work, including the architectural design. The consultancy has also appointed BDP to work on the retail architecture and will work with a concept architect on the building façade.

The design includes a glass atrium that looks down on to a waiting area, where the station’s timetable boards will be located. This will reduce the need for artificial lighting and, in turn, improve the station’s energy footprint. Natural ventilation will also be a key feature. As part of the redevelopment the concourse will be doubled in size, platforms widened, and more escalators and lifts installed. Integration with public transport will be improved too –making it easier for passengers to transfer to buses, taxis, and eventually the Birmingham tram network.

The new gateway station will also increase permeability across the city. The main entrance of the current station is through the Palisades shopping centre. The secondary access to the taxi rank under a dark concrete canopy is not much better. Even though Network Rail has successfully built a new east facing pedestrian entrance onto the Bull Ring, and opened up a new route direct to the platforms in the west, public access from street level is heavily restricted by shoppers and in the directions it faces. There is no entrance from the south-side of the track from street level or through the new shopping centre. The gateway design resolves this with a new set of entrances. In effect, the new design will allow passengers to disperse in every direction, and pedestrians in the city will use the station to cross into areas of the city now ripe for development.

The idea is for the New Street Station of the next decade to fit seamlessly in with the reinvigorated central Birmingham landscape.

For more information contact warwick.lowe@atkinsglobal.com

London Euston Station
Atkins’ London urban design and architecture teams have recently completed a vision masterplan for a holistic redevelopment of Euston Station.

The work includes the sites of the 1980s commercial office buildings located across the front of the station entrance, owned by the client – investors Sydney & London Properties.

“The vision masterplan goes way beyond the development of a new station,” explains project director, Matt Tribe.
“It is a vibrant mixed-use community in its own right, including retail, leisure, office space and residential buildings and high quality public realm spaces, including a makeover for the landmark Euston Square at the front of the station.”
Working with some very difficult site constraints, including four London Underground lines underfoot and a protected view corridor to St Paul’s Cathedral above, the architecture team, led by Tom Gent and including project architects Kaare Nielsen and Malgorzata Baron, has produced a landmark station that would deliver in excess of three million sq ft of new floor space.

“This will establish Euston as a destination, as in addition to the new station facilities, we will offer a place where people would go for fashion shopping, dining and entertainment, as well as somewhere to work and live, while the practical inclusion of service retail and cultural facilities will enable a thriving and sustainable community to be established there,” explains Mr Gent.

The project will bring together our interdisciplinary design team – they include architects, town planners, landscape architects, urban designers, transport planners as well as Intelligent Space and quantity surveyor skills from Faithful + Gould.

Project manager and lead urban designer, Paul Reynolds, says: “Our proposals have surpassed all the client’s expectations, sufficient for Sydney & London Properties to go public with a recent two page feature article in Property Week and to commission an entire stand at MIPIM in Cannes, dedicated to our design proposals.”

“Whilst British Land have their own ‘air rights’ scheme, it is our comprehensive vision masterplan that the GLA, Camden and Design for London have been prepared to support.

“Having kick-started the process, British Land and our client, Sydney & London Properties, are now discussing how to take the designs forward,” he added.

For more information contact paul.reynolds@atkinsglobal.com

Barking Station and Interchange
In Barking, Atkins is just starting work on developing a masterplan framework for the upgrade or redevelopment of the railway station, its interchange infrastructure, and the surrounding urban fabric, which will unlock its potential as a primary gateway to the town.

The current station building, designed in the 1960’s, is operating at capacity and does not meet modern accessibility requirements. The station forecourt has accumulated a number of retail concessions over the years, which provide income for the station operators but have serious negative impacts for the pedestrian efficiency of the forecourt, adding to the considerable obstacles to efficient modal interchange at Barking.

The area in front of the station accommodates buses, taxis and cycle traffic, feeding on to one of the main traffic routes in to the town centre. The East London Transit bus routes are also due to connect to the station (from Barking Riverside), adding further pressure to the already uncomfortable pedestrian space at its frontage.

In addition, relationships between the interchange, its surrounding environment and links to other areas of the town where there are major wider redevelopment proposals, are weak.

As a result, the station is currently seriously failing in its role as a major gateway into Barking and its town centre.
London Thames Gateway Development Corporation are therefore commissioning a multi-disciplinary team, led by Atkins urban design and with architectural consultancy from Grimshaw, to formulate a visionary masterplan for the station and its immediate context. The masterplan will seek to outline a deliverable, yet inspirational scheme for the interchange, identifying the future quantum of transport infrastructure required, and cross-funding the scheme through private funding.

The research and design thinking done by the team, to date has identified a number of key themes and strategies that the scheme will need to respond to. It will be essential that the design response considers the wider urban context, identifying opportunities for local regeneration rather than simply focusing on the business case and modal interchange efficiency.

The role of a local interchange in ‘place’ terms, the values local people attach to it and the way it is perceived as a point of arrival to Barking are all factors that can be significantly improved upon at Barking. There is significant potential to improve the attractiveness of the town to businesses and visiting businessmen, something the scheme for the Interchange should consider if it is to be a true success.

For more information contact paul.fraser@atkinsglobal.com