Unwrap a station this Christmas
A couple of weeks ago the UK's Office of Rail & Road (ORR) published their annual footfall data that Steer Davies Gleave produces for them. Having done work over the last couple of years on both a vision for stations and what the optimal station and network might feature the figures reminded me of the challenge, potential and opportunity ahead of us.
Challenge - as the data summarised on our website shows there is some volatility in growth with different regions growing at different paces and two even shrinking. The map we created below shows the variety across the network.
What is the appropriate asset management response to a station that might face fluctuating fortunes? gear up for growth and you be 'inefficiently over-providing', fail to act and you risk frustrating the passenger experience and ultimately the train service offer.
What continues to strike me after 20+ years in the industry is the challenging necessity to understand the detail. Who could have guessed that a mince pies and TV celebrity could have contributed to annual footfall increase at Shippea Hill station by 13 fold? Understanding community, customer, potential-customer, service, season, neighbour, front-line staff member, industry stakeholder are vital in this service industry.
Potential - the UK's railways stations are one of the last few elements of common social infrastructure that span the country. As banks have converted into wine bars, pubs and churches into new homes we have also seen the decline of post offices, cottage hospitals and even local prisons. Combine the 'last person standing' with the headlines of being publicly owned national infrastructure and heavily subsidised services and you're probably in for some strong emotion and resistance to change from local communities.
Yet, that emotion and interest is something that the industry can work with and does not exist for many other parts of our national infrastructure in the same manner. It's unlikely that peers in healthcare and education wrestling with the future of their infrastructure and service provision have quite the same opportunities for engagement and creating community value as the railway does. With effective engagement and participation the added value of things like Adopt-a-Station schemes and Community Rail Partnerships can grow.
Opportunity - I argue that proactively harnessing the appetite people have for improving their communities and the industry recognising that stations are so much more than a railway asset is a great way to start. Across the network there are some great examples of this but are they the exception or the norm? are they supported or hindered by industry policy, processes and incentives? are they too dependent on great people in the community randomly linking with similarly impassioned and professional people inside the industry?
In the work we did for RSSB on a Stations Sustainability Framework we stressed that the paradigm for many of us needed to be reversed - we needed to think first of the role of the station in the community and then its role in the railway network. If these assets are unlikely to be removed (the UK Government's recent Rail Strategy's indicates the opposite to a Beeching style cull of stations) then opportunity will stem from shaping the station to meet local need and aspirations. Optimisation may mean focusing resources and flexing assets and services both up and down across the network but if it is in synergy with local need and aspiration there's greater chance of success.
The station network is a long-term asset resting in communities that have been shaped by their very presence. People have chosen to live next to, buy a car or bike to commute to, invested in businesses at or near stations. Unwrapping the station network from community perspectives is a great way to start building a more sustainable and accountable station network with greater benefits. So here's to a 2018 of unpicking the station puzzle still further and driving it forward!
If you want to read more on the ORR ridership data take a look here:
- https://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/station-usage-estimates
- https://www.steerdaviesgleave.com/news-and-insights/Estimates-of-station-usage