Train operators are also taking a much more active interest in enhancing the wider benefits of stations. ScotRail, says Bray, sees “an opportunity for fewer stations to be cold, impersonal and fortified, and more of a gateway and opportunity for the sometimes struggling towns they serve. £1m a year of funding for a more ambitious, outward-facing community rail programme, as well as more combined retail/ticket sales points at smaller stations, should also help. As should plugging the railways into the Scottish Towns Partnership, which (as the name suggests) is there to network and assist their revival and prosperity.”
Hasty disposal of land adjoining stations may limit or jeopardise development schemes. Peter Madden, chief executive of Future Cities Catapult, foresees a time when the ubiquity of tickets on mobile phones or other devices will allow multiple access points at stations. The benefits of re-orientating stations with new entrances can already be seen at Leeds, Newcastle and York.
Another concern must be over the control and selection of retail outlets at stations. There has been a deliberate policy of improving the quality of retailing at new developments such as St Pancras and King’s Cross in London and at Birmingham New Street - more Paul and Peyton & Byrne than Burger King and Pizza Hut. As a consequence, these stations have become shopping destinations in their own right, as well as enhancing the attraction of travelling by train. Bray cautions against stations becoming bland and “chainy”, and believes more should be done to make them reflect local enterprise and businesses.
The revival of pressure to identify land for non-rail uses is ringing alarm bells in the rail freight industry. Lee Armstrong, at GB Railfreight, is concerned that: “Network Rail is trying to sell off large chunks of land. What were strategic freight sites are potentially going to be sold.”
It’s not only suitable sites for rail freight terminals that are at risk, there is also the need for space to stable trains around cities during the six hours a day (three in the morning and three in the evening) when freight trains cannot move because of rush-hour passenger trains.
Three asset categories within the Freight Property Portfolio are being assessed by NR. The first is strategic freight sites. Rail Freight Group Executive Director Maggie Simpson concedes that some are not very strategic and are surplus to requirements - while most remain necessary, some are low value and could be sold for housing. However, there are only five strategic rail sites in greater London, which is hardly sufficient for the growing construction market, let alone other categories.
Other sites, such as the well-equipped DB Cargo site at Willesden, have been affected by the construction needs of HS2.
