Station to station

Ricardo's Cory Roeton explains how a mix of virtual reality modelling and lessons from the past are delivering rail station designs that meet operational, maintenance and customer service requirements from Day One.  

Cavernous ticket halls under expansive glass roofs; spacious platforms with LED information screens; forecourts with mature tree planters and bikes neatly parked for hire: early artist impressions of planned railway stations are - as with all architectural drawings - an enticing vision of what could be. There is rarely an abandoned coffee cup in sight.

Of course, concept images are spared having to show how the station will function day after day, year after year: how peak-time crowds will be managed, toilets kept clean, shops stocked, power supplied, waste removed, and so on.

But whether designing a major city centre termini or an unmanned rural stop, early design decisions about the 'day-to-day' details will significantly affect how the station operates for decades to come.

'It's a big ask of project managers and architects to envisage the daily operations of a rail station over a period extending out 20 or even 40 years,' says Cory Roeton, Senior Advisor for Rail Operations and Customer Experience, who has more than 25 years' experience in the rail sector and supported the development of metro networks for almost a decade.

'Getting the station maintenance, operations and customer experience requirements firmly understood is crucial. And that requires thinking through precisely what you want from the station and how you expect it to operate long into the future', he says.  

Guiding projects through these decisions is a role Ricardo's teams have performed on new build and refurbishment programmes throughout Europe, Australia and Asia. 

'There is a wealth of information available, from lessons of past mistakes and recent best practice to the latest modelling and analytical tools. All of which can be used to deliver the optimum design for every operating scenario without exceeding budget or incurring unforeseen costs long into the future. It's a specialist area of advisory that we take a lot of pride in.' 

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Railway stations are unique civic assets. As well as acting as a juncture between private, shared and public modes of transport, they can be local landmarks, meeting points, retails hubs, and even international borders. They are also places of work for staff conducting a range of duties throughout the day. 

It's a complex balancing act: a space that must be kept open, flexible and accessible, but also safe, secure and efficient.

‘The design of any station should always commence with absolute clarity on what its purpose will be. Not just Day One, but for the next four or five decades', says Cory.

‘Are we designing a station for a new line, or an extension of an existing route? Is it a terminus, which usually requires additional staff rooms and maintenance facilities? Or is it an ‘events’ station serving a stadium or entertainment precinct where it needs the capacity to handle a surge in large crowds whilst still catering for local folk who live and work in the precinct - just as Sydney's planned Olympic Park Metro station has been designed to do?'

'Is the station there to support a future residential development? Might it one day need to serve a second line currently under discussion? What is the projected footfall over the coming years? What service frequencies will it support?'

'All of which will help determine the experience we want for the passenger. On the Sydney Airport Link, for example, we knew the stations would need to accommodate passengers carrying luggage. This influences the positioning of ticket barriers and lifts but also requires looking at the ‘last mile’ of the journey, such as access to well-lit areas for bus services and taxi pick-up'.

When ambition meets reality

Naturally, a project owner will want the best they can secure for their budget. But this usually call for compromises somewhere. So, one of the first challenges is to align early aspirations with the realities of civil engineering.

'Clients need to allocate their budget carefully in order to get the best possible value,' says Cory. 'The more you dig into earth and rock, the greater the cost. Which means we need to be precise from the start about the scale of the construction.'

Materials for the building will be dictated by the budget, but other factors, such as local climate, anticipated patronage, and the socio-economic profile of the area, will also have an influence. An unmanned commuter station, for example, with limited shelter and low footfall should prioritise materials that deter vandalism, graffiti and anti-social behaviour.

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Walking through a 'Day in the life' of the station

As well as the physical build, Cory and his team use a range of tools to anticipate the station's operations and maintenance requirements.

"We essentially undertake a ‘Day in the Life’ assessment, looking at all the tactical needs,' says Cory.

'Passenger flow modelling, for example, is used to help determine the optimum routes to the platforms and the positioning of signage, information points and ticket facilities. The same models can inform incident management plans, such as emergency exits, muster points and access for emergency services'. 

'Human factors is equally important for on-site staff and visiting suppliers. So we now use virtual reality technology - and even life-size mock ups of equipment, or the entire back-of-house area - to ensure the building designs will support the safe deployment of staff tasks and give due priority to maintenance activity'. 

Much of this work involves breaking a station down into constituent parts – the paid (ie beyond any ticket barrier) and unpaid areas, the retail units, the staff areas, the plant rooms, the power supplies etc - and assess how they need to interact throughout the operational day.

"Consider toilet facilities. The operator may have a KPI mandating how long the facilities must be kept open over the day. The station's size will already dictate the number of male, female, unisex, accessible and baby change facilities, for example. But where should the cleaning team be based if they are to keep to their schedule - and respond to incidents - without leaving facilities closed for longer than the KPI stipulates?

Such prosaic matters can be easily overlooked in less-informed designs. Older stations, for example, are notorious for the disruption caused by over-running repairs to escalators and lifts, much of which is due to maintenance access requiring entire sections of the station to be closed.

Extracting the best possible value

Rail stations are challenging environments to maintain and keep safe and secure for 18 upto 20 hours a day, all whilst serving passengers of all ages, abilities and needs.  

Civil engineers and architects will bring expertise from their fields, but they can’t be expected to understand all the daily minutiae that can impact on the smooth operation of a station.

In most new builds the eventual service operator is only appointed towards the end of the build stage, missing the opportunity to influence the designs.

As a result, roles such as Shadow Operator have been used to act as the 'voice' of the railway during the early development.

And it certainly pays to have specialist support onside. Introducing a rail mindset from the earliest opportunity means the needs of a rail operator are factored into every aspect of the building and its design and goes a long way to ensuring all parties – the railway owner, the operator and the customer – get the best possible value from the project.