COMMENT
Fixing the link
Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, spoke to RTM about Dutch research into the links between stations and town centres – and its possible application here.
R
outes between railway stations and town centres have traditionally been absent from both local government and transport investment plans. But these links are important for both tourism and economic growth, and can encourage greater spending and return visits.
So how can the rail industry and operators work with local councils to improve the situation? Dutch research by train operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) has been identifying issues including poor signage, a lack of public realm infrastructure, and overly complicated routes via new methodology known as ‘Fixing the link’.
The assessment categorises walking routes based on four criteria: liveliness, human scale, legibility, and safety and comfort. The results are then converted into a total ‘score’ out of 100 for any given route.
In the Netherlands, the model is clarifying where investment should be focused.
A similar approach could also be applied to the UK; NS-owned Abellio, which operates Greater Anglia, has since launched pilot schemes in Ely, Ipswich and Colchester.
18 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 14 Transferring policy
The Campaign for Better Transport compiled a report into the scheme’s fi ndings so far, and RTM spoke to chief executive Stephen Joseph about this English application.
He said: “The scores are widely spread, from 14% to 71%; there’s a good range in the Netherlands in the links. The Dutch are obviously busy trying to work out how to apply this more widely. We’ve tried to take something that fi ts a Dutch policy context in transport and planning, and apply it to the English experience.”
“Historic towns particularly have been doing quite a lot of thinking about this,” he added.
Some of the idea behind better links extends the existing Station Travel
Plans, which
focus on how passengers get to stations. But Fixing the Link specifi cally looks at the walking route, which in some cases is “put in the ‘too-hard basket’”, Joseph said.
This is because the railway traditionally only thinks about what it can control immediately
around its own boundaries; while this includes things like cycle parking and bus stops, the wider physical environment can also benefi t from planned investment.
Complex co-ordination Better walking links
require “genuine
collaborative effort between the railway and local authorities”, which has “sometimes been seen as quite diffi cult to do”.
The relationships are “very variable”, Joseph said, with a lot of ad hoc work being done. Fixing the Link offers a methodology for understanding how these can be improved in a more standardised manner,
and
ultimately rolled out across the network. Improvements involve the co-ordination of different parts of the railway industry, as well as district and county councils, who are responsible for planning and transport respectively in two-tier local authority areas. Unitary authorities and London boroughs handle both aspects.
Recent station builds and refurbishments seem to be paying more attention to these links;
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