Andrew Adonis
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While touring the rail network in April this year, I was struck by the variability in station standards.
A few stations were excellent, such as Sheffield, Manchester Piccadilly and York, but others were poorly maintained – not just the fabric of the buildings but also the toilets and facilities. Catering and retail outlets were in some cases non-existent even in mid-evening. My blog turned the 8pm refreshment desert at Southampton Central into a cause celebre.
Bike parking is inadequate, cramped and poorly accessible even in most of London’s mainline terminals. Information about buses and other local transport is also often lacking. Station managers repeatedly told me they needed more car parking because their car parks were full by 9am and this was deterring motorists from getting out of their cars and onto trains. The fabric of some stations also requires thorough modernisation to make them proud gateways to their towns and cities, rather than dingy, depressing Victorian relics.
With this in mind, I asked Chris Green and Sir Peter Hall to report on how improvements could be made. Their report recommends minimum station standards covering every station in the country. Stations are banded by passenger numbers, with standards for each in terms of access, information, facilities and maintenance. They also recommend the provision of an extra 10,000 car parking spaces a year and a doubling of station bike parking within five years. I intend to mandate these standards in future rail franchise agreements, to drive rapid improvement nationally.
The Station Champions highlight ten major stations which are well below standard in their facilities and infrastructure. In partnership with Network Rail I am today announcing a new £50m fund which, together with commercial and third party contributions will enable an early start to be made on modernising these stations.
Today I am visiting all ten stations in rapid succession. I hope to get an impression not only of their particular shortcomings, but also the wider challenge of modernising all our stations so they are fit for a the 21st century. I want every station to be a good station - a hub for local community life and somewhere that you wouldn’t mind spending time.
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