Creating synergy in and around stations

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Creating synergy in and around stations Three strategies for adding value Gert-Joost Peek M.Sc Mark van Hagen MA

ABSTRACT This paper provides recommendations for (re-)developing railway station areas by creating synergy between both identities of a station: as a node in transport networks and as a location in the city. Users of stations want a reliable, safe, fast, easy, comfortable and pleasant interchange. This means that besides speed and safety, quality in the sense of comfort and experience add value to the appreciation of the interchange. Focussing on the consumers’ appreciation of travel time leads to three strategies in which value can be added to the interchange: 1. Accelerate: speeding up individual trips and taking away the hassle of interchanging; 2. Condense: concentrate origins and destinations near the station and improve the quality of the station surrounding; 3. Enhance: adding facilities that enhance the comfort and experience of interchanging. In order to create this synergy a station layout should be divided in three spatial areas: 1. Transfer area: in the heart of the interchange transfer and travel related services are located; acceleration is the key word here. 2. Station environment: around the transfer area facilities for commerce and meeting make transfer time useful and pleasant; emphasis is on enhancing comfort and experience. 3. Station area: condensation of less travel related activities and attractions are located; this reduces travel time and hassle and enhances the urban environment. Synergy in the (re-)development of stations is created by making use of both transportation and real estate elements. The three strategies make you able to produce the ultimate trunk card: an ACE!

INTRODUCTION Stations are not the most inviting of places. Passengers rushing about or waiting patiently for their trains do not really value the time they spend in stations. The role of stations in spatial networks and in individual travel arrangements offers scope for improvement. In this paper, by taking a comprehensive look at accessibility, we present three strategies for combined investments in transportation services and real estate in and around stations. To this end, we take passengers and their desires as our starting point. As a geographical entity, a railway station has two basic, though partly contradictory, identities. It is a node: a point of access to trains and interchange to other transportation networks. At the same time, it is a place: a specific section of the city with a concentration of infrastructure but also with a diversified collection of buildings and open spaces (1). This ambivalent nature of the station creates opportunities for synergy between the two connotations: moving and staying. Authors like Cervero (researcher at the University of California, Berkley) emphasized this synergy by research on the economic impact of lightrail systems such as BART, MARTA and the Washington D.C. Metrorail and conventional train systems like the CalTrain in San Mateo County (2,3,4). In this paper we take the perspective of a railway company which, next to their transportation activities, owns and develops real estate in the vicinity of its stations, like the Dutch Railways (NS). Japanese experience shows that there is a lot to gain by this combination (5). Since the Dutch Railways became a semi-public company in 1995 it developed a new business strategy. Its mission is developing station areas as a place to stay and providing transportation services connecting these nodes. In order to fulfil this mission the customer, as traveler and as user of facilities in and around the stations, is the mean focal point. For that, we have based our recommendations on the use and appreciation of time by the customers. In that way we think that a long lasting synergy in and around stations will be attained.

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The challenge Passengers who chose the train as their mode of transport use stations for transferring. Having to transfer is an unwanted interruption in the journey and usually entails lost time, inconvenience and uncertainty. With the train’s biggest competitor, the car, people are transported from door to door without having to get out. As a result, the motorist does not experience any “transfer threshold.” Along with probable advantage in speed, this makes a journey by car more attractive than a journey by train. We propose that the negative experiences of passengers transferring can be turned into a more positive experience by making use of the ambivalent character of stations: a node in a transportation network and a place in the city. The challenge is to add value to the time spent in a station (and the surrounding area), so that from door to door the train journey is comparable to a journey by car from a qualitative point of view. This means that the station becomes more than just a transfer machine and that attention must be paid to the relationship between transporting people and having them enjoy the time spend in the station. THE CUSTOMER’S WISHES Various studies (6,7,8,9) show that a traveler’s decision to travel by car or train is based on the differences in reliability, travel time, comfort and cost. The importance that travelers attach to these factors varies with their motive for travelling. The motive, or the real objective or destination of the journey, determines to a large degree the focus in the desired quality mix. “Must-have” motives demand a fast and reliable service. In contrast, “pleasure trippers” attach more value to the ease and comfort of the journey. The need to transfer creates an obstacle both for people whose journey is compulsory and those who are travelling for fun. Features such as safety, speed (journey time), ease, comfort and past experience determine the size of the obstacle. To remove this obstacle, the points listed above must be taken into account when designing a station. Together these points form the complete wish list of the customer. In accordance with Maslow’s hierarchy, the various wishes of the customer can be ranked in order of importance in a pyramid shape. Railtrack for instance bases the order of the quality requirements of Waterloo Station in London on this principle (10). The base of our pyramid is made up of the minimal requirements of reliability and safety. Safety is an absolute prerequisite for the operation of a station. In a society afflicted by a shortage of time, speed is the primary wish of the customer. When the requirement for a fast and efficient transfer is met, the customer’s secondary wish is that the transfer is easy, i.e. straightforward and without a lot of hassle. In addition, customers expect a certain degree of comfort in the station. Sheltered waiting- and sitting rooms and amenities should be provided for incoming passengers. Finally, the journey should be a pleasant experience. Visual features such as the architectural layout, the colors and materials used, tidiness, (day)light and transparency have an influence on the overall experience. The availability of facilities such as shops, as well as the visible presence of station personnel, enhances the experience. See and be seen is the motto for feeling safe in public. Figure 1 shows the relationship between customer requirements and wishes (6).

Experience Comfort specific generic

Ease

satisfiers dissatisfiers

Speed Safety & reliability

Figure 1. The relationship between customer requirements and wishes in stations. Only when the requirements and wishes at every level of the pyramid are met the customer will regard the station as a pleasant place to transfer. If standards are not high enough at one of the levels of the pyramid, this has an effect on the overall value provided by the station. So, to clarify: passengers find it less inconvenient when a station is somber but can guarantee a fast transfer than when they have to transfer in an attractive station where they have to cover long distances or spend a long time looking for their connections. More fundamental

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still: when reliability and personal safety are not up to standard, then meeting customers’ wishes is pointless. People will avoid the station. While speed and ease mostly come into play when moving through the station, comfort and experience are important when passengers have to spend time in the station. Speed and ease are therefore dissatisfiers; that is to say they generate a negative impression when they are not satisfactory. They are generic characteristics and therefore apply to every station. Comfort and experience are, in contrast, satisfiers. These features are noticed when the station scores positively. Therefore, the last two types of customer wishes are more specific. They are related to the type of destination in the surrounding area, the type of passenger and the average time spent in the station. Fulfilling the need to provide comfort and a pleasant experience at a station in an amusement park is a very different task than at a high-speed-train station in a business center. OPPORTUNITIES FOR SYNERGY Even though a station is distinguished by the facilities it provides for both passengers passing through and passengers spending time in it, a distinction should also be made between, on the one hand, the level of accessibility, and on the other hand the urban environment in which the station is located. Thus large stations are characterized by the comprehensive schedules they offer and an extensive bus, tram or metro network. Also, their capacities, closeness to a motorway and the size of through-flow have a large impact on accessibility. Often these stations are in areas of big cities that offer a broad range of social facilities within a short (walking) distance. Very small stations, on the other hand, are often little more than a stop on a single line. The urban facilities are usually limited to living accommodation. The (re-)development of stations and the surrounding areas is concerned with exploiting the potential arising from a station’s ability to offer both transportation and facilities to transient visitors. Synergy within a station area exists when the composite elements, such as the facilities and spatial elements, together create more value than the sum of the individual parts (11). This asks for a comprehensive blend of all elements related to the ambivalent nature of the station: moving and staying. This blend has to be achieved both at the level of the networks in which the station area functions as a node, and at the level of the location as an interchange and place in the urban environment. Synergy in and around stations is possible if the right blend between the reach of the transportation networks, the urban environment, and the transportation and urban facilities that are available is achieved. Figure 2 shows the elements that are needed to achieve this blend.

transportation

real estate

synergy

network

synergy

reach tranportation networks

centrality

urban environment

transfer quality

accessibility

quality of the environment

location transportation facilities

proximity

urban facilities

Figure 2. Elements contributing to synergy in and around stations. At the network level, a balance should be found between the reach of the connections and the urban environment. This can be achieved by assessing the centrality of the location, in the sense of its importance to the network. A rail center that offers continental connections (e.g. for a high-speed train service) requires a completely different urban environment than a center that only offers regional connections. At local level, proximity is important. Coupling centrality with proximity creates a favorable business environment. There is good reason why the areas immediately surrounding large centrally located stations are valuable places. The quality of the transfer and the quality of the environment determine the competitive position with regard to other locations. Quality is also expressed in features that are important to the user: speed, ease, comfort and experience. The sum of these features - speed, ease, comfort and experience - can be seen as a new way of looking at the concept of accessibility. This corresponds well with Bertolini and Dijst (researchers at the Universities of

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Amsterdam and Utrecht), who view accessibility as an all-encompassing concept. “For accessibility is not only a characteristic of a transportation center (how many destinations, how much time and how easy is it to reach your destination) but it is a characteristic of an activity center (how many and how diverse are the activities taking place at a location) as well as the user (for whom is the place intended?)” (Originally in Dutch) (12). An accessible location for a station in this complete definition is a location where, at both a local level and a network level, synergy between the transportation and real estate is achieved. APPRECIATION OF TRANSPORTATION AND FACILITIES The added value of accessible locations is therefore a combination of the transportation possibilities and the level of facilities available when passing through. This added value can be expressed as a clear and simple measurement: time. In addition to the time taken, every activity can be assigned a time value. Not every experience is a pleasant one. Unpleasant experiences seem to last longer than pleasant ones. Thus, time spent in a dentist’s waiting room seems to pass more slowly than time spent chatting animatedly with friends. One of the assumptions of welfare theory is that in a fixed time, an individual can achieve a maximum return. He or she is only willing to deviate from this optimal state of affairs when there is sure to be some form of compensation, for example, in the form of an increase in salary. On the other hand, it may be assumed that he or she is willing to make some sort of sacrifice to optimize time expenditure. Fundamental to calculating the value of time in prosperity theory is the assumption that the marginal benefit of time spent travelling (transportation) is normally negative: extra travel time means that an individual has less time to do the things that he or she would rather do for example to sleep in longer before the morning rush hour. The more value - in the sense of enjoyment - that people attach to these additional objectives, the more they are prepared to pay for shorter journey times (13). Research (14) shows that how people value time varies between the different stages of a journey. Thus, within a passenger journey a distinction is made between “in-train” time, the time in access and egress modes (cycle, bus, tram, metro), and the transfer time. The in-train time is valued twice as highly as access and egress time and three times more highly than transfer time. This value can be expressed in terms of benefit and enjoyment. Figure 3 visualizes the value placed by passengers of the transportation and facilities available while passing through, between their origin and destination. The horizontal axis shows time spent. The vertical axis shows the time value given to each stage of the journey. The product of time spent and time value is the value assigned to the time spent. This value can be expressed in terms of usefulness and enjoyment.

High

origin

destination

time value

train journey access mode

egress mode transfer

transfer Low time spent

Figure 3. Time valuation of transportation and of amenities available in a passenger journey. THREE WAYS OF ADDING VALUE To improve the competitive position in relation to the car, it is necessary to improve passenger journeys by train. This can be achieved in three ways: accelerate, condense and enhance. We explain each of these approaches briefly and use the re-development of the station complex in ’s-Hertogenbosch to illustrate the points. ’s-Hertogenbosch is the 14th city of the Netherlands with 150.000 inhabitants. The city is the capital of the southern province Noord-Brabant. At its Intercity station, train services from four directions meet. The stations handled 36.000 train passengers daily in the year 2000 of which 11.000 interchanged from train to train. Fifteen years ago the transformation of the 120-hectare rail center was started with the objective of removing the obstruction formed within the city by the railway tracks. This would enlarge the heart of the city and create room for large-scale undertakings in the city center. The total investment is estimated at two billion guilders

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(approximately $US 800,000,000) (15). The photo in figure 4 shows the transformation of the area directly around the station.

Figure 4. The transformation of the area around ’s-Hertogenbosch station, mid 1999. Accelerate The first way to add value to the passenger journey is to shorten journey times. This can be done by increasing the average speed of the transport modes and by reducing waiting times. This is illustrated in figure 5. This requires action at the transportation network level and in the transfer quality, as shown in figure 2. High

time value

origin

destination

train journey access mode transfer

egress mode transfer

Low time spent

Figure 5. Accelerate: adding value to the journey by reducing travel and waiting times. In ’s-Hertogenbosch, transfer quality has greatly improved since the opening of the new station complex in 1998. This compact complex houses a train station, underground car park and bicycle stalls, which are connected in such a way as to ensure fast transfers. What’s more, in the same year, at the transportation network level, the frequency of a number of train services stopping at ’s-Hertogenbosch was increased.

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Condense Secondly, urban facilities such as housing, workplaces and leisure centers can be situated closer to the station, and/or in greater densities. Figure 6 shows that on both the arrivals and departures side, the need for the use of access and egress modes can be eliminated - and with it a lot of hassle. In addition to faster journey times, the lowly valued transfer time is reduced. Transferring becomes a simple matter of getting in and out of the train. The added value is achieved by focusing on speed and ease in the pyramid. This is due to the synergy elements proximity of activities and quality of the surroundings. High

origin

destination

time value train journey

getting in

getting out

Low time spent

Figure 6. Condense: adding value to the journey by introducing origins and destinations in the vicinity of stations. Around ’s-Hertogenbosch’s new station, many new origins and destinations have been created. This is not only the case around the new station square facing the city center, but also at the other side where room has been created for offices, shops, houses and catering facilities. The removal of the obstacle created by the railway tracks by the building of the “passarelle” (a covered bridge across the tracks which houses small shops and other amenities) made it possible to transform the run-down industrial area behind the station into a new feature of the city center. As a result, the station now has two front sides. The Palace of Justice and the Van Lanschot tower (a Dutch merchant bank) on the new square are the eye-catching attractions of the new section of the city. The quality of the surrounding area is heavily influenced by the architectonic design and by encouraging amenities such as cafes and restaurants. Enhance The third way to add value to the passenger journey by train is to enhance the time value of the least-valued elements. Figure 7 shows that by making waiting and transferring pleasant and beneficial experiences, the intrinsic value of the passengers journey goes up. This is achieved by offering opportunities - both in the train and in the station - to partake in activities that are highly valued. Thus, the need to provide comfort and a pleasant experience as illustrated in the pyramid of customer’s wishes is addressed. High

origin

destination transfer train journey

time value

transfer access mode

egress mode

Low time spent Figure 7. Enhance: adding value to the journey by making travelling and transferring more pleasant experiences.

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To turn the enforced idleness of waiting into a pleasant or beneficial way of spending time, the ICT is offering more and more amenities. Soon passengers will not only be able to telephone during their journey but also to surf the Internet, email or to watch a film of their choice. However, the biggest increase in value is not achieved in the train but in the station. The actual transfer is the least valued step in the train journey. Here people have the feeling that they are wasting time. Value can be added to the transfer process by offering activities to allow time to be spent efficiently and enjoyably. Waiting becomes enjoying the many amenities available. The advent of the networked society is leading to a demand that facilities for business, work and enjoyment be integrated in individual transportation chains. For the moment, we should consider convenience shopping, (fast) food, business lounges and network offices and entertainment (16). When these amenities are added, the time transferring will be better spent. It will even become a bonus when people would otherwise have to make an extra trip to avail of the facilities on offer. The availability of this type of amenity at a station cuts out an extra journey and thus spares the traveler (low valued travel) time. ’s-Hertogenbosch station offers, among other things, a supermarket, a chemist shop and a newsagent. Because they offer multiple access points and are often centrally located in the city, stations are good places for face-to-face contact. Meetings in stations provide gains in efficiency in individual transportation chains. People choose the most central place at the network level so that their individual in-train time is reduced and no further transportation is required. The provision of cafes and meeting rooms, for example, can stimulate the use of the station as a place for meetings. In ’s-Hertogenbosch, meeting facilities are provided by the La Gare congress center, which is directly accessible from the station concourse. In addition to planned meetings, the station is a recognized place for chance meetings. Many individual transportation chains cross at stations. People who are waiting are open to meetings. Low-value waiting time is immediately transformed into valuable social time. In and around ’s-Hertogenbosch station, this type of chance meeting is facilitated mostly by the provision of catering establishments. The best example of this is the café La Bascule on the passerelle in the heart of the transportation node, which offers a view of the newly renovated, historical station rooftops. RESULTS The implementation of three strategies in which to add value to the customer’s train journey - accelerate, condense and enhance - have clearly paid off in ’s-Hertogenbosch. After the opening of the new station in 1998, the yearly increase in tickets sales to ’s-Hertogenbosch was on average twice as high as the average increase for a number of comparable stations in the Dutch cities of Breda, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Leiden and Amersfoort (all these cities are comparable regional centers, while the selected stations all belong to the twenty largest stations in the country and all have the Intercity status). These figures are based on ticket sales per station of destination over the period 1995-2000 as registered by the Dutch Railways. If the entire rail complex is completed by the end of the decade, the expanded ’s-Hertogenbosch city center will be able to accommodate 10,000 new workers, 15,000 students and 2,500 households, as well as a refurbished transportation node (15). THE LAYOUT OF STATIONS AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS Eliminating the obstacles to travelling by train and adding value to the public transport transportation chain requires a new approach to station layout. The pyramid of customer wishes in figure 1 is enlightening in this regard. When designing the station, it is presumed that there are four functional shells that must be accommodated in three spatial areas, as illustrated in figure 8.

1.000 m

300 m transfer area station environment100 m

transfer service meeting / commercial activities

station area

urban facilities

Figure 8. The principle of station layout in functional areas and shells.

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Transfer area The transfer area forms the nucleus of the rail center. The transfer area is made up of the station and one or more forecourts. Within the transfer area, two distinct functions, which are spatially divided, can be identified; namely transfer and service. The transfer, or the interchange between trains and connecting transportation modes of access and egress, is the most important priority from the point of view of layout. Speed and ease are the most important criteria here. Thus a logical interchange with short walking distances and minimal waiting times, logical and simple sign-posting and minimal congestion at peak times is necessary. Directly around the transfer nucleus lies a service shell with facilities related to transportation, such as ticket sales, travel information, route information, and amenities to enhance the journey such as shops that sell food, drinks and reading material, plus the provision of toilets. These amenities are immediately available to the stream of transferring passengers, without interfering with their interchange. Station environment Where the transfer area meets the station environment, we can identify a third shell that offers facilities for commerce and meetings. Commercial activities such as convenience shopping and fun shopping have no direct relationship with the journey. Commercial and meeting activities must in no way interfere with the transfer process and therefore are not located directly in the path of transferring passengers, but just outside - on a different floor, for example, or in a quiet part of the station. The quality of the environment is essential to the successful operation of the station environments. Station area The third area, the station area, overlaps with a fourth functional shell. This shell contains long-lasting urban facilities such as housing, workplaces and leisure areas. The proximity of the station will have played a role in the choice of location for these functions. A generally accepted measurement is a walking distance of 10 minutes from the station. The influence of the station on commercial activity related to the station itself will not penetrate much further than this. Just because these amenities are situated in the third or fourth shells does not mean that they cannot be integrated in the station, as for example the offices located just above the transfer spaces in ’s-Hertogenbosch station. The final allocation of space and the number of urban facilities is dependent on the role of the station at a network level. Through the implementation of the “accelerate, condense and enhance” strategy, the station complex at ’sHertogenbosch adheres for the most part to this design principle. This has clearly increased the opportunities for creating synergy in the area. CONCLUSION The potential of synergy in an area - which is expressed as an important measurement for the traveler called “value of time” - can be exploited in three ways: Accelerate, Condense and Enhance. In addition to the (traditional) reduction of travel times, the intrinsic value of a journey can be increased by specifically investing in quality through focusing on the themes of enhance and condense. Thus, the station can function as the ultimate crossover point between transportation and enjoying the available amenities. Using these strategies to add value to stations and passenger journeys, rail centers set themselves apart from other locations and modes of transport. In our opinion this added value is generated not only by investing in greater speed and capacity but also in quality in the form of comfort, overall experience, transfer quality and the quality of the surroundings. The combination of rail and real estate activities in one company makes it for NS possible to apply all three strategies. Doing this should provide for a long lasting synergy in and around stations. So, with these three strategies a railway company or any public-private entity combining transportation and real estate activities should have an excellent trunk card: the ACE. REFERENCE 1. 2.

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