Over the last 200 years railways have had a profound effect on the areas they serve – opening them up to trade and passenger transport.
The busiest passenger station in the world is said to be Shinjuku in Tokyo where 1.26 bn passengers arrive or depart per year. Tokyo is the ultimate rail centre in terms of use – albeit Bombay is also busy, but not on any lists of busy stations on Wikipedia.
In the US, Penn station in New York is very busy and about to be modernised by adapting the one time main New York post office building. Further up Manhattan an additional 2 tracks are being built in a new tunnel under the East River into Grand Central station.
In Africa Cairo, Johannesburg and Cape Town have thriving commuter rail networks; Sydney and Melbourne lead the way in Australia and in New Zealand the old Post Office has been adapted as a terminal in central Auckland.
China now has the longest high speed distance rail network in the world, linking its huge cities Taiwan, South Korea and Japan which all have high-speed networks complementing their Metros and commuter networks.
In Europe, most railways were built in long established cities, in contrast to places like Chicago and Buenos Aires where railways permitted goods to be brought to market and stimulated the rapid growth of these cities which are still served by extensive passenger suburban networks as well as long distance freight railroads. Los Angeles attempted to ignore the railway but now has 130000 people a day using its beautiful art deco Union station with revived rapid transit links to the suburbs as well as commuter trains and new Underground lines. In Florida a new totally privately financed railway has opened this year from Palm Beach to Central Miami (very much planned around improving linkage but also adding value to property around the stations).
In Europe the busiest station is Gare du Nord with over 180m passengers using it each year; Chatelet in Paris, Rome Termini, Hamburg and Zurich are also busier than London Waterloo. The rest of this note will focus on the role of heavy rail and its link to property in London which is so dominant to the rail network.
The Table below shows the busiest 10 stations in the UK in 2007 and 2017 together with the busiest Underground stations in 2016. For heavy rail the Office of road and rail publish details of passenger throughput at all 2560 stations and the Underground details from Transport for. The order is as in 2017 with 2007 shown. The figures are throughput per year and Underground is separate to heavy rail. xr indicates on or near The Elizabeth Line.T similar for Thameslink.
Station 2017 throughput 2007throughput Underground 2017
Waterloo 99.4m (1) 83.9m (1) 91.2.m(2)
Victoria 75.9m (2) 66.8m(2) 79.4m(4)
Oxford Circus 84.0m(3)XR
Liverpool St 67.3m (3) XR 55.2m (3) 67.6m(6)
London Bridge 47.9m (4) T 47.6m(4) 69.0m(5)
Euston 44.1m (5) 25.6m (7) 43.1m(11)
Birmingham New St 42.8m (6) 14.5m
Stratford 42.3m (7) XR 13.1m 62.8m (7)
Paddington 35.9m (8) XR 27.2m(6) 49.7m (9)
Canary Wharf 50.0m(8)XR
Kings Cross 33.8 m (9) T 22.5m (8) 97.9m(1)
St Pancras 33.5m (10) T 5.7m
Bank 61.8m(8)
Stations in the top 10 in 2007 which have dropped out are Charing Cross(5),Cannon St (9) and Glasgow Central (10) all of which have grown in the interim but not at the rate of St Pancras, Stratford or Birmingham New St.
The 2017 figures are affected by the Thameslink work diverting trains from London Bridge and by the advent of the High speed trains to Kent from StPancras. Eurostar moved from Waterloo to St Pancras in 2007 but is not included in these figures.
The table emphasises the dominance of London, albeit growth in Regional centres like Birmingham has been very significant – aided the by the redevelopment of the shopping centre above New St station and also the rail growth which has however stalled in 2017 after a surge since the 2008 financial crisis.
It shows that half the busiest stations will be served by The Elizabeth line (Crossrail) which will also revolutionise linkage to the core high value added centres in the City and at Canary Wharf. The extra capacity will also link the growing central business cores in Canary Wharf and the City to each other and more effectively to Heathrow and some less wealthy communities like Abbey Wood.
The role of integrated developments like Stratford and Kings Cross lands in growing volume is also shown – of course Old Oak Common beckons and there is an opportunity at Shoreditch. Farringdon is also on the Elizabeth line.
Overall rail is critical to the development of core city business districts and their expansion whether in London,New York or Tokyo and in linking the suburbs to the central business districts. Out of the centre underused railways in London have been adapted to form the incredibly effective Overground network – improving accessibility to places like Hackney and across the Thames in East London and contributing to the decline of car use.
Destinations in themselves are another key area. In the 1980’s Liverpool St. was developed to serve the retail needs of the City and the principle has now been applied at stations like St Pancras, Kings Cross and Waterloo among others – it can also be seen at Grand Central New York, Washington DC and in Rome, Milan and Leipzig in Europe. All these are fabulous buildings built in the 19th/20th centuries supported by a wider role than just trains.
Railways thrive on population growth, GDP growth but also contribute to it by enabling business districts to grow and to intensify density; effective linkage with the hinterland can also contribute to adding value or reviving neighbourhoods.
