Horizon explores: Railway Standards
All aboard: embedding accessibility in station design
RSSB is consolidating its station design standards, and accessibility will be key.
Anup ChaliseyProfessional Head of Infrastructure, Infrastructure, RSSB
Each day, millions of people pass through our country’s railway stations. Stations in London alone see over a million passengers on a typical weekday.
For this reason, stations must be designed with safety and passenger experience in mind. For example, corridors and other spaces need to be wide enough to accommodate large passenger numbers. This is because busy areas increase the risk of passenger frustration and injury.
The current station design standards cover many of the network’s present needs and expectations, including corridor width, entry and exit design, and lighting. But this year, RSSB is starting a project to expand and unify its suite of station design standards.
Alongside Network Rail and the Department for Transport, RSSB will be working to provide clarity on how to use the 60+ existing documents, creating a single port of call for all things station design. A new website will provide a hub for interested parties.
Our guidance will also expand to cover car parks, bus stops, and other elements of the public realm. This will help ensure a joined-up experience for everyone who passes through our station-related infrastructure.
This work will also enable us to embed elements such as accessibility into the early station design process. While options such as lifts and Braille are now common in many railway stations, there are more opportunities to improve the experience of passengers with disabilities.
For example, recent RSSB research found that wayfinding tactiles are not consistently applied across our stations. Blind and partially sighted people use wayfinding tactiles to navigate. This project will aim to put stronger, consolidated guidance in place to standardise the use and positioning of wayfinding tactiles. In turn, this will improve passenger mobility and help people feel more comfortable with rail travel.
Sustainability will be another key feature of this project. One focal point of RSSB’s Sustainable Rail Blueprint is ‘clean air’, and improvements can be made in station design to move towards better air quality. Again, embedding this thinking during the earliest stages of the design process is important. It can help the rail industry optimise its infrastructure with environmental and human health in mind.
This work is expected to bring many benefits. Designing stations to comprehensive standards that consider a range of passenger and environmental needs reduces costs associated with upgrades work and injuries. It also increases public enjoyment of the rail network, which is key for the overall health of the industry.
Why not have a look at our PTI hub? It contains tonnes of RSSB resources about the platform-train interface and why it’s an important risk to manage.
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