Stations, commerce and sugar in concrete

London Underground’s capital programmes director David Waboso on how LU station upgrades will add to London's property mix as well as keep the capital moving. And he says a big thank you to that chap who thought to put sugar into Victoria Station’s concrete flood.

London Underground’s 270 stations, as the entry and exit points to our system, are absolutely vital to the Tube network. As we increase the frequency of our train service in response to growing demand, at certain locations our stations will become the pinch-points unless we also increase their capacity. Hence we have a funded long-term programme to rebuild and refurbish our stations.

However, the biggest challenge we face, as with all of our capital programmes, is to keep our stations running safely and reliably for the millions of our customers who use them each day while at the same time rebuilding them. This often involves some of the most complex civil engineering in the world in dense urban environments. For example, Victoria station (which like Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street is an example of a capacity scheme) sees more passengers per year (82 million) than Heathrow airport. It is being completely rebuilt while keeping all the existing rail and surface transport links fully operational.

"I’d like to thank the talented engineer whose quick thinking about adding sugar to the foam concrete stopped it setting" 

We have had only a very small number of operational disruptions in the several years of these programmes so far, which is a major tribute to our teams and contractors on site. Although the recent “concrete flooding” incident at Victoria station caught the headlines, the real story to me was about the Herculean job everyone did in getting the station and the line successfully handed back for the start of traffic the next day. I’d also like to thank the talented engineer whose quick thinking about adding sugar to the foam concrete stopped it setting and hence stopped us having to break out hardened concrete for several days! I explained to someone that this was analogous to a doctor performing an emergency tracheotomy using a biro – who would complain about the biro!? Sir, I salute your quick-thinking and ingenuity that saved the day. 

At other locations we are undertaking extensive refurbishment works to improve our existing infrastructure, decrease the maintenance costs of these stations and make them fit for the next decade or so. For example at Baker Street, we are replacing many engineering assets, like our electrical and communications systems, and improving the ambience. This stabilisation programme, as it’s known, will involve work at more than 70 stations over seven years.

"We’re working with commercial partners to deliver transformed station environments ...that can supply some of the additional housing and commercial space that London badly needs" 

 As part of our overall modernisation we are also dramatically changing our approach to generate more commercial revenue out of our stations. We’re one of London’s largest landowners with over 5,500 acres of land and hundreds of developable sites worth billions of pounds.

We’re working with commercial partners to deliver transformed station environments with improved retail and adjoining development that can supply some of the additional housing and commercial space that London badly needs – as well as net receipts that will be reinvested to improve the transport network. There are lots of examples, particularly in places like Hong Kong and Tokyo, where such development is used to fund the transport network. We need to bring some of this ambition back to London.

 Our stations programme has gone from strength to strength in recent years. As investment continues, our unit costs are reducing, our certainty of delivery is increasing and we’re reducing risk budgets. We’re also innovating our approach to procurement and delivery of projects. Our Innovative Contractor Engagement (ICE) approach to our upgrade of Bank station generated a scheme which provides more than 45% more value than our base scheme.

There is a huge amount of work underway to improve our stations, and I’m proud to say we’re delivering great results. It is essential we do, to deal with the growing demand from our ever-growing capital.