Imagining the Future of Transportation Infrastructure Design

By Jason Hutchings & Cameron MacDonald

The rail transport sector is experiencing a new level of expectations for infrastructure design at a scale never seen before. Every key stakeholder has different priorities for what they want. Beginning in 2020, COVID-19 has united everyone in one thing, a desire for new ways to look at the public transport experience. The challenge is to balance the needs and expectations of everyone involved to create a truly wonderful rail transport system and experience.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?
Prior to the pandemic, rail owners and operators grappled with changes in environmental regulation, fluctuating consumer sentiment towards public transport, emerging technologies, rapidly growing urban areas, and stressed capital and operating budgets. COVID-19 immediately challenged the transport industry further by dramatically reducing passenger numbers and increasing community concern about public health safety.

So how can we recreate the reliable, safe and secure metro system that was—and arguably still—the envy of the world, ensure that the ‘rail + property’ model of financing supports this infrastructural backbone of the city, and address the evolving psychological and physiological needs of the travelling public?

Gatwick Pier 6, London; Image by Andrea Izzotti/shutterstock.com

Cadre TOD in Guangzhou, China; Image by Atkins

WHY HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN IS CRITICAL TO RAIL PROJECTS
Despite the dramatic financial impact of the pandemic, focusing on financial viability is no longer the answer to creating a sustainable rail system. This is especially true when considering the burgeoning problem of balancing personal health and safety with interaction and connection in the community.

Cameron MacDonald, Technical Director, Operations Advisory for Atkins in Australia, believes the answer lies in a philosophy Atkins adopted some time ago.

Yang Gong Station, Myanmar; Image by Atkins

We are seeing a trend towards building communities around the station, that people living nearby will use even if they are not travelling to work.

“There is already been a lot of talk around the importance of developing precincts around the stations and to build communities around the stations,” Cameron says. “Our industry has traditionally focused on people as the end user, but haven’t necessarily looked at them as customers. In a post-COVID-19 world, we envisage fewer people going in and out of the CBD and, instead, living, working and undertaking leisure activity in closer proximity.”

MacDonald says it is important to rethink how people will view a rail station, especially if they are spending more time working from home. It requires reimagining all the ways a train passenger will find value in a rail precinct—and how they will invest time and money in the area even if they do not purchase a… more

About the writer:

JASON HUTCHINGS
Client Director for Asia Pacific, Atkins
With more than 30 years of experience in the architecture industry and leading rail projects, Jason Hutching is renowned in the field of transit-oriented development (TOD). He is currently working in the field of human centred design—employing pedestrian modelling to analyse and fine tune the 3D planning of TODs—which in itself is a contemporary consideration of many transport operators.

As of 2020, his role moved towards business development across multidisciplinary consultancy services by connecting and collaborating with other regions to maximise Atkins’s ability to bring global thought leadership to local projects, while celebrating in-region award-winning design and delivery excellence.

CAMERON MACDONALD
Technical Director, Operations Advisory for Atkins, Australia
Cameron MacDonald has extensive transport planning and station precinct design experience. He currently works in the Melbourne office of Atkins, part of SNC-Lavalin group, with expertise in the transport master planning, pedestrian planning and modelling, and railway station planning.