Inclusive Underground Station Design

To be inclusive and empathetic designers, we need to deepen our understanding of the reality and perceptions of the people for which we design underground stations. To achieve this requires more than just factoring checklist items into our detailed designs; we need to engage with station users and gather objective and subjective information about how they interact with spaces. We can then integrate passenger needs and inclusivity into designs from the outset, resulting in safer and more accessible stations for all. 

As an able-bodied man, over six feet tall, I am constantly challenging myself to intuit how someone different to me might interact with underground stations. I know about station capacity, pedestrian flow rates and train dwell times, but what about how safe or pleasant the environment feels for someone else at any given moment? And how can everyone participate and share their insights into their lived experiences in busy urban underground stations during the design process?

I’ve been exploring these questions since 2010 when my team and I wanted to better understand customers’ relationship with Canary Wharf Station. This busy station is serviced by London Underground lines, so we wanted to find out how crowding affected wayfinding and access to the station’s only lift. Using customer questionnaires, workshops and visual assessments, we learned that people’s experiences within the same environment varied greatly, based on, for example, their age or gender. 

This was an early example of WSP using Service Design (SD); a user-focused process involving research and analysis to probe what is needed, before factoring it into designs at early stages.

Traditionally, underground station designers have relied on escalators to move people vertically through stations. This underestimation of lifts’ potential creates passenger flow pinch points when stations are busy, which can be stressful and even traumatic. In addition, escalators are responsible for around 50% of slips, trips and falls in stations (according to the UK’s Office of Rail Regulation), so my team and I are keen to reduce their usage. 

When WSP was asked to redesign ten underground stations in a Middle Eastern country, the WSP team applied SD principles to double and even quadruple the number of lifts for the busiest stations, while maintaining a suitable number of escalators. This approach synthesised lessons from modern airport design where lifts provide the majority of vertical circulation. This research-based intervention improved inclusivity through step-free access, without increasing the stations’ cost or size. 

We also developed solutions to the ten stations from observations and literature used in new office building designs. For example, direct access toilets with self-contained cubicles and handwashing facilities created more privacy for customers while reducing the required space for the facilities by 25%. 

My team and I regularly use 3D tools, such as Agent-Based Modelling (ABM), to gauge stations’ accessibility and inclusivity within virtual, rendered landscapes. For example, when asked to review the architectural design of a flagship metro station in the Middle East, we used ABM to create detailed ‘heat maps’ that demonstrated potential conflicts and pinch points between lift and escalator users. 

Using this information, we revised the station design by doubling lift space capacity, which increased the number of passengers using the lifts from 10% to 25%. We also grouped escalators together to improve pedestrian flow and reduce the likelihood of accidents.