Major new transport projects such as Crossrail must do more to improve the passenger experience, the chair of the National Infrastructure Commission said yesterday.

 

Lord Adonis told the UK Transport Infrastructure Summit at Canary Wharf that projects cannot be judged simply on providing “wonderful new trains and stations”.

 

“I don’t think we pay enough attention when planning new developments as to the ease of interchange,” he remarked. “At St Pancras the quality of interchange between different lines is terrible; Thameslink to the Tube is a 10 to 15 minute walk and the journey is much longer than it needed to be. Whereas the old Thameslink station was a brilliant interchange and you could get onto the Victoria line in under two minutes.

 

“Even as I look at Crossrail the interchanges between different lines are not great, with long distances between them,” he said, adding that projects must ensure they fully consider passengers’ end to end journeys.

 

Lord Adonis made his comments in response to a question from rail passenger pressure group London Travel Watch, which asked if more emphasis should be placed on making rail interchanges work better for people rather than developing new lines.

 

Transport for London commissioner Mike Brown said the interchange point was a good one and said work is being carried out to improve capacity at stations slightly out of the centre such as at Vauxhall and Finsbury Park “as many people don’t want to end up at Liverpool Street, Victoria or Waterloo”.

 

He added that stations such as Balham have recently seen a large increase in the number of people changing onto the Tube and added that at Waterloo it can take an average of 12 minutes at peak times to transfer from a suburban platform onto a Jubilee Line train “because they are so packed”.

 

On the point about Crossrail interchanges, Transport for London later said in a statement: “We are investing millions of pounds upgrading existing stations along the route, including at Paddington, Liverpool Street and Tottenham Court Road to make it as easy as possible for our customers to interchange with our existing services.

“In addition, the entire line will be fully accessible for passengers with lifts at all stations.”

 

Lord Adonis earlier told the conference that development of a transport corridor linking Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge to serve new housing developments was a major focus for the National Infrastructure Commission. Outside of Milton Keynes itself it is very difficult to promote new settlements, he said, but added that there are 10 presently or soon to be disused military bases in the area that could provide the potential for new towns or villages. “East-west rail and enhanced road transport infrastructure with new settlements is a genuine win / win,” he said.

 

The single biggest infrastructure challenge this country faces, he adds, is housing. “In four years’ time when the London Mayor seeks re-election housing will, I suspect, be the single biggest thing on which they are judged. In my view you can only really crack the housing crisis when the state becomes a major player.”

 

Lord Adonis added that the last time the state designated a new town was in 1967 with Milton Keynes, which has become very successful and continues to expand. This was the same year that the Oxford, Milton Keynes to Cambridge railway line closed. “What a wonderfully joined up process that was,” he quipped.