Designer sought for St Pancras International growth plans

[JaJaWa]

Designer sought for St Pancras International growth plans
4 MARCH 2024 ·BY MERLIN FULCHER

Rail infrastructure operator HS1 is seeking a consultant to explore capacity enlargement options for St Pancras International station in central London [Deadline: 11 April 2024]

The company – which has a 30-year concession to run the 109km rail line between St Pancras International in London and the Channel Tunnel – is recruiting a team to carry out a capacity enhancement study focussing on the landmark William Henry Barlow-designed terminus.

The project aims to boost capacity at the congested St Pancras International where in coming years new train operators are planning to run services alongside Eurostar which itself hopes to increase capacity from 1800 passengers an hour to 2700 passengers an hour by 2025.

The winning team will explore how to optimise passenger throughput using existing infrastructure, how to unlock future growth and how such transformations can be achieved. Participating teams must complete an NDA to receive the full bidding documents.

According to the brief: ‘International services are currently operated by a single operator, Eurostar who have an aspiration to grow passenger throughput capacity from 1800 passengers an hour to 2700 passengers an hour by 2025.

‘We must also safeguard for the potential of other new international operators entering the market and wishing to run services to and from St Pancras International. HS1 is agnostic about where international growth comes from but is keen to make plans and facilitate growth, wherever it may come from.

‘Pre pandemic, HS1 had carried out various architectural studies looking at how international growth could be accommodated through a project known as SPICE (St Pancras International Capacity Enhancement), however many of the assumptions of SPICE have changed and the proposals need to be reassessed considering the latest information, technological advancements and growth assumptions.’

St Pancras station is a major central London terminus station which hosts international rail services to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Designed by William Henry Barlow in 1868 – the Grade I-listed station underwent a £800 million refurbishment and redevelopment by Arup and Chapman Taylor Architects in 2007.

The upgraded station complex – featuring a £150 million overhaul and extension of George Gilbert Scott’s former Midland Grand Hotel designed by RHWL and Richard Griffiths Architects – features capacity limitations and long processing queues for international travel due to new border check requirements following Brexit.

The latest project comes five years after Chapman Taylor Architects drew up the ‘SPICE’ growth study for the interchange and delivered a series interim measures to improve the departure experience for passengers.

Bids for the latest commission will be evaluated 60 per cent on quality and 40 per cent on price. Applicants must hold employer’s liability insurance of £10 million, public liability insurance of £10 million and professional indemnity insurance of £5 million.

Source: https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/competitions/st-pancras-international-london

HS1 would like to commission the above study covering 3 parts and to be instructed sequentially: 1) Optimisation, 2) Future Vision and 3) Path to Success.
Further information on this study can be found within the attached RFP.

Source: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/498264f6-de79-428b-ae11-367c5f6a609b

 

[Citybreak1]

Rules out all those posts saying use Kent stations and Stratford.

 

[BahrainLad]

Is there anything on 'SPICE' publicly available?

 

[gravitystorm]

Eurostar who have an aspiration to grow passenger throughput capacity from 1800 passengers an hour to 2700 passengers an hour by 2025

There's two great things in just this sentence - that's a substantial increase in capacity, which is great, and that's not very far from now to implement any changes, which is also great. It's much better than e.g. a 10% increase and five years to muddle through in the meantime.

It also talks about having other operators alongside Eurostar, so the (perhaps longer term?) capacity goal must be even higher than that. I think it will need some substantial rearrangements to achieve. Still, I won't complain about "only" +50% capacity if it's achieved in the next 21 months.

 

[Citybreak1]

Another area to expand is the large glass section that could extended further without the loss of shops. I wonder when work is due to start? Especially with some ambitious time tables. I wonder how this expansion will compare to Amsterdam central? Even than the plan is to move out of town. I hope we don’t lose the M&S as that’s very useful for travelling. I’d like a superior longer with some fancy seating too I think Amsterdam has this.

 

[swt_passenger]

It’s odd, given that this subject has so much existing coverage in the speculation forum, that this thread about a bona fide announcement seems to have gone ‘under the radar’.

Perhaps as it is about a station in London it would have been more visible in the normal infrastructure thread?

 

[Sad Sprinter]

It’s odd, given that this subject has so much existing coverage in the speculation forum, that this thread about a bona fide announcement seems to have gone ‘under the radar’.

Perhaps as it is about a station in London it would have been more visible in the normal infrastructure thread?

Perhaps Eurostar has been reading this forum!

 

[yorkie]

Reopened for @stuving to provide an update

 

[stuving]

After the request for proposal in February 2024, the next step was the appointment in July of design agency Active Thinking to do a study into expansion at St Pancras. HS1 don't mention the competition, but other reports do say this was the winner.

The core of the study's brief was this:

A three-step approach will assess how to optimise the current station infrastructure, cater for continued growth of international passengers and examine the impact and cost of expansion.

The team of design specialists will investigate how modern approaches and technological solutions could be used to increase passenger flows through the station whilst ensuring customers continue to enjoy an efficient and seamless experience at the historic St. Pancras station. Active Thinking will deliver their report in Autumn 2024.

According to Architects' Journal, Landolt + Brown won the contest; but then they would say that - L+B are architects. They were part of the team; but since HS1 didn't mention them it's not clear whether they had their own study or were part of the one led by Active Thinking. (see https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/eurostar-st-pancras-is-bedlam-normal.261987/page-8#post-6877952
for AJ report.

 

[BahrainLad]

“continue to enjoy” doing a lot of heavy lifting there

 

[stuving]

The study's conclusion was that redesign could increase capacity, as reported in Railway Gazette on 12/12/24:

It found that expanded infrastructure and enhanced border security processes could increase capacity from 1 800 to around 2 400 passengers/h in the next three to four years. Redesigning the layout of the international area could see an increase of up to 5 000 passengers/h in the long term.

Soon after, news appeared of a tender for an implementation study, and that was posted officially on 23/1/25. It's official title is: HS1 Ltd - St Pancras Enhancement Project (STEP) – RIBA2 Design and Operational Concept Feasibility Study; HS1 Reference: HS1/ENG/2024/198.

International rail services are currently provided by Eurostar who have expressed an aspiration to grow their passenger volumes from 19m today to 30m by 2030 across their network. To support these growth aspirations, HS1 has commissioned an initial feasibility study to explore a) the likely future passenger numbers that will need to be accommodated in the international part of St Pancras station and b) the required spatial and operational changes that will be necessary to unlock the required capacity.

This initial work has identified that expansion is feasible. HS1 is now ready to progress to design and operational concept feasibility stage (RIBA2) to design, deliver and operationalise a reconfigured ground floor operation of the International Zone delivering a significant uplift in passenger capacity that meets forecast requirements until at least 2035 and potentially 2040.

Currently it's the PQQ that's open, for which the background information provided is very limited. Presumably it's only after registering that you get told more about this "feasibility study", let alone get to see it (you've now got less than a week to register!)

There is a PDF of the call for competition that lists the project requirements:

The end output of Project can be described as:
• An International Zone operation capable of handling and processing up to 5,000 passengers in a rolling 60-minute period and;
• An International Zone that has the appropriate facilities and operating model to accommodate at least one new international operator.

In providing a RIBA2 design and operational concept that will achieve this output bidders are asked to focus on:
• The spatial, architectural and other design elements including:
o Overall capacity provision;
o Improved passenger flows;
o Access and egress;
o Historic Building impact;
o Fire and evacuation safety;
o Station security design standards (SIDOS);
o Maintenance;
o Location, size and potential rationalisation of station facilities (Toilets, Operator facilities)

 

[gravitystorm]

There is a PDF of the call for competition that lists the project requirements:

Some other interesting snippets from the doc include:

[a passenger experience that is] First in class, significantly better than air and maximising the full journey time advantages of rail.

The need for a fundamental change to the end-to-end passenger journey to be realised including changes to the turn-up profile of passengers, how long they dwell in the international zone and when they board their train

I really hope this means that they will reduce the amount of hanging around in departures, compared with now. It's so much easier to shorten the overall journey time by 30 minutes by reducing the waiting around, compared to what would be required to speed up the train timings by the corresponding 30 minutes! And having multiple trainloads of people hanging around in departures (after all being told to turn up well in advance) is a big source of the current overcrowding.

The need to install platform dividers along the international platforms in order to fully
segregate the arriving and departing international platforms; ensure high-levels of on time
train performance and increase platform capacity beyond 4 trains per hour (tph);

It's an interesting point, and I imagine this will be hard to achieve this without having ugly partitions all over the platforms (and I imagine hard to deal with the areas around the top of the escalators).

Overall I'm glad to see HS1 pushing ahead with this, a vast increase in capacity (or rather, in passenger throughput) would be very welcome.

 

[edwin_m]

It's an interesting point, and I imagine this will be hard to achieve this without having ugly partitions all over the platforms (and I imagine hard to deal with the areas around the top of the escalators).

If done with glass screens similar to the ones that surround the Eurostar part of the station already, then it shouldn't be too obtrusive. Pivoting sections could be be locked in place on one side or the other of each escalator/travelator bank, thus connecting it with only the one platform. I think there are separate fire exits at each end of each platform, but they might some extra work to preserve evacuation times.

 

[williamn]

The last two occasions I have used Eurostar I have cleared security and border within 15 mins and then spent 45 mins hanging around with nowhere to sit. Anything that cuts down the hanging around would be very welcome (and sensible).

 

[Sad Sprinter]

The last two occasions I have used Eurostar I have cleared security and border within 15 mins and then spent 45 mins hanging around with nowhere to sit. Anything that cuts down the hanging around would be very welcome (and sensible).

Yes same, the last two times actually. It’s quite a stressful place down there. Especially when you have a Paris and a Brussels train waiting.

 

[danchester]

A fascinating read, published today - definitely some useful hints at what they're imagining: https://www.newcivilengineer.com/la...st-pancras-international-capacity-06-02-2025/

“Active Thinking comes from more of an aviation background than us and I think we quickly realised what we were doing wasn’t a traditional railway station type project; we were doing a security and border controls project,” Thorp said.

The study concluded that, before any expansion needs to take place, “we could at least double what we’re currently getting out of the operational space in terms of departures throughput”, Thorp said.

The main recommendation, initially, is to implement a “high volume security system like you would see in an airport”, he continued. This will involve long lanes for passengers that will “reap the rewards of what Eurostar has done with its border operation, which they’ve doubled over the last 12 to 18 months”.

[...]

These improvements will be implemented over the next year to 18 months in order to get “about another 30% out of the current throughput”, according to Thorp.

That next phase will involve a big rethink about how people arrive at the station and providing them with more space.

“We’ve tried to keep it as cost-effective as possible; it’s about reconfiguring the space as opposed to building loads more stuff and infrastructure,” Thorp said.

“There is a lot of back office space and ticket office space that is not used in the best possible way. We will need to relocate people and then there is a large amount of just punching down walls and expanding out.

“If you can imagine [the current] arrivals experience at St Pancras, you come down off the platforms and there’s a reasonably large area that you walk through – it’s about turning about 50% of that space into a security facility. That’s going to be the bulk of the work.”

Other steps will involve the procurement and installation of new security equipment, working with stakeholders to ensure optimal pedestrian flow through the area and ensuring that the arrivals experience enables people to be dispersed into the station to wherever they need to go to continue their journeys. Rerouting of utilities will also be a major concern in this reconfiguration.

“We think we can get 15 long security lanes into that space and also increase the departure space by about 50%,” Thorp said. “That will give us more resilience so that if trains are running late and we need to hold a volume of people we can do that in a more comfortable space.

 

[Blindtraveler]

This is indeed very interesting. I hope it is done as they envisage

 

[edwin_m]

Yes this is interesting. One of the constraints with the under-platform space is that it is effectively cut in half by the entrance from the Kings Cross side, with departure facilities to the north and arrival to the south. I suspect they will want to merge these spaces, which probably involves making the eastern entrance Eurostar only or closing it completely.

 

[TheWierdOne]

Yes this is interesting. One of the constraints with the under-platform space is that it is effectively cut in half by the entrance from the Kings Cross side, with departure facilities to the north and arrival to the south. I suspect they will want to merge these spaces, which probably involves making the eastern entrance Eurostar only or closing it completely.

Could they make that an underpass underneath the Eurostar area by digging a trench to put a passage in, and the connecting the two Eurostar areas over the top. Might have to have it as a narrower section of the International Zone to allow for steps/escalators at each end

 

[stuving]

The result of that competition has been announced, being a contract has been awarded to Hawkins Brown Architecture Limited (Hawkins/Brown). Or at least i think that's it - these contracting notices are notoriously confusing. The details given are:

Awarded date 19 May 2025
Contract start date 19 May 2025
Contract end date 25 October 2025
Total value of contract £295,121
This contract was awarded to 1 supplier. Hawkins Brown Architecture Limited

To date, I have found nothing from HS1 or Hawkins/Brown.

 

[Fragezeichnen]

Thanks for the info. However, the link goes to a government press release specifically about non-London investment. Was it meant to go somewhere else?

 

[eastwestdivide]

Architects Journal has it here

Hawkins\Brown wins contest to upgrade St Pancras station

HawkinsBrown has been chosen to expand capacity at St Pancras International station in central London

www.architectsjournal.co.uk

Hawkins\Brown has been chosen to expand capacity at St Pancras International station in central London
The practice defeated an undisclosed shortlist to win the commission, tenderedby rail infrastructure operator HS1, to boost capacity at St Pancras International, the major central London terminus for international rail services to France, Belgium and the Netherlands...

And at Bidstats here

https://bidstats.uk/tenders/2025/W23/847773697

 

[stuving]

Thanks for the info. However, the link goes to a government press release specifically about non-London investment. Was it meant to go somewhere else?

Thanks for the info - I had too many .gov.uk tabs; they all look the same!