London to Jakarta: Station Revitalization as a Force for Good

By Pracheth Sanka, Sciences Po—Menton

London’s Elizabeth Line station entrance. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Public transportation is often examined from a macro perspective, analyzing GDP and long-term employment benefits. After all, local and national governments spend money on these projects, so understanding these impacts is important in cost-benefit analysis and future investment. However, an often overlooked aspect of transportation benefit analysis is the localized economic and social effects relating to station infrastructure and improvement. Train and bus stations act as means of connection from neighborhood to neighborhood and serve as areas of community interaction and economic development. With recent projects that add new lines of service or revitalize existing stations e.g., London’s new Elizabeth Line or Jakarta’s ongoing bus stop improvements, understanding the local socio-economic ramifications of public transportation can turn similar projects into urban success stories.

The Economic Benefit

Public transport stations, such as bus, metro, or train stations, can be strong economic centers within cities by creating direct employment and investment benefits. This occurs through the construction and improvement of stations and their surrounding areas by transforming them into residential hubs. Financial benefits in areas surrounding stations are rooted in strong theoretical bases. First, large pedestrian flow and connectivity can be attractive to shops, small companies, and corporations for ease of business and transportation for employees. Second, transportation benefits and property value increases attract real estate and residential development near stations. While quantitative data, taken from multiple rail projects across the globe, is shaped by location and previous development in the city or region, statistics of local GDP, employment, and property value, show that these theoretical bases hold up well in the real world.

Property Value

In analyzing previous research, Britain’s Rail Delivery Group stated that house prices in areas surrounding Crossrail (London’s high-frequency rail network) increased by 31% across all surveyed areas, both at existing and proposed stations. Following rail and station investment, this percentage increases; analyzing the Jubilee Line Extension in London explains that land values near new Jubilee Line stations increased by 52% over the five years after the project’s completion. Further, land closer to stations sees a higher property boost relative to land further away, reinforcing the correlation between stations and economic boosts. Properties less than 500 meters away from stations have a 10% premium after station investment, reducing to 5% at 1000 meters and no premium at properties located further than 1500 meters from stations in London. This trend does seem to depend on location; Orlando, Florida saw locations between 1500 and 3000 meters have higher property price increases than areas within 1500 meters of the station, though house value is still correlated with proximity to a station.

Other urban hubs have seen a similar rise in housing prices since the implementation of rail lines. For example, Singapore saw prices rise by 10% in areas serviced by their 2009 Central Circle Line. Changes in house prices, similar to Crossrail, were observed in areas projected to be serviced by the line, up to a year before construction. In urban rail lines in Addis Ababa, house rental volume increased by 16% since 2015, which had the added effect of increasing real income for homeowners. Housing impacts and value seem to come from reduced travel time and cost, as 63% of those surveyed in Addis Ababa reported such.

Local GDP and Investment

Station improvement and construction contribute to national GDP and can bring localized and regional increases in business investment, consumption, and government spending, increasing those areas’ economic output. Investment in areas connected by rail can be explained by the increased efficiency and interregional interaction allowed by rail systems. 

Looking at European rail line service, local GDP benefits are seen in areas connected by high-speed rail, coming from increased labor-force participation and increased firm creation. While relative to the province the rail service operated in, Spain’s service sector saw up to an 18% boost in firm creation in areas serviced by the country’s new high-speed rail in 1997. In Germany, counties and regions serviced by rail between Frankfurt and Cologne saw an 8.5% increase in local GDP on intermediate train stops from the line’s inception in 2002 to 2008. Italian rail brought sizable GDP increases across all regions served; those connected by high-speed rail saw a 3% more increase in local GDP as compared to those served by typical service rail between 2008 and 2018. 

Rail development ushers in employment benefits in proximal neighborhoods and commercial centers. For London’s aforementioned Crossrail, rail investment led to growth and labor participation in Central London. Crossrail investment brought about new full-time jobs for the areas it served; between 2016 and 2017, 1200 permanent jobs were added with two-thirds derived from new job starts. Crossrail investment also brought change to employment density. Commercial zones in London between 1000 to 2000 meters from future Elizabeth Line stations saw the greatest increase in employment from 2009 to 2019, and areas within 500 meters had the highest employment densities in all of London. 

For economically developing countries, renovating and rebuilding bus and train stations can be an efficient and effective way for countries to increase local consumption and spur commercial growth. In South Africa, qualitative reports from 2018 show that bus stations largely act as a conduit for the informal marketplace, the unregulated and untaxed commercial areas that less-economically prosperous areas use for economic growth.  As these informal economies expand with increased bus traffic, those in poverty or who work in developing areas can take advantage of bus station growth. For Indonesia, bus station improvement has come to the forefront of Jakarta city government’s investment plan. Since 2018, 38 of Jarkarta’s 126 Type-A Bus Terminals, terminals that have full service and amenities, have been improved or reconstructed. As a result, ridership has grown 14%, an increase of about 4 million people. Indonesia’s Transport Minister has expressed hope of using Type-A terminal improvement as tourist attractions, further increasing consumption and ridership.

The Social Benefit

Train and bus stations provide opportunities to foster social benefits and take on greater roles as community centers. Stations can host public projects, cultivate community links, and be forces of crime deterrence. 

Stations, as local transportation hubs, allow greater social opportunities within cities. Multiple studies surveyed Japanese and Austrian citizens upon the introduction of rail to their areas in 2006 and 2010 respectively. Respondents overwhelmingly illustrated that rail access allowed them to meet friends, go shopping, or even allow them a change of scenery more so than before. For example, 19% of Japanese respondents said that because of station access, they go out for a “change of air” more often than before rail. Rail networks also allow older citizens to leave the house more; 27% of Japanese senior citizens and 34% of Austrian senior citizens reported that they go out to meet acquaintances more often because of station access. 

Multiple global projects have shown how culture, art, and infrastructure can come together at train stations to improve them. London’s Platform for Art provides schools, individual artists, and community groups an opportunity for them to express their visual, musical, or theatrical talents in an effort to make London’s underground more attractive. Cities across the world have endorsed Adopt-A-Station programs, where groups or volunteers sponsor projects within neighborhood stations by promoting artwork or leading beautification and improvement. This model has been notably successful in Chicago, Illinois, and Adelaide, Australia with 20 and 70 stations adopting it respectively, creating a bond between communities and the transportation they use. 

With the increase in foot traffic, pedestrians act as informal guardians, preventing offenders from committing crimes out of fear of being caught. Studies have shown that certain crimes, like drug abuse and public nuisance, decrease during times of high passenger activity, like during working hours of the week, and increase during the weekend or other days of low passenger traffic. This negative correlation between minor crime and passenger traffic shows the importance of stations in preventing crime in the areas near stations and how station construction can be a force for social good. 

Conclusion

Train and bus station construction and improvement plays a vital role in embracing the future of clean and convenient transportation. While not diminishing the role that public transport plays in the macroeconomic benefit of a country, it also has strong localized effects that shape the socioeconomic success of urban spaces. From GDP growth to crime deterrence, property value increases and community engagement, station improvement, and expansion can be the drivers of urban revitalization.