I love a railway station, me, writes Lucy Stephens.
Not in a train-spotting way – though no hate to those peace-loving note-takers.
It’s more the stations themselves that I’m a fan of.
I love everything about them: the buzz, the announcements, the constant sense of things moving, the occasional panic of someone running to jump on their train. They are emotionally charged places – in a good way.
I even love the intricate wrought-iron work. A station is a place that rewards looking up and admiring the attention to detail that has gone into so much of their construction.
Here in Derby the latest thoughts on the table around developing the city are around improving the area around the railway station on Midland Road.
As someone who has spent much of their life travelling to places via rail, I can only applaud this is as a great step forward.
Because when it comes to places in the world where you wait around in order to get somewhere, you actually can’t beat a good railway station and its surroundings.
They are far better than bus stops.
Areas where you wait to get on a boat are fairly uninspiring.
Yes, airports do have duty-free and there is the excitement of watching planes take off and land, but as visual structures they aren’t great. Plus, due to the nature of planes they are far from cities so you have the palaver of getting to and fro on a bus or an extortionately priced taxi. By which time you practically want to go home again, it’s all been so tiring.
But a station, a station is a wonderful thing.
And emerging from a station to see a city for the first time is an even wonderfuller thing. Or it can be if the city planners get it right.
That’s why I think it’s really important that proper thought goes into the area in front of Derby railway station on Midland Road, because I know from experience of using railways across the UK and Europe that one’s first impressions of a city after stepping out of a station really do stick.
Consider the city of York, for example, where I lived for a couple of years.
Now York, in all fairness, does boast the fairly major tourist benefit of a more-or-less totally intact centuries-old city wall.
Which confronts you with its steady majesty as you come out from its – also magnificent – railway station.
Emerge from the Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris and you’re right in the heart of that beautiful city. Literally picture-postcard Parisian buildings are all around you in all their glittering glory as soon as you take a single step.
Waverley Station in Edinburgh takes some beating too, and although some of us might really hate the sound of the bagpipes, there’s no doubt that hearing the strains of a piper as soon as you come out into the city really do put you in the Scottish mood. Someone with a marketing brain was on to something when they suggested that.
Let’s not even get started on just how jaw-droppingly amazing it is when you step out of Venice station to see the famous central canal and actual gondolas right there in front of you.
St Pancras station in London – well that’s another beaut. Once, as a family, we went all the way to London and didn’t even leave it! What can I say, the shops are really good. But if we had, the concourse area that’s directly in front of you with buses waiting to take you to wherever in the city you want to go really do make you feel in the centre of the UK’s capital.
Of course I’ve picked out some famous world cities there. Not everywhere has ancient city walls, immaculate Regency buildings, or a famous canal complete with gondolas.
Other train stations in less well-known places I’ve visited have also taken a lot of trouble over making themselves into a welcoming space, ushering you out into their city or town with care and love.
Birmingham Station, for example, is an strikingly redesigned silver space age wonder which ramps up the excitement when you visit. It introduces you to the city with a confident swagger that really feels special.
There are lots of stations in Scotland – where I’m from – where huge efforts have been made with judicious planting to try and make you feel welcome when you step off the platform, linking up to good buses or trams as you leave.
Because that’s what a station and its surrounding areas should be.
They should be a welcome. They should be the equivalent of a smiling face as you enter a bustling business networking breakfast, feeling a bit shy if you don’t know anyone inside that well.
They should make you feel glad to have arrived.
With its new Market Hall, Vaillant Live and Market Place developments in the wings, Derby has so much going on right now.
Of course, Derby once had a fine Victorian station that has now been lost to the ravages of progress.
But it’s not just about the architecture, a station should be a proper gateway to a city.
From personal experience of someone who prefers to travel on the railways, I’d say making the current station a really welcoming area once more would be a great thing.
When you come out of Derby station on to Midland Road at the moment the city feels … a bit … how can I put it … apologetic. Not to put too fine a point on it, it’s probably fair to say that you feel very far from being in the heart of a city that’s proud of its heritage. It’s not really clear where you go to get into the centre, either.
As a city, we have a long and proud railway history.
It’s time our own station lived up to it.
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