Transport Secretary Lord Adonis today announced a £50 million fund as Station Champions Chris Green and Sir Peter Hall warned that station upgrades must be accelerated dramatically. In a new report, the two Champions warn that the poor condition of many stations is becoming an obstacle to rail growth. Spending needs to be increased by 25% to £800m a year in the decade from 2014 passenger satisfaction is to reach acceptable levels. The improvements include better integration with other transport modes, as well as more car park spaces. Signage is also singled out for criticism: TOCs should no longer be installing their own designs, it says.

Lord Adonis, announcing an immediate £50 million fund for ten stations - Clapham Junction, Barking, Stockport, Manchester Victoria, Preston, Wigan North Western, Liverpool Central, Warrington Bank Quay, Crewe and Luton - said he supported the Champions' call for a comprehensive list of minimum standards for all stations, aimed at improving the daily travelling experience of passengers and attracting more passengers onto the railways.

The report, 'Better Rail Stations', has been compiled after extensive research in Britain and other countries. The main finding is that many busy British stations are slipping behind the standards achieved by other businesses with a public face, such as retail chains, and that present investment plans will only deal adequately with the largest, flagship stations. For now priority should be given to introducing minimum station standards when new franchises start and dealing with as many problems as possible with existing funding.

It acknowledges that considerable progress has already been made in many places, but finds that modernised or new stations are often accompanied by older, unrefurbished examples in the same area. Examples include Manchester Piccadilly/Manchester Victoria, and Luton Airport Parkway/Luton. It says the 'the main areas of dissatisfaction with stations' in recent research by Faber Maunsell were 'not with face-to-face customer service, but with physical facilities such as shabby environments, deteriorated stations and lack of real-time information'.

Major improvements are needed in bus/tram/rail integration, as well as facilities for cyclists. It also points out that signage is 'tending to fragment into different lettering styles and colours through individual branding. This lack of consistency makes it harder for customers to focus on the relevant information, and can cost up to £2m in resigning when franchises change hands'. It says all signage should in future be based on the style used at Network Rail managed stations, with only a simple branding strip to identify individual passenger franchises.

The report follows hard on the heels of Network Rail's own stations report, which was published last week and summarised plans to invest £3.25 billion between now and 2014. Much of this, however, will be spent at a relatively small number of key locations, such as Birmingham New Street.

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