London’s Gipsy Hill station has had a makeover, which GTR says has ensured that it “is now more welcoming and easier to navigate”.

The upgrade took all aspects of the station environment into account, including staff training, accessibility and community engagement.

The station is one of three in London that is being used to trial ‘Model Stations’, a concept developed by GTR, parent company of operator Southern.

The approach aims to vastly improve passengers’ experience of travelling by making station environments simpler and more consistent. After the trial, GTR may extend the scheme to more of its 236 stations.

The operator is monitoring the new-look station with a new Customer Service Quality Management standard. Since Gipsy Hill’s refurbishment, passengers now report 90% satisfaction, a marked increase on the previous 79% to 90%.

On Friday 3 July, the station hosted a celebration of the upgrade in its garden, which is looked after by the Friends of Gipsy Hill. Local MP Helen Hayes, Mayor of Lambeth Paul Valentine and DFTO CEO Alex Hynes attended, along with people who worked on the project and members of the local community.

GTR is spending around £1.7 million per year on improving its stations.

Staff at the station have received new Great Journey Makers training, which focuses on creating ‘moments of connection’.

Gipsy Hill was chosen as one of the pilot stations because it had partial step-free access to one platform, which helps test the Model Stations concept for different station designs and passenger needs. The other two Model Station pilot schemes are at Enfield Chase, where improvements were completed earlier this year, and Elstree & Borehamwood.

Gipsy Hill’s upgrade has involved decluttering the station and creating zones for passenger activities such as journey planning and buying tickets. The ticket hall has new flooring and brighter lighting, plus a new coffee shop in the station building. The station has benefited from fresh paint and clearer wayfinding signs.

New information screens have been installed, which provide clearer real-time service information, including the number of carriages, availability of toilets and lifts, and departure times, including in British Sign Language.

“We want to create a blueprint for stations across the country, one that creates environments that passengers find welcoming, clean and comfortable, safe, secure, digitised, accessible and inclusive with ‘model staff’ serving their communities and customers.

Key to the success of the model stations concept is the people who both use and work at our stations. We’ve built on our already strong partnership with the Friends of Gipsy Hill, who are essential partners in both helping us understand the needs of passengers and also helping us keep the station garden blooming.

“We have brilliant teams at each of our three pilot stations who have been through our new Great Journey Makers training programme.

“This is not just about monetary investment. Significant improvements can be made right away at low cost simply by looking at stations through the eyes of our customers.”

GTR’s Chief Customer Officer Louis Rambaud