Page 93 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

The rail traveller, pedestrian or customer?
Passenger flow and retail: critical boundary objects in HS Station development

The Eurostar floor was organized very differently for legal reasons. At the top of the escalator was
the Schengen border post, with customs and police inspection points, then a long, narrow shopping
alley with 7 sales outlets, leading on to waiting and ticket inspection zones and a final waiting
room. Despite the very tight spatial constraints of this system of alleyways, allowance time here
was very long and the shops so scarce that, despite their ordinariness (fast food, newspapers),
they were quite remarkably profitable, notably in terms of returns per square metre.
Above long bibliographical capitalization on commerce strategy at Gare du nord (Perier M.,
2003 and Oki-Debayles K., 2008,) personal observation and 2010 and 2013, and then in 2015 and
2017 gives noticeable modification both in traffic flow organisation and retail outlet location
(figure 6). We clearly understand that two previous problems with pedestrian mobility have
been partly solved. First, permanent crowding – not under, but in front of and behind the
central noticeboard – hampered flows onto or off the escalators, creating a shearing effect
(movement of people blocked by a fixed and compact crowd) at rush hours. Second, the general
congestion of the zone and the immobility of passengers around the noticeboard restricted
the profitability of the shops located against the wall, which were also disadvantaged by their
distance (approximately 20 m) from the most attractive part of the hall and by the lack of light
(because of their position under the mezzanine).

In 2017, following changes have been made. First, the central noticeboard has disappeared and
been replaced by a profusion of digital monitors scattered everywhere. This reorganisation was
done to disperse travellers and keep them moving throughout the whole space of the station,
in order to avoid the shearing effect in the central zone. Second, the row of ticket offices has
almost disappeared, since most tickets are now bought at machines or online. This has released
space for movement and shops. The latter are no longer contained in small kiosks but in larger
"shells", alternating with information points and short-wait micro-lounges (a quiet zone to the
west is still set aside for longer waiting times). Better lighting and plexiglass walls generate
transparency. The result, therefore, bigger place, denser space obtained by more partitioning.
Shops have undergone four types of transformation: relocation and enlargement, diversification
and renovation of the retail range (Briard C., 2015, Bertrand P. 2015). The dominance of the
Relay brand has not been affected, this chain has opened a specially designed “concept store”
offering not only books and newspapers, but also fine food (Fauchon), a café, a reading lounge.
As a sort of station in the station, Relay combines the functions of waiting-room, information
desk and travel retail store (Briard C.,2016).

Figure 7. Relay “concept store” design: the convergence of information, consumption and
waiting functions appart from the main stations spaces.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 91