the Elizabeth line is the biggest new railway developed in London since the Jubilee line so
within the last 20 years it was therefore important that we had a good set of strong
design principles so how did we do it? well we looked internationally at comparators
but of course the UK and London has a great history of design for rail stations and rail
infrastructure from which to take inspiration we looked at the victorian pioneers such as Brunel
with Paddington station and its great sense of arrivals and departures we also looked
at the golden age of London Transport Pick and Holden and their ideas of simplicity of identity
we looked at the Jubilee line for its sense of ambition and finally really we looked at more
recent projects in London such as Kings Cross and St Pancras for their ideas of wider integration
the Elizabeth line stations are all essentially unique there are 41 stations in total
31 of the stations are existing stations and there are 10 new stations in central London
the new stations between Paddington and Abbey Wood have different forms in their construction the
majority of the stations such as here at Tottenham Court Road are tunneled in their form and then we
also have additionally at Paddington Woolwich and Canary Wharf big boxes sunk into the ground
and then of course we have two surface stations at Custom House and Abbey Wood we set ourselves
and the architects designing the stations seven key principles to explore in the design Identity
we needed a consistent identity throughout the line Clarity we wanted to create a clear
passenger environment that people can understand from the beginning of their journey through to
the end of their journey Consistency we needed a line-wide design with common materials furniture
fixtures and fittings that people get and understand and recognize in all of the stations
Inclusivity we wanted to make sure that Crossrail was accessible and usable by all Sustainability we
wanted to use best practice to make sure there was efficient use of material minimal waste and
efficient use of energy Security we wanted the stations and the designs to provide a safe and
secure environment for the people that are going to use the Elizabeth line and finally
we wanted the designs to be People Focused so there had to be a very good balance between
the hard functional needs of the station and the needs of the people that are going to use them
the train is the main Elizabeth line element that's consistent in its modal identity
all the way through the line the modal identity has been developed to become less concentrated
as passengers move away from the train and as the train moves away from the centre of London
at central London stations as passengers alight from the trains the platforms and the stations
will be instantly identifiable as Elizabeth line stations this is where the strength of the
modal identity really lies they're identifiable because the way the spaces work and the natures
of the material that's been used and the signage systems and the products that are on the platforms
as passengers move away from the platforms up to the ticket halls and out into the urban realm the
modal identity starts to get weaker and becomes overlaid more by the station character station
characters tend to draw more on a local reference so for example Paddington inspiration was drawn
from the Brunell design of Paddington mainline station and at Farringdon we pulled upon the sort
of the local history of goldsmithing and jewellery and also the brutalist architecture of Barbican
for the first time in the UK the Elizabeth line is a major rail project that has been designed
with careful coordination of the development opportunities oversight development
and the urban realm this integrated approach improves accessibility
by knitting the stations more intimately into their local surroundings it also facilitates
wider urban regeneration and development opportunity on the outer sections of the Elizabeth
line both east and west there are 31 existing stations many of which are over 100 years old
we've been upgrading these stations upgrading works range from providing
step free access at all stations to new ticket halls with a much improved customer experience
so as with the central stations the outer stations have been using a common pallet of materials
colours and signage so they will feel very much part of the Elizabeth line modal identity