ExploreStation Impact Evaluation
2022
We evaluated ExploreStation — Network Rail and the Design Council’s nationwide engagement on the HUB Station design. The programme reached over 29,000 people across Britain, setting a new standard for inclusive, creative and evidence-based infrastructure design.
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Project resources
ExploreStation report
ExploreStation was a nationwide engagement programme commissioned by Network Rail and led by the Design Council, in partnership with Commonplace, Digital Urban and The Glass-House Community Led Design. The programme invited thousands of people across Britain to learn about and shape the HUB Station design — the winning response to the Re-Imagining Railway Stations competition by 7N Architects. Working with the Design Council, we evaluated how ExploreStation engaged communities in reimagining small and medium-sized railway stations as inclusive, sustainable and community-centred places.
Our Approach
We developed and implemented a mixed-method evaluation to understand how ExploreStation achieved meaningful engagement at scale.
This included:
Designing and running surveys and participatory feedback activities to capture diverse experiences of the engagement process.
Conducting in-depth interviews with the delivery team to understand successes, challenges and learning.
Reviewing data gathered across all partner activities to identify key findings and recommendations.
Synthesising findings into actionable recommendations for future national design engagement.
Key Findings
ExploreStation represented Network Rail’s largest-ever public engagement and co-development programme, designed to test how meaningful national engagement could shape infrastructure design.
Reach and Scale
29,612 people engaged with the ExploreStation programme.
Activities delivered across 80 cities and towns through 4 activity types, 3 delivery partners, and 2 engagement stages.
Engagement included:
17 feedback themes explored through surveys and workshops.
4 immersive virtual reality events using 6 VR headsets, 4 modified train seats, and 2 hand controllers.
3 exhibitions, 2 online events, and 2 major publications.
111 social media posts using the national campaign #GreatBritishStation, generating 6.7 million impressions.
28 pieces of media coverage, reaching 534,000 print circulation and 299 million online readership.
Activities hosted in museums, community centres, adventure playgrounds, pubs, universities, and city halls, ensuring diverse access points and audiences.
This broad, multichannel approach achieved local, national and international visibility, including a major showcase at the Global Design Forum at the V&A Museum.
Key Findings
Across the engagement, participants highlighted the following priorities:
Create an attractive, reliable service that affords dignity and independence for all users.
Celebrate Great Britain’s places and local distinctiveness through adaptable station design.
Invest in the landscape — recognising its role in sustainability, ecology and community wellbeing.
Continue to test and refine the design through a full-scale prototype to assess accessibility, safety and user experience.
Embed a station and community ambassador role to ensure safe, active and welcoming environments.
Communicate boldly — locally and nationally — to build pride and understanding of the HUB Station’s purpose.
Take a holistic view of sustainability and regeneration, setting ambitious standards in delivery.
Plan engagement strategically, ensuring diverse representation and specialist facilitation.
Value all feedback — positive responses affirm design strengths, while negative feedback drives meaningful improvement.
Impacts and learnings
ExploreStation demonstrated how large-scale, participatory engagement can shape national infrastructure in meaningful ways. The programme not only informed refinements to the HUB Station design but also created a new benchmark for public engagement across the transport and built environment sectors.
Through combining digital tools, immersive experiences and community-based activities, ExploreStation proved that people are both willing and eager to engage with the design of everyday infrastructure — and that their insights can strengthen design quality, inclusion and long-term relevance.
The programme’s success showed that:
Co-design at scale is achievable, even for national infrastructure projects.
Engagement enriches design outcomes, improving accessibility, safety, and sustainability.
Strategic partnerships and specialist facilitation are essential to reach diverse audiences.
Iterative feedback loops between the design team, delivery partners and the public enhance both process and product.
These learnings offer a transferable model for future programmes, showing how democratic, creative and evidence-led engagement can drive innovation and public value in major design and infrastructure initiatives.
“It is good that stations will have a coherent identity, and with the arrival of Great British Railways that will become even more important. London Transport’s Piccadilly line stations designed by William Holden are a good example of how stations can have an identity that clearly signals the presence of the railway, reflects their local area but has a common style that unifies the city. The HUB Station has the potential to do the same .”
ExploreStation participant
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