Consultancy report informs Network Rail Strategic Station Plan

Network Rail commissioned the University of Surrey to carry out a consultancy project investigating visitors’ use of Windsor stations.

Credit: GWR

Dignatories and people in Victorian dress at Windsor Station

The town of Windsor is located in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire. Famous for its royal connections with Windsor Castle being one of the official residences of the royal family, Windsor also boasts a bustling high street, several tourist attractions, and is less than an hour’s train ride from London. Given this, it is little surprise that Windsor proves a popular draw for tourists, shoppers, and commuters alike.

'Strategic Station Plan: Windsor Stations', Network Rail

More than 2.6 million users travelled through the Windsor rail stations in 2023 according to the Department for Transport (DfT) and Office of Rail and Road (ORR) data. However, the perspective of people who use train stations was a key missing link when the rail industry and local authorities started planning for the forthcoming decades.

With this in mind, in 2024 Network Rail commissioned a consultancy project from the University of Surrey’s Institute for Sustainability Innovation Hub and the Department of Tourism and Transport, now part of the internationally leading Surrey Hospitality and Tourism Management at the Surrey Business School. Dr Nikolas Thomopoulos led this project, which conducted a large user survey representing more than 15 nationalities visiting the two train stations at Windsor, Windsor Eton and Riverside and Windsor Central.

Nikolas and his team gathered more than 500 responses in February and March 2024, of which, 420 were included in the respective analysis. The Transport Economists Group, a forum which aims to improve the quality of transport management, planning and decision-making, invited the report authors, Nikolas Thomopoulos, Astha Guragain and Alex Hagen Zanker, to present their report, ‘Windsor Strategic Station Plan: Rail Passenger Survey’, at one of their regular meetings in May 2025.

The major impact of this Surrey consultancy project was recently confirmed by Network Rail. Network Rail released its Strategic Station Plan: Windsor Stations in June 2025 and it heavily relies on the University of Surrey report.

Key findings of Surrey’s consultancy project which were used in Network Rail’s Strategic Station Plan: Windsor Stations include:

the trip-chaining figure (which highlights the range of modes used to access the railway at Windsor stations) based on Saud and Thomopoulos (2021)
details about the proportion of commuters and tourists using Windsor Riverside and Windsor Central rail stations
users’ age and gender differences, ticket payment preferences, their ways of travelling to the station and the purpose of their journeys.

The number of sections of the Network Rail report relying on the University of Surrey report demonstrate the impact of this report on future station planning for Windsor.

Pic credit: SWR

You can read a summary of the Windsor Strategic Station Plan: Rail Passenger Survey here.