London Underground is speaking to three leading retail chains over plans to convert more than 200 of its redundant ticket offices into supermarkets.
Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Asda are all said to be actively considering opening chains of “click and collect” grocery stores on the network. With the Tube’s recently improved internet access passengers would be able to order shopping during their journey to or from work and collect it a few minutes later at one of the booking hall outlets.
Amazon has also expressed an interest in using offices that should be freed up by plans to close 260 ticket offices.
In a recent interview Graeme Craig, director of commercial development at Transport for London (TfL), admitted there were plans underway to make the Tube an enormous “supermarket aisle” browsed by the millions of commuters who use the service. “They are time-poor people who’ve got very busy lives. All we need to do is work out what it is they need and give it to them in the most convenient format,” he said.
Where redundant ticket offices are not available TfL intends to install vending machines selling everything from flowers to electronic devices and other high-end goods. It is also considering installing an airport-style business lounge at Canary Wharf and has identified 75 other sites with property development potential.
Established two years ago, TfL’s commercial development arm was charged with opening up London’s historic Underground to new retailers, decluttering the space and returning, where possible, its buildings to their the original architecture. While more modern stations can be easily upgraded for retail use any changes to TfL’s 70 Grade II listed stations must be agreed with English Heritage.
Part of the authority’s strategy to wring more money out of its prime locations will be to change the basis on which it rents out space. Traditional tenants — which include newsagents, florists and watch repair businesses — are currently charged by floorspace. TfL now wants to charge rents based on turnover. “We’d be working with retailers to understand what we can do to drive up their revenues,” added Craig.
Already served by one of the best internet networks in the world, hi-tech innovations would also be used to speed passengers through the stations. TfL plans to experiment with geofences, or virtual GPS perimeters, which would allow retailers to know when a customer who has registered their smartphone with specific retailers is approaching an outlet to collect pre-ordered goods. “You can reach out and grab your coffee and bun on the way past,” said Craig. “It has saved you 30 seconds of queueing up and some of the money you’ve spent stays within TfL.”
There are, however, safety fears over the plans. Transport unions have warned that closing the ticket offices could put passengers at risk by making it harder to find staff in an emergency.
And Tony Travers, a professor at the London School of Economics, cautions: “The last thing you can do in very crowded stations is to start encouraging people to hang around in them. There’s a trade-off between what retailers want to do, which is to encourage large numbers to stay in the stations and use their shops, and what the Tube wants to do, which is to get people out.”
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