Hawkins Brown appointed to help design expansion of St Pancras international

Hawkins Brown has been confirmed as the winner of a competition to carry out a design and feasibility study to double capacity the Eurostar station at St Pancras International in London.

The tender process to rethink parts of the grade I-listed station was launched earlier this year with the proposals looking at expanding passenger numbers from the current 19 million to 30 million by the end of this decade.

Hawkins Brown’s appointment follows initial feasibility work for the scheme undertaken by design consultant Active Thinking, which was appointed last July.

This study looked into the likely numbers of passengers which would need to be accommodated in the international part of the station and the required operational and design interventions.

The work will be divided into three phases with the first looking to increase passenger numbers per hour by 2,700 by improving the security and border process over the next four years.

Phase two is designed to improve the international area and its connection to the main concourse, with completion expected by 2028.

And phase three will look at further expansion in the 2030s with an option to relocate the arrivals flow upstairs.

Capacity in 2024 was 1,800 travellers per hour, which has already grown to 2,000 per hour with the projection to be nearly 5,000 an hour following phase two.

Research earlier this year found demand for Eurostar is set to triple by 2040, increasing from 11 million to 35 million passengers per year.

Eurostar recently announced plans to expand its destinations from London to include Geneva and Frankfurt.