Digesting the government’s recently published 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, I couldn’t help but note the scale of the planned investment in the public transport networks of England’s key city regions. This includes £15.6bn to be made available to Mayors by 2031-32 to invest in local transport priorities, of which £2.1bn is earmarked for the new West Yorkshire Mass Transit System, and £2.5bn to continue delivery of East West Rail, connecting up Oxford and Cambridge.

The importance of good transport networks for boosting the productivity of our cities, by enabling more people to access jobs in their dynamic city centres, is well-established. We also know that expanding the road network further is not the solution to the challenge of connecting workers and their employers in urban areas. So on every level, these investments are to be welcomed by all of us who care about our cities as places to live and work. In my view though, there is a missing piece of the jigsaw. Wherever we build a new rail station (such as the forthcoming Tempsford and Cambourne along the EWR route), tram stop or even bus stop, we have the opportunity to squeeze out additional benefits from these investments through (often modest) spending on the surrounding streets and public realm.

It may seem so facile as to be scarcely worth mentioning, but for public transport systems to be used, they have to be accessible. And the more people who can reach a train station or tram stop, the greater the potential of these investments to deliver economic benefit. Upgrading local streets to provide safe, attractive and direct walking and cycling routes to stations, as well as adding bus lanes, greatly increases the pool of people who can readily access a station and therefore may consider it an attractive option for commuting.

The Netherlands provides a powerful example of a place that has invested heavily in active travel infrastructure to complement its rail network and incentivise multi-modal journeys – today almost half of commuters at Dutch railway stations arrive by bicycle. Learnings from the Dutch experience suggest that successful cycling infrastructure not only makes space for bicycles, but limits the road space allocated to cars and reduces their speeds. Further, making the last few metres of the journey as easy and convenient as possible for cycle commuters, through clear wayfinding and well-lit routes to the platform, further enhances the attractiveness of bike-train journeys.

Another valuable way in which we can better use the streets around our stations is through changes to their layout to promote higher residential density.  As work by the Centre for Cities shows, public transport networks in British cities outside of London are not always less extensive than those in comparable European cities in terms of the geographic area they cover. Rather, use of these networks is limited by the insufficient density of many British cities, with fewer people living close to city centres, and able to make use of existing public transport provision.

Higher density living around stations is most obviously achieved via changes to the housing stock, replacing the lower density housing that characterise many British cities. But street layout plays an essential role in making denser residential areas desirable places to live. In European cities we typically see wide boulevards lined with mid-rise apartment buildings. These more spacious streets typically accommodate public transport routes, cycle lanes and wide pavements for journeys on foot. They also provide beauty and amenity to residents with access to green space and places to sit and to play – vital if we expect more people to live in homes that don’t have their own private gardens. This doesn’t have to mean a radical overhaul of our cities by building grand new boulevards. Rather, by reclaiming road space currently given over to the carriageway and on-street parking (and challenging our relationship with the car in the process), there is huge scope to retrofit our existing streets in a way that makes them safer, healthier and more liveable.

Finally, we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of the public realm outside of stations in shaping their use. Pleasant, appealing public space with plenty of amenity attracts people and helps to ensure that stations are well-used. The redevelopment of the area around King’s Cross station is a good example of this, with over 10 hectares of public realm delivered as part of the scheme. And the developer, Related Argent, are rightly commended for recognising the importance of these spaces from the outset and prioritising them in planning and construction. On a smaller scale, this was also the approach we took in the construction of the new Meridian Water station in Enfield. In building the public square outside if the station first, along with safe, pleasant access routes to it, we sought to establish the station as a new place in its own right, for the use and enjoyment of the local community.

These sorts of upgrades to streets and public realm should not just be reserved for new stations – they are an effective way to upgrade existing stations too. Cambridge station is an excellent example of this, with improvements in recent years providing much better cycle access, bus routes and a really vibrant public square. And they can benefit suburban as well as urban areas. Making suburban transport nodes more accessible means these places can properly connect into and benefit from the economies of their neighbouring cities, rather than, as is too often the case, existing more like islands. Sticking with the Cambridge example, the new station at Cambourne on the EWR line provides an real opportunity to allow Cambourne’s residents to participate in Cambridge’s growing economy, provided the station is easy to reach and pleasant to use.

Streets are a ubiquitous feature of the urban landscape. They often make up more than 80 per cent of the public space in a city, and perhaps in their familiarity, we have come to overlook their importance, including their complementarity with public transport investments. If we’re going to spend big on trams and trains for our growing cities, it can only make sense to make comparatively small investments in upgrading our streets and public spaces to maximise their use. It would be wonderful to see this recognised in our national infrastructure strategy – ideally with money behind it, but at least as a strategic direction to local authorities and others with responsibility for delivery.