It was great to have delivered a talk on transit orientated development virtually in Singapore to a mix of attendees hosted by UITP and Land Transport Agency in Singapore. I covered case studies in UK and Middle East with a brief summary of “good” transit orientated development case studies below.

UK examples

1. Kings Cross – A very successful example spanning decades of work. Take a look at this link for before and after photos, which are nothing if not striking: https://londonist.com/london/history/street-view-before-and-after-king-s-cross

2. Birmingham New Street: Again a redevelopment of a major rail station which was showcased during last year’s Commonwealth Games in 2022. Having personally visited the station before and after redevelopment, the transformation is indeed remarkable and a good UK example that is not London.

3. Northstowe – The largest new town being built in the UK is not without its controversy! However, with a planned 10,000 homes, with an anticipated population of 24,400 by 2040, transport is at the heart of this new town.

MENA Region

Within the MENA region, transit orientated development is not as far as advanced as Europe and Middle East (https://www.arabianbusiness.com/industries/construction/transit-oriented-development-12663) s o currently there are not so many case studies. However, there are significant plans to improve, see Qatar National Masterplan (https://www.mme.gov.qa/QatarMasterPlan/Default.aspx) and the phalanx of projects in both Saudi Arabia and UAE, I suspect there will be a lot more case studies in the near future.

How to incorporate TOD into a development

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy has developed a set of principles outlined here: https://tod.itdp.org/. It’s a very useful checklist to ensure TOD is covered and easier to explain to non transport colleagues.