Connex has announced plans to open one-stop convenience stores and childcare centres at stations in the south-east.
The train company is in talks with Compass ad Hachette to turn half of its 400 stations into one-stop shops where passengers can buy baked beans at the same counter as their rail tickets. Private retailers will put up £40m-£60m for refitting the stations. Connex has already turned Cooden Beach, in East Sussex, into a Costcutter and it has opened a Spar at Leatherhead station, Surrey.
Connex said it was making plans to open childcare centres at 10 stations with Academy Childcare, including Tonbridge, Chatham and Orpington, Haywards Heath and Lewisham.
Financial Times 12/10/00 page 7
