Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2024

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In some respects, working with train stations will be easier. There aren’t as many security restrictions, making shipping and distribution easier, and it also eliminates the need for security clearances for workers. It also eases throughput and will allow the company to create new spaces that will attract not just travelers but residents of the neighborhood. “Why does it have to be this box where you’re waiting for a train, but you haven’t really got anything to do,” Patel says. “So, by default, you are creating all this anxiety.” A large part of the reimagination process involved figuring out how to make passengers feel comfortable during the process. Some are there for business. Others are visiting friends. There’s commuter traffic and Amtrak riders on longer journeys. “They have different needs,” he says. “What would they want or desire, or what could interest them in terms of amenities?” Train travelers want to know where they are going and whether their trains are on time, so a first change was adding display boards throughout the complex rather than just in a central area. Then, Vantage and its partners have started talking with users, using data and asking them what they want. Some are there for just 15 or 20 minutes and might need only a coffee. Others will be there a while, allowing for a bit more substantial offering. Some stop in after work, so there might be a sports bar or wine bar for them to relax. And, because of the location, there are opportunities within the station and on its exterior, as well. And, Patel says, much as in airports, Vantage is trying to help create generational

Plans In Philly Vantage is far from the only player in airport concessions to delve into other facets of non-trad. HMSHost and Areas USA have operated in motorways. Delaware North is well known for its offerings is everywhere from resorts to parks to stadiums. Marshall Retail Group is in casinos. Compass Group , which works with airlines in airport lounges is better known for its efforts on campuses. While the audiences and dwell times are different, industry observers say there are plenty of best practices and synergies that can work back and forth between airports and other non-traditional outlets. At the train station, Patel says, it’s all about recreating or, in this case, largely creating a new experience. “Up until recently, thinking about the station experience, it was just very functional,” he says. “It has been very functional. … How do you facilitate and make that a nice place to be?”

That project, which also includes Gilbane Building Co. and Johnson Controls Inc., will result in designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining the third busiest station in Amtrak’s network. While it’s the first non-traditional venue Vantage has gotten involved in outside of airports, it’s not an outlandish transition, says Sammy Patel, vice president commercial. “We found that the rail sector in the U.S. perhaps isn’t as dynamic on a number of levels, from an experience point of view in particular, as airports have become,” he says. “I’m just lucky enough to travel around the world a fair bit and have lived in different countries to see what rail or cruise terminals can be and the potential available to them.”

Right: Delaware North operates in many non-trad venues. The company’s locations collaborate frequently and share everything from best practices to different technologies.

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AX NEWS JUNE 2024