Advancing a healthy and sustainable food environment at a railway station: (How) does a collaborative approach work?

Background Local governments are increasingly resorting to collaborative approaches to improve food environments due to a lack of legal instruments. Yet, the context-related factors influencing such collaborations, as well as their complexity and impact on the food environment remain unknown. This study explored a public private collaboration aiming to improve the food environment at a railway station. Methods A prospective single case study (renewal of a railway station) was carried out between September 2021 to February 2024 using semi-structured interviews, field notes from 17 group meetings, and document review. The process was studied through the lens of collaborative governance, using the Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance. Results Despite initial ambitions, the collaboration between stakeholders (municipality, nutrition authority, university, and Dutch Railways) did not lead to structural improvements of the food environment in the renewed railway station. The Dutch Railways had control over the food (outlets) available, providing them with a dominant role in the collaboration and making their (commercial) interests leading. The initially broad objective of improving the food environment at the renewed railway station was narrowed down to the opening of a pop-up food store at the old station. This limited the possibility of making structural changes to the renewed train station. The collaboration gradually dissolved after the pop-up store closed because of insufficient shared motivation, after which the municipality explored other strategies to reach their objective, which did not materialize. Conclusions These findings suggest that it is challenging to establish collaborations without meeting crucial conditions such as interdependence and shared motivation.