The spatial impact of train stations on small and medium-sized European cities and their contemporary urban design challenges

ABSTRACT

After a decade marked by the renewal of grand European high-speed railway stations, today, a second wave of station renewal is at hand. This paper argues the importance of the train station in the historical development of smaller cities. Based on comparative research of recent best practices, the contemporary urban design challenges of smaller and medium-sized stations are explored. The paper concludes that the station is no longer shaped as a monolithic, architectural cathedral, as for the grand stations, but interweaves the world of the passer-by with that of the local inhabitant as a system of public infrastructure and facilities.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to sincerely thank the partners, cities, designers and other stakeholders of the Interreg-project IV A Flanders-Netherlands for generously sharing their knowledge and experiences. Many gratitude to Dries Ceuppens for his support on the cartography and Julie Marin on the international best practices research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.