Abstract

Train stations have played an important role in the urban development of many cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Their impact as gates to cities spurred dynamic growth and made them key locations in the urban communication network. After World War II many of the original train stations were demolished. It resulted in the loss of splendid iron and steel structures. Railways had to give way to the cars, and vast terminus stations in the city centers started to become impractical and too expensive to maintain. This state of neglect was slowly lifted in the late 1980s, but the historic train stations did not meet the requirements of the emerging high-speed rail systems in Europe. The layout and the size of these historic buildings were not fit for the new and increased intensity of usage. Therefore, many stations were redesigned and often enlarged. This paper presents and analyzes various examples of modernization of train stations carried out in the European Union since 2003 showing how flexible redesign of a train station, an individual, complex challenge, can be attempted in different ways.