What is Good Station-Area Planning? Lessons from Experts and Case Studies

As both scholarly literature and experience on the ground indicates, good station-area planning is a very important prerequisite for the eventual successful operation of a high-speed rail (HSR) station. In addition to facilitating the mobility of travellers, good station-area planning can also trigger opportunities for economic development in the station-area and the station-city. This study seeks to: 1. understand the elements of good station-area planning for HSR stations; 2. document what experts consider as prerequisites for good station-area planning; 3. document the elements of good station-area planning in four case studies of successful European stations: Euralille and Lyon Part-Dieu in France, and Ro erdam Centraal and Utrecht Centraal in the Netherlands; and 4. extract lessons and recommendations for new HSR stations. To achieve this we draw from a literature review of station-area planning, a survey of HSR experts from Europe and the US, and visits to the four case study stations.