External Locations of Modern Railway Stations – a Departure from Sustainable Mobility?

Systemy transportowe

Jacek Wesołowski External locations of modern railway stations – a departure from sustainable mobility?

Will people come to the railway regardless of station location or in 1894. Rotterdam was a rare example of a long cross-city line should rather the railway come to where people are? The pursue for built on iron viaduct (1877; line relocated underground in 1993). central locations for stations was probably the most characteristic The long lasting ‘battle’ of railways with authorities of Paris, won feature of Victorian railways urging them to cover huge costs of in- by the latter, is particularly emblematic. Mainline railways have ner city lots and approaches. It has been often stressed the station to wait till the 1970s to gain access directly to the heart of the has changed it character becoming far more than the pure trans- city which materialised in a limited form as a big suburban hub at port node. The evolution towards a retail and service centre was Châtelet-les-Halles. In the last decades of the 19th century even possible thanks to its inner city location [1]. Recent developments a reverse tendency was born, to whom good excuse were the in some countries with most advanced railway systems show that need for large areas for central stations and the need to free the modern stations are often neither central nor even easily accessible. cities from any physical constraints for expansion. Truncation of The time gained on quick train travel and lack of check in times is inner parts of railways approaching Frankfurt am Main in order then lost by most customers on long access travels. Also the overall to consolidate all lines in the huge Hauptbahnhof can be a good comfort of train travel is thus reduced even if the long journey to the early example (1883-88). The new station complex was accom- station can be made by metro. Are these good circumstances to turn panied by several blocks designed for urban development, with the railway into most favourite form of travel? an axial boulevard, laid out on the former premises of the station yards and approaches of four separate railway companies. The distance of stations from Römer grew from 0.7 km to 1.3 km. The A brief look on the evolution of station locations1 list of similar changes to railway patterns in cities in Europe and As station location in the vicinity of the built-up urban perimeters America is long, marked by milestone interventions in Strassburg did not pose much problems for railways, such a practice was (1883, distance from the heart of the city as the crow flies grew by far most common in the pioneering epoque of railways. This from 0.7 km to 1.1 km), Darmstadt (1912; 0.7 km to 1.5 km), came in different time according to country: in Lodz the Kalishskiy Kansas City (1914, 1.3 km to 2.0 km), Milan (1912-31, 1.8 km vokzal was an example dating back to not earlier than the dawn to 2.5 km), Stuttgart (1922; 0.4 km to 0.8 km), Ghent (1928; of the 20th century. At that time peripheries were not closer to service moved to 1912-built station, distance grew from 0.7 km central area of the town than 2 km. In better developed bigger cit- to 1.7 km), Königsberg (1929; 1.2 km to 2.0 km), Buffalo (1933; ies, particularly in Britain, the competing railway companies were 0.8 km to 3.8 km), Cincinnati (1933; 0.3 km to 2.3 km), Bruges soon ready to carry great expenses in order to reach more central (1939; 0.6 km to 1.3 km), Barcelona (1975; 1.3 km to 2.5 km). It locations, more convenient for lucrative business traffic. Such attempts were occassionally combined with a desire of connecting one railway system with another of the same or allied company. It involved inner city tunnelling or construction of viaducts – both usually combined with expropriations and wide scale demolition of on-ground structures. There are early examples of such development – Edinburgh, 1847, Birmingham 1852 and 1854 (all three below street level), Leeds 1869 (on viaduct). In London particularly many termini were built at second stage as endings of inner city extension lines (e.g. Waterloo 1848, Charing Cross 1864, Cannon Street 1866, Liverpool Street 1874). The urban and social aspects of these developments have been widely discussed elsewhere, usually with negative conclusions. On the Continent, where Berlin’s Stadtbahn, with its numerous arched stations, became an emblematic cross-city railway (1882), the govern- ments were generally more reluctant, if not hostile, to railways’ desire of deep-reaching the central areas. Cologne’s station of 1859, situated directly Fig. 1. Birmingham – city plan with two sub-surface cross-city lines and their centrally at the Cathedral, soon required enlargement and located stations; GWR – Great Western Railway, LNWR – London & North Western Railway. reconstruction of the approaches, accomplished Source: A & C Black, 1884, Wiki Commons 4 /2017 27 Systemy transportowe

directly at one of the square’s corners. This process adds up to overall car-oriented way of life, whatever absurd it may seem for the Europeans in case of railway travel. Not always the distances grew in conjunction with major railway restructuring. Every here and there we come across cases of rebuilding the termini, which involved demolition of original structures and creation of vast vehicle approach ‘vacuums’ in front of new buildings. Rome (1950) and Naples (1960) may serve as typical examples, regardless of what merits their modern structures may have. Warsaw is somewhat similar as regards its 1848-built terminus, but the change involved construction of a through station (1974). The walkway to the city became longer and tedious, while the continuum of pedestrian-oriented urban space was bro- ken or at least hindered. These changes can hardly be compared to the notion of the ‘parkway station’, a discovery of motor age (the name being typically British). Such a structure was solely designed with eye on motorised railway customers (or on those who can bother their relatives to be delivered to and from the station by car), who could benefit from vast car parks surrounding the complex. There was also a tendency to furnish the preexisting inner city stations with such facilities as well and to replace redundant and time-worn old station buildings and structures with simple and basic shel- ters. Clearly, they all reflect the influence of heavily ‘suburban- ised’ urban structures on railways and their somewhat desperate efforts to regain customers as well as to make the operations more cost-efficient. This, combined with ‘erosion’ of urban tissue in central ‘collar zones’, contributed to the relative isolation of railway stations. The rediscovery of railway travel The inefficiency of road system and the dubious comfort of air travel brought the potential attractiveness of railways back to the agenda of the last decades of the 20th century in many European and Asiatic countries. This was accompanied by the growing en- vironmental awareness and the typically European care for spa- Fig. 2. Darmstadt – basic map showing the new railway layout opened in tial consistency of cities threatened by unlimited car usage. The 1912. Old railway courses are visible closer to the city key advantage of railways was perceived in their centrally located Source: coll. of Institut für Geographie und Geologie, Universität Greifswald, Wiki stations. They helped to serve major destinations directly, make Commons. better use of existing urban transport infrastructure, and contributed to regenerate city centres by creating flourishing nodes of is relatively rarely that positioning of the new, consolidated station economic activities in the vicinity. could match the convenience of former stations, as it happened in However, new high-speed railway networks immediately turned Washington (1906), a development which also freed the streets of into a challenge. On one hand they had crucial effect on the re- the US capital from railroad traffic, as it did much later in Syracuse naissance of rail travel, on the other their technological specifica- (1936, 0.2 km to 1.0 km) and Los Angeles (1939). tions required space difficult to obtain in inner cities while noise Inner city railway construction did not cease entirely, but was pollution additionally threatened the urban environment. Through no longer in the mainstream of development. Tokyo (1914, 1932) stations were biggest problems, especially when many trains were and Warsaw (1933, 1968) tried to follow the Berlin Stadtbahn pat- to pass them without stopping or even slowing down. In many tern, but Brussels is probably the closest and best known example cases in introducing high-speed network the railways faced simi- (1935-52) which involved much demolition of historic tissue for lar tasks as these from the pioneering times. This resulted in the viaducts and cut-and-cover tunnelling. On the contrary, relegation variety of solutions, from construction of approaches to existing of stations and their approaches, usually on street level, from in- stations in new corridors or along existing lines, to construction ner cities coincided with overall decline of mainline rail services, of high speed stations in suburban zone without entering the in- particularly in America. In Detroit original termini were originally ner city. The latter case practically excluded or severely limited just over half a kilometre from the central square, the 1913-built the level of integration with other types of railway services. Op- and never finished station was 2.5 km away, while its replace- tions were selected after considering the size and role of cities ment, a small pavilion built in 1994, is no closer than 4.5 km. as well as the physical layout of urban and railway structure. The Even in Philadelphia, still extensively served by long-distance biggest population centres were generally considered worth of big trains, the present main station, opened 1933, is 1.6 km away expenses to keep stations centrally located and maintain full inte- from the central square, having replaced its predecessor located gration. Smaller towns had to go to terms with peripheral location, 28 4 /2017 Systemy transportowe

1981), via symphonies of architectural form and land- scaping (e.g. Avignon TGV, 2001, Aix-en-Provence-TGV, 2001) and back to relatively humble scale (e.g. Loraine TGV, 2006, Besançon Franche-Comté TGV, 2011). The role of these intermediate stations vary: some of them are of major importance for neighbouring cities, some provide supplementary service in some directions. This is due to the existence of a specific group of TGV trains, with destinations to inner-city stations reached via classic lines connected to LGVs by numerous spurs. Some of these stations were also built at intersections or have classic branch lines and are served by classic regional trains. Others, however, were erected ‘in the middle of nowhere’. Of these, Avignon-TGV is a special case, situated in unbuilt area 3.4 km from the heart of the city (the old station is just 0.8 km) and, strangely, just 800 m from the intersection of the classic line with no connection to it. Its vast landscaped setting, with Fig. 3. Shin-Ōsaka Station - layout and situation axial pattern of car parks and esplanade, together with in the city extravagant architecture, is symptomatic for other de- Source: author’s drawing on Google Earth photos velopment of the period. Additionally, some French cities, like Lyon, Tours and Arras, if any at all. But inevitably, there were also differences in national are alternatively served by some through trains and bypassed by approaches. others. However, the Lyon by-pass has one station serving the The Japanese, who launched the high-speed rail era as early airport, but it has limited use despite stupendous architecture as 1964 (at that time high speed was 160 kph, now it’s 250 to (most TGVs do not stop). It was only recently that it was connected 350 kph), basically stuck to big city centres with their Shinkansen to the city by means of an express tram line. Tours is a special lines. Retrofitting standard gauged lines into the existing Cape- case, owing to the existence of an additional, inner by-pass via gauge infrastructure inevitably required completely new facilities classical lines, with one station where some through TGVs call and approaches, which could only exceptionally be built within (St-Pierre-des-Corps). the existing railway corridors. Typically, Shinkansen trains run on In Germany where the destinations of travelling public are par- concrete viaducts, rather non-descript structures in themselves, ticularly diversified due to the polycentric character of the country, built along the railways as long as possible, elsewhere carried high speed trains almost always were expected to call at central over the sea of urban blocks to observe their required geometry. stations, even if it involved reversals (Frankfurt/Main, Leipzig, In Tokyo the 1964 approach was built with what is now consid- Stuttgart - until completion of the new station, Munich, initially ered severe speed restriction, owing to relatively tight curves. The Nuremberg). Only in Kassel, due to a relatively small number of northern approach of 1991 was built in tunnel, the only of its inhabitants, special through station was built. Wilhelmshöhe Sta- kind on Shinkansen network. Typical Shinkansen station forms an tion, as it is called, is situated 3.5 km from the heart of the city, elevated part parallel to at-grade classic platforms. Osaka is the but still in a well developed suburb and on the main structural most notable exception, with Shin-Ōsaka station for high-speed trains situated over 3.5 km from the classic mainline Ōsaka station, but relatively easily accessible. It was built at the intersection with the 6-track mainline approach to the latter and is served additionally by the busiest Metro line. Other exceptions are Kobe and Yokohama. Obviously, very common in Japan is also a countryside station named after the minor town, but situated with long distance to it, typically at intersection with classic railway line. Each Shinkansen line had been dotted with such stations, with average interval of 30-40 kms. In France, who pioneered the European high- speed rail in 1981, TGV trains could penetrate urbanised structures relatively easily and call at existing stations, thanks to same track gauge and multi-system powering. However, high-speed lines (LGVs) have been equipped with several ‘parkway- type’ stations en route, serving less populated cit- Fig. 4. Avignon-TGV Station. Axial layout of the vicinity (mostly car parks). Classic line visible ies, towns and regions. Forms of such stations to the right evolved from basic structures (Mâcon-Loché TGV, Source: Google Earth, 2011 4 /2017 29 Systemy transportowe

ies. However Gwangmyeong Station just outside Seoul provides us with a special type of ‘parkway’ station, combined with awe- some architecture, a big Park & Ride facility, and a sort of ‘new town’ around. The latter, sadly, has not yet materialised. Another interesting example came later as Sin-Gyeongju Station (2010), situated in a remote valley some 8.5 km from the historic city of Gyeongju (260,000 inhabitants). Due to city’s peripheral location, the station is a compromise: the high-speed line to Busan took an elongated form to serve the city anyway, but apparently it would be impractical to approach it any more. As has been seen, the early era of renaissance of railways generally respected the existing patterns of stations. New structures had either marginal importance or were located well within the inner city areas or were mostly conceived to serve the airports. ‘Parkway-type’ stations appeared mostly in case of minor cities or as supplementary facilities. Japan and France were most likely to built them and still are. On the verge of consistency? We have not yet discussed the case of Spain, where high-speed rail (AVE) was launched in 1992 and dramatically expanded in the 21st century. Spain has also been the scene of enormous mod- ernisation of classic system, particularly railway stations and suburban networks. To some extent construction of HS lines can be compared to Shinkansen due to track gauge difference. Most AVE trains call at existing wide-gauge stations or at new stations which replaced old ones on or almost on the same site. In some cases it involved construction of sub-surface complexes and approach Fig. 5. Avignon-TGV Station - interior of passenger hall tunnels (Barcelona, Girona). Elsewhere AVE trains can call to the Source: author’s photo, 2013 central station or bypass the city (Saragossa, Lleida). Construction of stations often resulted on relocations, some- axis. Another peripheral location to the city has Frankfurt (M) times combined with old line being moved to a completely new, Flughafen; the busy station serves one of the world’s busiest air- outlying corridor. This was first attempted in Seville (1992) where ports and its accompanying commercial developments (2001). the new station was situated within the collar of inner suburbs However, residents of Frankfurt have also an array of high-speed and increased distances from the city core by 600-800 m (to trains in any relevant direction at their disposal at the Hauptbahn- 1.6 km). New railway corridor and the station in Castellón de la hof. Limburg and Montaubar are examples of ‘parkway-type’ sta- Plana (2000) made the distance grow by 400 m. The Zaragoza tions on the high-speed line (2002) where a few ICE trains stop, Delicias station (2003) extended the distance by 1.3 km. These while Stendal (1998) can be served by through trains or bypassed is not the worst: while the old station was directly accessible via (as most trains do). In big cities central location is considered urban streets, the new one is surrounded by wide roads, intersec- indispensible: Stuttgart’s major restructuring project will eventu- tions and vehicle approaches, which turn the building into a soli- ally lead to the opening of a through station placed on site of the tary architectural sculpture. Development in Burgos, a medium- present terminus (a fiercely criticised ‘Stuttgart 21’ concept). It sized city of 180,000 inhabitants, replaced the centrally station probably wouldn’t have been proceeded without regard to the ma- (0.7 km from the city core) with a virtually suburban structure jor rail corridor which renders different speed requirements due 4.6 kms away. This shift, essential for the city of this size, must to bigger, continental scale of future traffic. A somewhat similar substantially pose a problem of station accessibility which be- inner city development with such an international traffic in sight comes similar to airports. Can railway be compared to airplane? has been recently finished in Vienna, whose new Hauptbahnhof Likewise, central positioning of stations is difficult to achieve (2013) linked two major lines and has a slighly more convenient when railway is retrofitted to existing urbanised structures as positioning as regards integration with city transport network than a new means of transport. These structures were usually con- the combined terminus it replaced. ceived to be served solely by road transport. In extreme cases they Italy has always observed the rule of high-speed trains calling at may form expanded suburban townships with no room for railway central stations in most important cities. The underground exten- corridor. Such is the case of Gold Coast in Queensland which is sion of Bologna station for high-speed trains was opened in 2013; the fastest growing Australian city (now 600,000 inhabitants). they reach it by means of a deep tunnel. The departure from the Without much investment it was only possible to built the railway rule is yet to be accomplished in Florence, where a separate, but (1996-2009) deep in the hinterland, while the central area form not distant high-speed station is to be built, and in Naples, where an elongated strip right at the Pacific coast. The distance from construction of the new Afragola Station for through trains even the railway is not smaller than 7-8 kms. Even the stations don’t doesn’t seem to have seriously begun. have pedestrian friendly locations. Varsity Lakes, situated 2.5 km Similarly, the Koreans, who opened their high-speed KTX line from the centre of the namesake suburb, is also 200 m away from in 2003, also preferred to call at existing main stations in key cit- nearest houses. Robina Station is in the vicinity of the shopping 30 4 /2017 Systemy transportowe

mall, a true centre of the suburb, but still some 800 m open space distance has to be covered to reach it. It is quite astonishing to learn the railway suffers from peak hour overcrowding which may be explained by difficulties of parking in Brisbane city centre, to where the trains go. The stations work as ‘parkway-type’ facilities, making use of vast car parks and feeder bus nodes. It is remark- able that integration with tram line (opened 2014) is foreseen only at the stage of its near future extension. Israel is renowned for one of most spectacular recoveries of railways in recent times. A bewildering increase of patronage from 5 million in 1996 to over 40 million in 2012 has been achieved as a result of massive construction programme and overall fleet renewal. It may be argued, however, that this more reflects the need for transport means not liable to congestion than the superb level of comfort and convenience resulting from coordinated land use – transport planning. As the basic principle was to construct railways in motorway corridors, even in median strips, the lines almost never call to Fig. 7. Zaragoza-Delicias Station – a monument in the urban vacuum inner parts of population centres. The situation of station may Source: Zarateman, 2009; Wiki Commons. be better or worse, but is rarely convenient. Rosh HaAyin Tzafon Station (2003) can be symptomatic, situated 2 kms from nearest corridor is amidst the busy urban motorway, which became the blocks of Rosh HaAyin across the multilevel motorway junction, axis for commercial development only at second instance. No and 3 kms from the town centre. The 2005-reopened Ashkelon intimate station environment is to be expected – Central Station Station, though not combined with motorway, is 4 kms from the is ‘an island’ among car parks, HaShalom Station is an imposing, town centre and 1.5 kms from nearest urban block. Fortunately but relatively small architectural showcase connected by a cov- it is also next to a shopping centre, with whom, sadly, it does not ered walkway to a huge commercial complex. The railway in Tel form any consistent architectural unit. Aviv has its own points of access, forming a world completely Remoteness of stations seems to be a common feature in Is- different from pleasant squares and boulevards of Patrick Ged- rael; they all act as big Park & Ride nodes. Even in Tel Aviv railway des’ ‘garden city’ (1925), which has since turned into a Medi- terranean metropolis. An inevitable consequence of modernist planning without railway? The capital, Je- rusalem, remains as yet with a rather uncompetitive railway service, despite its restoration in 2005, with terminus placed some 4.5 kms away from central areas. This was done at explicit request of the city council seeking to stop running trains at inner city level cross- ings. However, the remedy may come in 2017 with the opening of a high-speed line and a new underground terminus with much better integration with both city structure and local transport network. Not the whole image is grey then: the 70,000-inhabitant new town of Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut will have a proper centrally placed station (already opened 2008) once the construction of the city centre is finished. This does not mean the eventual stage will contain an intimate pedestrian environment. Such planning is en vogue in neither Israel, nor in most other non-European countries, even if railways are being developed at the pace now unmatched by the ‘Old Continent’. The new Ma- laysian federal capital Putrajaya (1995+), a dispersed, motor-car oriented structure with ornamental layout of quasi-Baroque scale and monuments, has its railway station in a remote periphery, some 2 kms away from the main government axis. Truly, in the minds of some government planners the railways still do not fit to a distinguished townscape of planned capital cities, as they didn’t for L. Costa in his Brasilia (1955+). Fig. 6. Saragossa: top – before arrival of the high-speed line, Portillo Station close to Though the Griffin Brothers in their Canberra (1913+) the centre; bottom – after arrival of high speed with the new Delicias Station situated planned a through railway line, it has never been built. much farther And it is with Canberra that Putrajaya seems to have Source: author’s drawing on Google Earth photos. much in common. 4 /2017 31 Systemy transportowe

Railway for the new society? Though Taiwan’s high-speed line (opened 2006-7) uses Japanese technology, the tracing of the line is by far different as it calls at centrally located stations only at both ends. Thus the high-speed Taichung station is over 7 kms distant from the central area of the 2.6 million city, while the old station is not more than 1 km away. The distance is mitigated by the location on the intersection with the classic railway line. This probably was the first city of this size in history to be served by a remote high speed rail station. Further to the south, the 260,000 inhabitant city of Chiayi was Fig. 8. Robina Station and its location towards the Town Centre complex practically skipped by the high-speed line. The Chiayi Source: Google Earth, 2016. high-speed station is a ‘parkway-type’ facility right in the fields, around 12.5 km away. To mitigate the ‘middle-of-nowhere’ effect, station’s surroundings have been prepared to building up in order to form a kind of ‘new town’. Although the earthworks were already done around 2003, in 2016 no trace of investment could be identified. Chiayi is an even bigger city than Kassel, but its access to high-speed rail is totally different. Similar attempt to form a ‘new city’ was accomplished in case of Tainan, Hsinchu and Taoyuan stations with similar limited results. Coincidently, the daily patronage of the line is far below initial forecasts [2], to which the remoteness of stations probably contribute. Mainland China is where by far the biggest railway Fig. 9. Ashkelon Station and its situation construction programme was launched in the 21st Source: Google Earth, 2016. century, and may well be compared to the ‘golden age’ of the mid-19th century. Several high-speed ‘Passen- ger Dedicated Railways’ (as they are officially called), sometimes over a thousand of kilometres long and sometimes just over a hundred, built simultaneously, render the perspective of an astonishing experiment in establishing the transport model for future. Can distances exceeding 1000 kms be effectively covered by railway? Fifty years ago, when flying was at full pace progress, the answer would inadvertently be ‘no’. The Chinese seem to be convinced they can, if already available high-speed technology of trains running at 300-350 kph were implemented uncompromisingly. As, apparently even in China, despite the bewildering scale of investment, costs also matter, this is done Fig. 10. Rosh HaAyin Tzafon Station - the context of a motorway junction with a somewhat debatable spatial form. What is the Source: Google Earth, 2016. most striking feature of Chinese high-speed system is that its stations, even those of the metropolises, tend to be located outside cities, sometimes really deep in hinterland. Connections to these stations are not always easy, in biggest cities metro lines occur, but often are delayed to open. The Chinese high-speed CRH trains are divided into two groups: ‘G’-trains follow high speed corridors and tend to call almost solely at biggest high-speed stations, while some ‘D’-trains use classic lines to reach central stations and/or to link cities where no high- speed line has yet been built (or will never be). There are also ‘D’-trains confined to high-speed lines but stopping at every station. Thus central stations also see some high-speed trains in addition to an array Fig. 11. Chiayi THSR Station – eight years after the opening the „new town” is yet to come of classic ones. These stations have also been sub- Source: Google Earth, 2016. ject to massive upgrading and extensions, frequently 32 4 /2017 Systemy transportowe

involving construction of giant train sheds and new buildings. It should be remembered there is a substantial size difference between ‘provincial cities’ in China and these elsewhere; the scale of the former usually goes into hundreds of thousands or millions. This gives specific profile to economic calculations, particularly if rapid and constant growth of living standards is to be envisaged. There is also a category of newly built ‘intercity high speed line’, usually on shorter distances of not more than 300 kms, connecting neighbouring cities, line Beijing–Tianjin (2008), Shanghai–Nanjing (2010) or Fig. 12. Guangzhou Nan Station: top – the rural area in 2006 just before the start of Canton–Macau (officially Guangzhou–Zhuhai, 2013). construction work; bottom - station context in 2016. Construction of the „new town” The sole fact that the two former lines are paralleled began only five years after the railway opened (in separate corridor) by another, which form extreme Source: Google Earth, 2006, 2016. parts of Beijing-Shanghai long distance connection, well illustrates the scale of investment. The double Shanghai–Nanjing high-speed corridor is now yet again complemented by the Nanjing–Hangzhou line, a short- cut to reach the coastal cities bypassing Shanghai. Another interesting development is the Ningbo–Wen- zhou–Fuzhou–Xiamen line, relatively slow, for maxi- mum 250 kph running speed. This is an engineering marvel built along the rugged and mountainous coast, full of long tunnels and viaducts over water inlets and sea bays. The line opened in stages from 2009, and reached Shenzhen in 2013. This is the first railway connection between coastal cities in history, and for many towns and cities the first railway at all (as it is for Ma- cau). None of them, however, benefit from a centrally located newly built station. Similar can be said about new classic lines. The 2-million city of Nantong got in 2007 a station over 6 kms from city centre, while the 500,000 Taizhou got one (2005) no closer than 7.7 kms, amidst rural landscape. There is no rule, however – Hefei’s (3.3 million city) new station is to open just Fig. 13. Guangzhou Nan Station – an artistic vision showing the future development of at the outer rim of suburbs. Most of high-speed ser- immediate surroundings vices in Shanghai, except these running up the Nan- Source: www.SouFun.com jing-Shanghai ‘intercity line’, call at Hongqiao Station opened in 2010 at the outer edge of the city’s western airport, some 16.8 kms from Bund (renowned quai at Huangpu River). Everyone wishing to travel high-speed to any further destinations must first get there, using one of two (soon three) metro lines. Many those wishing to change trains in Shanghai are likely to change metro lines once on their way from other mainline station. It would, however, be quite convenient if transfer to plane is to be done. This is probably the only case of high- speed rail – airport integration in China. The similarity to Frankfurt is only superficial: contrary to Shanghai one doesn’t have to use Frankfurt Flughafen Station to join the train in any direction. Even worse is the situation at other Chinese metropolises. High speed Canton station (Guangzhou Nan) is 16.6 km from the city centre which is linked to it by one metro line only. Except Canton–Shenzhen ‘D’-trains, all high-speed trains call only there, includ- ing the newly-opened line to Macau (Zhuhai). It is thus not a supplementary station on a high-speed by-pass, Fig. 14. Xiàmén Běi Station – the ‘new town’ seems to be under construction like some in Europe, but one of the key railway nodes Photo: MasaneMiyaPA, 2015; Wiki Commons. 4 /2017 33 Systemy transportowe

2-hour-long access journey is to be added (the total distance is c850 km). However, as the fastest full Canton– Beijing journey is now c9½ hrs (it may become c8 hrs if 350 kph speed ban is eventually revocated4) – will it be competitive to plane? A year after the opening of the Wuhan–Beijing line in 2012 there were only 3 sched- uled pairs of through trains between the capital and Canton (and 4 pairs of through trains Canton–Xi’an, the fastest service takes c7½ hrs). Is the seamless high- speed really worth the Wuhan suburban station and its tedious access? Hence this may be considered a daring experiment, or, perhaps, ‘a pyramid of modern China’. Fig. 15. Xiàmén Běi Station – a structure inspired by traditional architecture erected in There is, however, no known trace of passenger com- its remote location plains about station positioning, while air companies Source: Google Earth, 2016. suffered, like elsewhere, from high-speed railway com- petition. Will this success in longer time also apply to of the city. Its size surpasses any railway stations ever built, with Beijing services is still to be shown. Fortunately, Shanghai trains call vast service & circulating areas flanked by a pair of train sheds. mostly at Hankou station (in Shanghai they go to Hongqiao), which, The mammoth structure comprises almost 30 elevated platforms on the other hand, makes train change very difficult. up to half-kilometre long. Its bucolic location is astonishing, re- Station as nodes of ‘new city’ development, pioneered in Tai- sembling big air terminals (but sparing the space for runways). wan, on mainland China became standard. If the railway did not The reason for its construction is that it is not a terminus, but come to the city, let the city come to the railway – is apparently a junction on the line down to Hong Kong. While it all may work the idea. Almost every remote station is accompanied by some in case of long-distance travel, this may be a weak consolation urban project, usually comprising ambitious geometrical pattern to the user of the 117 km-long Zhuhai line2, who, after spending with ‘triumphal axis’ leading to the railway. Canton high-speed sta- 40 minutes on a fast train, lands at the far outskirts of the city tion has been surrounded with land cut into the would-be urban and still has to travel half an hour in an ordinary metro carriage, blocks amounting to around 2 square kms. As the station opened stopping at twenty or so stations, to reach the vicinity of an inner in 2010 it is not yet possible to judge if the scheme becomes suc- city destination. cessful – foundation work began only in 2016. It seems filling the Wuhan has a similar station (2009), the first labelled with the fields between Wuhan Station and the nearest suburbs, despite present name of the city and thus suggesting to be the main one. delays in street construction, proceeds at some pace as well. It is located between fields and a huge steelworks, some 14 kms A giant railway station, at-grade or underground, sometimes of from the centre of Hankou, the busiest of the three urban elements the most striking form, a landmark amidst the forest of regularly combined to form Wuhan. When the new classic network Hankou spaced high-rise buildings, with vast green lands, is a vision widely station was built in 1991 as replacement of the old one, the 4 km marketed. There is no room for urban intimacy, on the contrary – distance from the centre could have seemed very inconvenient. As space is overscaled, capitalising on the peripheral locations on it appeared later, this was nothing compared to Wuhan. The latter is suburban fields. There is still a high amount of traffic segregation, not even served by any metro line. All high-speed Canton–Shenzhen with vast pedestrian areas separated from vehicular traffic, almost trains go there and soon it’s going to see trains to Beijing. Using it, exactly as the modernists wanted. Symmetry and formality is prob- whatever architectural virtues it has (and there are many), must ably what they didn’t. The is no lack of space to do it, and nobody be quite daring, as long journeys in Canton and even longer one in cares for inevitable result: growth of distances. These distances Wuhan, are to be calculated in overall travel time. However, if the can even be pursued, as an ultimate departure from the confined high-speed train travels 3½-4 hours to Canton3, and the classic line space of inherited city forms. journey can take 10½ hours at least, it still pays off, even if extra This vision is designed to convince the public new China is ready for the 21st century. None of railway developments tries to go to terms with existing not so regular and not so monumental structures. They do not fit to the desired image. Whether all this comes from technological requirements of the high-speed railway, or is the deliberate choice of the new ideology of future, the overall impression is China is building its future on rejection of the great deal of its past. The physical distances to the old cities help create this new world, whatever virtual it may really be. Is this sustainable development? Is China’s high-speed railway a bona fide element of it?

Fig. 15. Łódź Fabryczna Station – a centrally located modern station awaiting major Retrofitting railway and sustainable mobility investment in railway network. The vacant surroundings are subject to successive urban Although, theoretically, there should exist an essen- development tial difference in station locations between new high- Source: Google Earth, 2016. speed and classic lines due to technological require- 34 4 /2017 Systemy transportowe

ments, a closer inquiry reveals it does not necessarily have to ceived construction of the Eurotunnel line as means for changing occur. We may have examples of inner-city locations on high-speed the area’s image and an important stimulus for prosperity. Lille lines, as well as peripheral locations on classic suburban lines. went to great lengths to get approval for centrally located station, Different approaches can even occur on the same networks. Gi- and succeeded. While the role of the Euralille complex in recent rona, a 100,000 city in Catalonia, the existing station has been regeneration of the city is debatable and probably can never be extended by a group of underground AVE platforms reached by estimated with full exactness, it certainly was more beneficial long tunnel approaches. On the other hand, Segovia in Castile, than as if the station were built far in the suburbs. On the contra- a smaller, 55,000 city, but of utmost touristic interest, got its new ry, Avignon has recently been listed as one of the 27 French cities station 4½ kms away. Similar is Guadalajara (85,000) with the with ‘extremely deserted’ inner cities. Up to 15% of commercial new station even 6 kms away. Until the Chinese launched their floor space is said to be vacant there5. It would be improper to high-speed programme, it may have seemed a rule that bigger cit- say high-speed rail could be a remedy to this, but, it may be as- ies generally tended to be served more directly, obviously bigger sumed, central placement of its TGV station could have been one patronage considered to be worth an additional expense or even of the stimulae for better economic strength. There are some a slow down of through trains. It coincided with the goal of keep- other cities where upgrading the railway and construction of new ing within the frames of sustainable mobility, to whom peripheral stations can and should be combined with urban regeneration, locations are likely to be contradictive. also in Poland. Such was the background of the reconstruction France presents a special case. On one hand it is renowned for of the centrally located Fabryczna Station in Lodz, still coping its spectacular ‘push-and-pull’ policies as regards the inner city with inner city decay. Whether this investment will be followed by transport, epitomised by the way the new tram systems are ret- efficient railway upgrading and introduction of high-speed trains rofitted to historic urban structures, highly restrictive to motor car still remains to be shown. freedom of movement. On the other, the car share in modal split Finally, retrofitting high-speed network into existing structure can reach 60%. [4] The urban units of over 200,000 (Rheims) of lines and urban geography always poses the question of the or, even, 400,000 inhabitants (Avignon) may get peripheral high- degree of integration. Newest developments, particularly in Chi- speed stations. The over 2000 parking spaces built around the na, defy the hierarchical structure of integrated transport system Avignon TGV Station (3 million passengers in 2008) seem to show even in the biggest metropolises. On the contrary, German de- the car-oriented policies are still favoured when high-speed rail- velopments in the field usually fit into the theory in a perfect way ways are involved. – but the railways have significantly lower overall speed. However, However, peripheral stations are not always of ‘parkway-type’. if indeed this cost is indispensable, still remains to be proved. Between French examples and those in China there is a huge dis- Considering the Japanese lesson, we suspect it is not. crepancy in parking volumes: Wuhan Station has only about 900 spaces but is planned to handle 17.5 million passengers in 2020. References: The balance of Chinese urban mobility seems to be based on low 1. Załuski D., Śródmiejskie przestrzenie podróży. Dworce Kole- parking capacity everywhere. As of c2005, car share in Chinese jowe, Wydział Architektury Politechniki Gdańskiej, Gdańsk metropolises’ modal split was not particularly big, with c20% in 2010. Shanghai (one of the biggest) down to c7% in Tianjin [5]. Thus 2. Wikipedia, Taiwan High Speed Rail (Access 04.2017). most railway patrons have no choice but to use public transport 3. Wikipedia, Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong High- to reach the station, whatever form it may have. That long and Speed Railway (Access 04.2017). tedious access for nearly all users may be a challenge to overall 4. European Platform On Mobility Management web site, URL: quality of life, is almost certain, unless some major changes occur. epomm.eu (Access 06.2013). Interestingly, peripheral stations don’t necessarily mean the 5. Pucher J., Peng Z. R., Mittal N., Zhu Y., Korattiswaroopam N., railway will be underused. The patronage seems to be an effect of Urban Transport Trends and Policies in China and India; a set of factors rather than the sole physical accessibility. Even in published at URL: web.mit.edu/dusp/chinaplanning/paper/ commuter role they may be useful, as the Gold Coast case shows, Peng%20zhongren%20PPT.pdf probably pending on the level of freedom of car usage in Brisbane city centre. They may, but not necessarily would be. Przypisy The Oriente station in Lisbon, opened 1998 to accompany the 1 All the distances and layout details can easily be checked on EXPO project, may be considered a forerunner of a compound Google Earth satellite maps. Many details about station history development comprising the ‘new city’, which in this case was one come from the author’s doctoral research work (Kolej w mieście of the peripheral centres with much commercial use. The capital, – problemy integracji, Politechnika Łódzka, 1998) as well as from though not free from urban decay problems does not show seri- many printed and internet sources. ous symptoms of urban erosion despite massive and ever growing 2 Officially Guangzhou Intercity Railway. sprawl. On the contrary, inner city has virtually no room for new 3 Timetables at qq.ip138.com and www.huoche.com.cn [06.2013]. development of bigger scale. Hence the railway, Oriente Station Before speed reduction initial journey time of nonstop trains was inclusive, was perceived as practical zone for external investment 3 hours. Cf. also [3]. supposed to bring modern forms to the historic city without hinder- 4 Speeds were arbitrarily reduced to 300 kph after the fatal Wen- ing its character. zhou train crash in 2011. Nevertheless, there is an important feature to notice: cities 5 Data by Institut pour la ville et le commerce, June 2016; materi- and towns with new peripheral stations usually do not suffer from als from Radio France website. inner area erosion of whatever cause. Lille with its urbanised area, had post-industrial economical stagnation in the 1970s and Autor: 80s, with both decay and erosion visible in inner areas. It has per- Prof. Jacek Wesołowski,PhD, DSc – Lodz University of Technology 4 /2017 35