From traditional arrival and departure points for trains to fully fledged hubs of sustainable mobility. Nerve centres of cities conceived to offer travellers a wide range of transport solutions, physically and digitally integrated with one another, and capable of creating a marriage between traditional mobility and sharing mobility. The evolution of stations has been under way for years, and many further developments are on the horizon in the near future. The topic was at the heart of the virtual conference "Railway stations as mobility hubs", organised as part of the VI National Conference on sharing mobility. In what promises to be an epochal shift, the players involved are numerous: they range from traditional shared mobility operators (rail, public transport, taxis) to sharing mobility operators, through to local authorities; all are called upon to collaborate and contribute their part in offering citizens "seamless", continuous and uninterrupted solutions.

Cycle links between stations and universities

Starting, naturally, with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, which recently set the criteria for the allocation of 137 million in resources for the construction of cycle routes in favour of metropolitan cities, capitals of metropolitan cities, provinces or regions, municipalities with a resident population of more than 50,000 and municipalities that are home to a university; of these, 4.2 million are specifically earmarked for the construction of cycle paths connecting universities with the main railway stations. This is, Angelo Mautone explained, "an experimental project on which the Ministry is placing a firm bet, and which we hope can act as a trailblazer for bringing a far more comprehensive plan to life". A choice welcomed by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI): Luigi Contestabile is convinced that the experiment "will be a great success, because 80 per cent of Italian universities are no more than three kilometres from a station".

A hub for services, not just transport

RFI, Contestabile explained, is working on a station concept that "is no longer merely a point of access to the rail system but a place within the city, a hub for services and not just for transport". A new role, in short, "that extends beyond the usual spaces, into the city itself; in effect, the station is part of the city and, in order to function at its best, it must be in harmony with the urban space". At the heart of everything lies the question of sharing: "Intermodality is a multilateral issue — no one can achieve it alone; what is needed is a shared platform at the cultural, technological and spatial level, rethought in a new key".

Indeed, spaces: "Apps and technologies are important, but it remains fundamental to free up spaces in the heart of cities, to be reclaimed from private cars in favour of pedestrians, public transport, cycling, sharing and charging points for electric vehicles". A station, in essence, "functions well only if it is well connected to the surrounding area". And the challenge is enormous, when one considers that Italy has 2,200 of them. "The problem is that many of these – Antonello Martino of RFI continued – despite being very beautiful and situated in the heart of the urban fabric, often fail to engage with the city: we are therefore expanding outwards towards external areas, engaging with municipalities and regions and proposing major regeneration works on spaces that we would not previously have considered".

The positive examples of Bologna and Rome

For Anna Parasacchi, coordinator of the Green City Network, these new design systems "can also have significant impacts on climate change mitigation, while through the regeneration of architectural and urban spaces, stations can be transformed into true showcases of their cities — which in many cases, think of Florence, lead directly into the historic fabric of the great art capitals". The metropolitan city of Bologna, for example, has equipped itself with a Piano urbano della mobilità sostenibile that places liveability and quality of life first, alongside air quality and safety of travel. The 30 mobility centres, Lorenza Dell'Erba explained, bring together different modes of transport in a single node and are located predominantly at stations; 9 are in the city itself and 21 in the metropolitan area, and as many as 14 are served by cycle routes.

Luca Montuori, urban planning councillor for Rome Capitale, described the project of the green ring, a natural and environmental network that reconnects the city with its landscape and public spaces through the nodes of the railway ring, with a firm focus on interconnection with soft mobility: "Environment, accessibility, urban regeneration, sustainability, listening and participation, and shared vision are the pillars of an overarching strategy that integrates infrastructure development and urban development; and that combines the uniqueness of our landscapes with the directions that the world's most important capitals are setting themselves to promote the sustainable development of cities".

Towards a new model of mobility development

To put it in the words of Matteo Ricci, mayor of Pesaro and vice-president of Anci, "one of the few certainties that the Coronavirus emergency leaves us with is that the new model of mobility development emerges from it strengthened". This is because – he underlined in his closing remarks – the response "to the difficulties that public transport will face in the coming months cannot be resolved through the mass use of private cars, but through a new vision of cities that addresses mobility alongside urban planning". The current generation is "the first generation of councillors that no longer plans the expansion of cities but urban transformation, because it is now clear to everyone that we cannot consume further land". A transformation in which stations play, and will continue to play in the near future, a leading role.