Resecentrumets andra chans Järnvägsstationernas roll i stadsutvecklingen

The pursuit of sustainable development, enabling of a wider local labour market and the expansion of regions puts high demands on the capacity of the transport system to connect important places and functions that exist on a national, regional and local scale. The ability of railway stations to work as a central node in different networks and simultaneously be an attractive location in the city and the region is an important task facing contemporary urban planning. The development of travel centers and their functions have therefore become increasing important. The purpose of this report is to collect knowledge, discuss and analyze future plans for travel centers and railways stations. To achieve this, case studies have been carried out where responsible planners have been interviewed. A theoretical framework, developed by Bertolini och Spit, modified to suit the range and time frame of this report has been used as foundation for analysis of and conclusions regarding the condition of the travel centers. The framework aims at investigating the diversity, etwork scale, intensity and connectivity of the travel centers’ existing and future features as a node and as a place to further analyze the impact of the travel center on the local development of the city and its regional importance. The results of the case study implies that there are no apparent guidelines for where and how to construct a successful travel center and what functions that should be added to the station area to reach its full potential. The development of a travel center also seems to bring about an improvement of the local transportation networks which leads to a situation where new nodes can emerge in the urban structure. It thereby becomes of high importance to direct the development of the strategically important nodes to enable a balanced growth where a network of multi profiled nodes that can complement each other is created. Significant advantages are to be achieved if all transportation elements have a good connectivity to the travel center, which is not always the case. The case studies also show that a balanced supply of functions and transportation opportunities that can support one another is important. The establishment of functions which reinforce the mobile society and enable meetings between people from different parts of the country as well as the city has become increasingly popular where the train stations are located