Improving the design of Dutch rail-terminal redevelopment projects

Regarding the quality of the time experienced at railways station, Dutch railway stations perform inferior. NS (the Dutch Railway Group), one of the major stakeholders in this development process, is ready to change this situation and recently declared that she is devoted to develop high quality railway stations which will satisfy the demands of the customer. Railway stations increasingly function as a place, besides the original node function, and become growingly important in stimulating inner city urban area developments. Future rail terminals will have to bring together transportation facilities, commercial development, and local activities that allow the congregation of all types of customers. Because of the relative novelty of the combination of functions in railway stations, knowledge about a founded design approach to achieve this future vision of a high quality railway station is absent. A theoretical support can help the current more practical trial and error approach of the NS to generate insight on the essential required design aspects. We focus thereby on a very specific part of the railway station: the rail terminal. The purpose of this research is to give insight in the essential design aspects of a successful customer focused rail terminal design, from the point of view of both travelers and shoppers. For this, we have conducted an in-depth literature research resulting in an analysis tool. This was input for an expert survey, filled in by 46 expert respondents. This article concludes with a prioritized list of design characteristics, together with possible conflicting aspects in the design of future multifunctional rail terminals