Most old European rail stations date back from the 19th century and reflect the grandiose architecture of those times and, why not, still borrow from their prestige to the city, if not to the railway transport activity as well. Old rail stations are the testimony of a nation’s past, each corner of such a place bearing the story of a long gone world. Today’s challenge consists in adapting the old rail stations to present needs, as regards both the increase in the number of trains and the new trends regarding the passengers’ comfort without bringing any damage to their character of architectonic monument.
The British people have anticipated success. By redeveloping a railway station whose origins go back into the Victorian Age, preserving the specific architectural elements and even enhancing them with modern 21st century elements, the British managed to transform St Pancras International not only into a modern railway station but also into a commercial and tourism centre of great importance to the British capital. The aggressive international promotion of the newly refurbished railway station was the key element of the St Pancras’ success.
Thus, in 2001, the actual restoration and modernisation works began in the entire complex and starting November 2007, St Pancras is the new “home” of the Eurostar trains. The costs of the entire project rise to GBP 800 Million. During the rehabilitation works, many of the Victorian architectural elements were successfully restored or rebuilt.
The French have also kept the guard up in terms of preserving historic monuments. Here is an example of how the old and the modern can be usefully and successfully combined.
Once the first sector of the LGV Est was put into operation, in June 2007, Strasbourg railway station, the terminal of LGV Est, has started to be considered too small and cramped. Consequently, the railway station was subjected to a programme of refurbishment and modernisation. It was inaugurated six months later, on November 5, the same year. The initial building of Strasbourg railway station was built by the German Railways because, at the time, Alsace-Lorraine region was located on German land. The initial building of the railway station, built in 1883, was preserved but yet extended due to a huge glass dome which covers the old construction. However, at nights, the glass dome becomes transparent in order to allow passers to observe the original façade of Strasbourg railway station, covered in rose-coloured ceramics. Nevertheless, the construction of the glass façade was considered inappropriate by many citizens in Strasbourg. They didn’t approve the fact that the contemporary façade covers the old historic construction, making it visible only at nights. But the modernisation works enabled the extension of the railway station and the establishment of several connections between different transport modes.
The rehabilitation project of Strasbourg railway station was not focused just on the modernisation and preservation of the old 19th century building, but represented an opportunity to the tourism development in the area and to the development of the economic importance, an opportunity generated by the opening of the LGV Est.
Other big cities have also developed projects for rehabilitating the historic monument rail stations and among these cities we can name Anvers, Leipzig, Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Romania has also initiated a series of projects aimed at upgrading railway stations built in the past century, such as those in the cities of Suceava, Arad, Timişoara, Iaşi etc. Bucharest plans to have its central rail station, Gara de Nord, modernised. For this purpose, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2011 for supporting the development of a feasible modernisation project.
Unfortunately, not all historic monument rail stations in Romania have been included in modernisation projects, some of them being, in fact, abandoned to…oblivion. It is also the case of Gara Filaret, the first rail station of the capital from which the trains Bucharest Filaret – Giurgiu left, this being the first railway line on Romanian territory.
Gara Filaret was inaugurated in 1869 and today, in 2011, the rail station “receives” no trains, as it has been ironically transformed into a bus terminal, being closed since 1960 and then transformed into a departure and arrival terminal for automotive vehicles.
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