Intermediate railway stations in medium-to-low density areas. An analysis of five European metropolitan contexts

Networks are essential to ensuring the balance of metropolitan structures, especially in medium-to-low density areas, where their vitality depends on the integration of functions, services, and accessibility. In contrast to the scientific interest in “large stations”, the contribution focuses on “intermediate stations”, with the aim of demonstrating not only their strategic role in urban regeneration processes based on the implementation of intermodality and multimodality, but also the wide diversity that characterises them both in terms of the state of the existing context and the project opportunities they offer. The paper proposes a comparative analysis of five European Metropolitan Cities (Milan, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, London), selecting stations belonging to the metropolitan railway systems, with average passenger volumes (1,500-10,000/day), on historic lines (dating back to the mid-19th century) and in municipalities with densities between 1-3,000 inhabitants/km². The analysis shows that stations with the same service characteristics that define them as “intermediate” can produce radically different regenerative results in terms of context because the existing pedestrian accessibility, functional composition of urban areas, and degree of transport intermodality are different. This highlights the importance of considering the characteristics and dynamics of contexts when classifying and planning railway node reorganisations on a national scale.