The Netherlands is set to join the new European high-speed train network or HST. This will create great opportunities for the stations on the network's routes. Their optimum accessibility should persuade many national and multinational businesses to move close to them. With new facilities, outstanding architecture, and uncluttered open spaces, the HST station areas could be transformed into attractive places to live and work.
The investment put into improving the HST station areas is expected to spin off to the rest of the Netherlands. For this reason the Dutch government cofinances six New Key Projects or NSP's.
All six New Key Projects are concentrated around a station served by a HST or a HST-shuttle service. Amsterdam Zuidas and Rotterdam Centraal are located along the new HSL-Zuid HST-link with Brussels/Paris. Amsterdam Zuidas, Utrecht Station Area and Arnhem Centraal are located along the HST-link with Cologne/Frankfurt. The Hague and Breda are served by HST-shuttles. These shuttles provide connections with both Brussels and Amsterdam. All in all the NSP policy addresses six stations and their Transport Development Areas:
Not all stations and development areas are equal. Looking at the new 2009 train schedule it becomes clear that the Amsterdam Zuidas, Rotterdam Centraal and Via Breda will gain more than other from the improved HST services. They are served three to six times per hour by HST. Den Haag Nieuw Centraal, Stationsgebied Utrecht and Arnhem Centraal on the other hand are only served once an hour.
Amsterdam Zuidas is situated within close reach of Schiphol Amsterdam Airport and the historic centre of Amsterdam. All transport modes converge in Zuidas: road, high speed train, underground, tram and bus. Since the approval of the master plan in January 1998, developments in the Zuidas have skyrocketed. Studies, consultations with civic organisations, and collaboration with the national government and private parties have meant that the area is being increasingly fleshed out and gaining more and more detail and depth. The 2001 Vision Map provided a basis for the area development, the expansion of the infrastructure and the subareas. Some projects such as the Forum, the ABN AMRO head quarters and the renovation of the WTC (World Trade Center) have now been realised. And many areas such as the Museum area and Vivaldi are now under development. Visions have also been developed for a number of important themes such as public space, the mix of functions, and traffic and transport. The Zuider Amstel area of Amsterdam, has expressed its wishes and hopes for the Zuidas in a memo entitled “Updating Zuidas Accents”. It is now important to effectively align these new insights so they can act as a guide to the further development of the area. This was the reason for drawing up the 2004 Zuidas Visie. An English translation of this 'vision document' is available.
The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis is less convinced that the investments are well spent at the Zuidas. Read their detailed (Dutch) cost benefit analysis.
Cross section Masterplan Zuidas
Den Haag Nieuw Centraal is due to undergo a metamorphosis in the coming years: a refurbished station and a new station environment reflecting the needs of the future. A range of transport and living functions will soon be combined in one area. Den Haag Nieuw Centraal consists of six sub-projects:
Rotterdam Centraal as a key project is finally moving ahead. Late nineties, early this century over-ambitous plans were developed by the municipality and ALSOP. After these plans failed because of a lack of funding a new more modest scheme was conceived. It comprises a new HST terminal and a modest real estate programme. The works at Rotterdam Centraal include to extension of the Rotterdam metro as RandstadRail. The construction of the expanded metro/RandstadRail station will be the first part of the project to be completed. The construction of thew overall station will be finished by the year 2010.
The number of passengers handled by Utrecht Central Station will double in the next twenty years to some 100 million travellers per year. The current building cannot handle these numbers. Neither does the station have a main entrance on this important west side.
The City of Utrecht, the Ministry
of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment and private companies Corio (owner of the shopping mall Hoog Catharijne), the Jaarbeurs Utrecht (Trade fair grounds) and NS Real Estate (railroad company), are working together towards an upgrade of the Utrecht Station Area. For this purpose, a Master
Plan has been created. Also the first designs for new buildings are finished. In 2006 the first construction activities will commence.
The Arnhem Centraal project is a large urban plan development composed of diverse elements which amassed constitute a vibrant transport hub for HST. The expansion generates office space, shops, housing units, a new station hall, a railway platform and underpass, a car tunnel, bicycle storage and a large parking garage. A project with such an intricate set of requirements fuse elements of time, occupant trajectories and program into an efficient and integral system. Housed under a continuous roof element these programs constitute one of the main thresholds into Arnhem, its architecture adding to the iconography of the city.
In the next twenty years the city of Breda will develop a new urban district, 160 hectare large: Via Breda. Breda is the only city in the Brabant to receive a HST connection. Therefor Breda wants to develop the station into a strategic transport hub for all the other cities in province like Tilburg, Eindhoven and 's Hertogenbosch.
New transit terminal Via Breda
Amsterdam Zuidas
Den Haag Nieuw Centraal
Rotterdam Centraal
Utrecht stationsgebied
Arnhem Cetraal
Via Breda
Masterplan for Utrecht railway station area pdf, 0.3 Mb
New Key Projects: the station as a gateway to the city pdf, 0.1 Mb
Nieuwe Sleutelprojecten op stoom (Dutch) pdf, 1.2 Mb
Master Plan Utrecht Station Area pdf, 4.7 Mb
