Make Train Stations More Respondent to User Needs: An Italian Case Study

Cristina Pronello (), Francesco Torre and Alessandra Boggio Marzet
Additional contact information
Cristina Pronello: Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Turin, Italy
Francesco Torre: Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Turin, Italy
Alessandra Boggio Marzet: Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Turin, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-19

Abstract: Within transport systems, train stations cover a primary role as places where access to different modes of transport must be realised effectively, providing a valuable opportunity to make rail services, public transport, and soft mobility more attractive. This research seeks to shed some light on how Italian travellers perceive the quality of train stations, and to identify priorities for action in relation to design, building, and operation that might help revitalise their attractiveness. The methodology involved designing a questionnaire capable of identifying significant correlations between attitudinal and behavioural variables via an exploratory factor analysis, reaching around 400 respondents through a snowball sampling plan. The factor “sociality and daily life” showed the importance that people place on the vitality of urban places. Travellers also consider other factors, like the overall service quality, the cleanliness and safety of a train station, the walkability of connections within the node, and the possibility of reaching the station by bicycle. The profiling of respondents using a cluster analysis based on latent factors points to specific policies, showing how actions targeting stations can have positive effects on the use of rail transport and on the propensity towards intermodality and sustainable mobility. A safe, “living” place can mitigate the risk of social degradation, while promoting walking and cycling.

Keywords: transit-oriented development; train stations; railway stations; travel behaviour; surveys; sustainable mobility; case study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7838/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7838/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7838-:d:1738563

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().