In the big European cities, a strong pressure towards urban upgrading has come from the renewal of stations, railways and subway systems, and of intermodal transport exchanges.
This is the starting point for the research, conducted by the Oikos Centro Studi for the Regione Emilia Romagna, into the projects for reorganizing the railways stations, planned or now under way, in thirteen medium-sized cities of Emilia Romagna: Cesena, Faenza, Ferrara, Fidenza, Forlì, Imola, Lugo, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Ravenna, Reggio Emilia, Rimini.
The cases examined were compared with similar European experiences of recognized value: the analysis of case studies, regional and European, had the aim of drafting guidelines capable of conferring urban quality and effectiveness to the interventions in the program.
With the intent of developing institutional cooperation by putting the cities in the Regional territory on-line so as to pursue together the strategic objective of intermodal transport and sustainable urban mobility, the President of the Regional Authority of Emilia Romagna, Vasco Errani, and the Regional Officer responsible for Mobility and Transport, Alfredo Peri, presented the research at a conference, held at Bologna in June 2003. Present at the conference were representatives of the institutions and the professionals responsible for the research.
This online publication will illustrate the salient features of the various components of the research, furnishing a list of the resources online relative to the subjects dealt with and through the search page an instrument for exploring the materials.