What you want, is what you should get : customer's wishes in the process of (re)development of inner-city railway station areas.

This paper provides recommendations for managing customer's wishes in (re)developing processes of inner-city railway station areas. Users of stations want a reliable, safe, fast, easy, comfortable and pleasant interchange. This means that besides speed and safety, quality in the sense of comfort and experience add value to the appreciation of the interchange. Focussing on the consumers' appreciation of travel time leads to three strategies in which value can be added to the interchange: speeding up individual trips and taking away the hassle of interchanging; concentrate origins and destinations near the station and improve the quality of the station surroundings; and adding facilities that enhance the comfort and experience of interchanging. These three strategies have potential of fulfilling a leading role both in the (re)development process of the station area, as well as in the design of the actual spatial solution, which should be the result of the process. This hypothesis is based on research done on the redevelopment of the station area of the Dutch city of Hertogenbosch, which is widely regarded as a successful example of such a redevelopment. The redevelopment consists of a new station, two parking garages of 300 and 1070 places, 1495 apartments, 189.600 sq.m offices (10.000 employees), 45.000 sq.m educational facility (13.000 students) and 35.000 sq.m commercial space. A key element in this development is the simultaneous use of both transportation facilities and real estate in order to create synergy between both identities of a station: as a node in transport networks and as a location in the city. The case shows that managing the process by using the three strategies, whether this happens consciously or unconsciously, focuses the process towards opportunities for synergy between the different stakeholders involved. For the covering abstract see ITRD E126595.