Rethinking the Station: Designing the Heart of Future Mobility

What makes people choose the train—and what makes them want to keep choosing it? A railway station is much more than a place to arrive and depart. It is the point where different modes of transport meet, where journeys begin and end, and not least, where people spend time between connections. If rail is to play a central role in the mobility transition, stations need to become places that make multimodal mobility intuitive, attractive and accessible.

This was the focus of the research project “Station of the Future as the Core of Multimodal Mobility Platforms in Municipalities” (“Bahnhof der Zukunft als Kern multimodaler Mobilitätsplattformen in Kommunen”). An interdisciplinary consortium comprising the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), Nuts One, Gateways Architects Amsterdam, the Wuppertal Institute, aproxima and Zahlengrün investigated how stations need to be designed and equipped to attract passengers and retain them over the long term.

Alongside a representative nationwide survey, the project tested the effectiveness of different design approaches in virtually realised “stations of the future”. One of the key findings – not completely surprising, but still important to keep in mind – is that design plays a fundamental role in how people understand and experience the mobility system.

This is particularly important at the interfaces between rail and other forms of mobility: local public transport, cycling, sharing services and walking. When these connections are clearly communicated and spatially coherent, switching between modes becomes easier and more natural.

The Offenbach Institute for Mobility Design (OIMD) at the Offenbach University of Art and Design (HfG Offenbach), led by Prof. Peter Eckart and Prof. Dr Kai Vöckler, focused on the needs and expectations of users. The institute initiated the development and visualisation of the future vision, developed measures to improve the mobility experience, and created the visualisations used for the VR simulations in the surveys.

Thoughtful lighting, intuitive wayfinding and a coherent spatial design can significantly influence whether travellers feel comfortable and safe. They can also help people orient themselves and, importantly, understand the station as part of a wider multimodal mobility network. The project’s vision challenges the traditional understanding of the railway station. A station should no longer be seen merely as a place of arrival and departure, but as the heart of an integrated mobility system.

This shift has practical consequences. A successful station of the future should make it immediately apparent how different modes of transport connect: where to catch a bus or tram, where to find a bicycle, how to access sharing services, and how to continue a journey on foot. Crucially, this principle should not be limited to major railway hubs. Every station—even the smallest one—can become a node in a connected mobility network.The project therefore produced not only a research report, now published by the German Centre for Rail Transport Research (DZSF), but also a catalogue of practical measures, a brochure summarising the key findings, and a future vision for the station as an integrated mobility platform.

The research points to a broader lesson: the quality of the time people spend at stations is not a “nice to have”. If public transport is expected to become a more attractive alternative to private car use, the entire mobility experience matters. This includes the moments between modes—the waiting, orientation, transfer and movement through a station.

Good design can make these processes feel effortless. It can reduce uncertainty, communicate choices clearly and create an environment in which different forms of mobility work together rather than appear as separate systems. The station of the future is therefore not simply about new infrastructure or additional services. It is about creating a coherent experience of mobility.

When architecture, lighting, wayfinding and mobility services are designed as one system, multimodality can become something people understand intuitively. And that may be one of the most important design challenges for the mobility transition: making sustainable mobility not only possible, but obvious, comfortable and … desirable.

The publications from the research project—including the research report, practical measures catalogue, brochure and future vision—are available from the German Centre for Rail Transport Research (DZSF – Deutsches Zentrum für Schienenverkehrsforschung beim Eisenbahn-Bundesamt).