Classifying railway stations for sustainable transitions – balancing node and place functions

Railway stations are arguably important for land-use changes that aid sustainable development. Yet, examining such claims and making recommendations for the (re)development of existing stations requires a method of assessment as a first step in the development process. A recently proposed distinction of railway stations in terms of node (the connectedness with other places) and place (possible activities around the station) is used in the present research and applied to assess all Swiss railway stations. The resulting classification of stations permits class-specific suggestions as input for discussions in the development process to be made. Implications for sustainable development are discussed.