This book addresses the role of railways in urban development. The central aim is to inquire into how especially the development of high-speed rail and light rail links will affect European cities. The analyses are carried out with special attention given to the broader institutional environment of the railway system, including the shift toward privatised railway companies, internationalisation, the occurrence of market and government failures in land markets, and private-public partnerships in the development of railway station areas. The essence of the plans to invest in railway stations is that railway stations are not considered merely as nodes where people transfer from one vehicle to another, but also as places where spatial concentrations of high value activity are recognised as having a positive impact on cities. The development of real estate near stations is increasingly seen as a negotiation process in which both public and private actors play certain roles to revitalise central urban areas.
