Soon after 1989 the Railway
Research and Study Institute started the study program regarding the rehabilitation and
modernization of the railway network and the main railway stations.
It followed, chronologically, the establishment of an international plan of the pan
European railway corridors which transit our country.
Together with the perspective of the inclusion of Romania in EU and with the foreign
financing for several infrastructure investments, it was discussed about the modernization
at euro-stations level of the main passengers buildings placed on the high speed
corridors, as well as those from the district capitals that are not in accordance with
general UIC norms and those regarding the persons with handicap (UIC 400 Norms). These
last requirements referring specially to the persons with handicap (not necessarily psycho
motor) suppose an initial solution for the problems of a passengers euro-station by all
categories.
Through the "euro- railway station" concept is understood a passengers building
that has to satisfy the following conditions:
a)provision of all acceptance functional requirements, offering a great autonomy to all
categories of passengers;
b)provision of all categories services through easier modalities, for everyone's
understanding and in every situation;
c) provision of a simple space, accessible, without circulation obstructions, having all
the facilities easy to approach;
d)the general access of these stations must be studied in cooperation and according to the
requirements of the local bodies regarding the parking, common transportation, walking
sides, access ways;
e)the modifications (renovations, reconstruction, modernization) which are executed along
the time for a building with a historical or architectural monument status must be taken
into consideration the legislation in force regarding the expertise, consolidation and
approving by the Historical Monuments Department.
In order to adapt them to the euro-stations status, in case of railway networks from our
country there have been elaborated a hierarchy of the main passengers buildings according
to their placement on one of the pan-European corridors, in the same time being included
those placed in the territorial administrative center, borders or railway crossing of a
great importance (each of them having its special features).
As general particularity, all the buildings studied have between 40 and 100 years of
service, many of them being historical or architectural monuments.
In these conditions, the main objective has been provided in the existing spaces of the
railway provisions and services towards the travelling public, stressing the commercial
and services spaces, followed by facilities for the persons with handicap and the
equipment with controlling installations for the passengers flow through optic and
electronic systems.
In the situations between the existing railway stations a great pounding will have
technical equipment with lifting machinery, stairs or persons lifting (in case of the
existing tunnels renouncing to one of the stairs in order to place en elevator) and
hydraulic trucks for train getting on;
In order to understand as exactly as possible their way of thinking about the
phenomenon,140-0 UIC Norms are extended on a large number of passengers, persons with
handicap representing a relatively reduced percentage. Thus, there are aimed old persons,
ill and who are in treatment , the persons with a lot of luggage or with small children,
pregnant women, hypo-acoustics, analphabets, tourists who do not know the language and the
town. In this respect, it is necessary to prepare a specialized personnel in social
assistance, equipping the spaces with adequate machinery.
We have to mention the fact that every country has certain particularities in its way of
providing services and a different operational schema of a passengers building. There
still is the danger to impose certain changes in the conception of the operational devices
within a railway stations which can not be applied in our country , and we refer, for
example, at the renouncing tendency in point of waiting rooms spaces, at the charges from
the end of the platform (possible only at ending stations), as well as the controlled
access in the station.
The main objective of the rehabilitation of the spaces within the existing passengers
buildings and the aligning to the UIC Norm regarding the "euro-stations"
consists in attracting the passengers towards the railway transport, where, by increasing
the circulation speed, the safety and the improvement of the services provided, to be able
to compete with road transport, and why not, with the air transport, on average distances.
Pursuant to the facts exposes above, in order to meet the demand for projects for
investment from foreign credits, Railway Research and Study Institute had drawn up on
demand and in cooperation with the National Railway Company studies regarding the aligning
to the "euro-stations" level of 13 important passengers buildings in the
country.
These studies are also accompanied by a financial-economical analysis with respect to the
possibility to capitalize the spaces and to exploit of the fields owned by the National
Railway Company in order to harmonize these investments.
When we make such affirmations we refer to the space renting for commercial activities
that serve the passengers, providing parking places on charge, and if it is possible,
space renting for tourism firms and motels with accessible prices, which can bring
considerable incomes for the Railway.
Ivana Cezar
