Mending Termini Station

Abstract

Mending Termini Station is the title of an academic experimentation that has been treated and deepened between 2017 and 2018 in the context of a Master in Real Estate Finance (at the LUISS Business School in Rome), an international workshop on urban planning and architecture (with the participation of the universities Roma Tre and Sapienza, of Rome, ETSAB / UPC, of Barcelona, UFRGS, of Porto Alegre - Brazil, and UNR, of Rosario - Argentina) and Urban Planning Laboratories at the Department of Architecture of the University “Rome Tre”.

The experimentation is based on the genetic anomaly of the Italian cities, linked to road transport (private cars, buses and trucks), that progressively and dramatically shows its consequences, especially in the city of Rome - which has the broadest municipal territory of Europe. The "care of iron", promised by the Municipal Regulatory Plan of 2008, which contemplated new subway lines, trams, railways, preferential corridors of public transport and the closure of the railway belt in the northern part of Rome, unfortunately continues to appear in the chronicles due to bankruptcies and interruptions.

The congestion of vehicular traffic, due to the radial structure of the Roman road network (which follows the structure of the ancient consular roads), the inefficiency of public transport and the monodirectional flow of commuters to and from the center of the city, involves the entire area metropolitan and paralyzes citizens every day.

In particular, the structure of the railways seems to be penalized by the belt that has not yet been completed, by a new station for high-speed trains, the Tiburtina station, underutilized due to the dominant presence of the Termini station, the main station of Rome, where most of the regional and high-speed trains arrive.

Because of its location, halfway between the Ancient Walls of Emperor Aureliano, which surround the historical centre of Rome, Termini Station is characterized as a cut in the middle of the heart of the city, an urban fragment that separates the Esquilino, Castro Pretorio and San Lorenzo neighborhoods, and that attracts phenomena at the same time of degradation and massive touristification.

The Mending Termini Station project is inspired by a hypothesis of the 1931 Regulatory Plan (by architect Marcello Piacentini). The Plan, at the end of a long debate that lasted more than fifty years, proposed the elimination of the Termini station, built in the eastern quadrant of the historic center of Rome, replacing it with an underground railway and a new railway station, also underground, and the simultaneous closure of the railway ring to the north. The area of Termini, once freed from the railway infrastructure, was destined to become a new directional center with monumental characteristics, in line with what was achieved in other European capitals.

Mending Termini Station updates the planning ideas of 1931: the elimination of the current Termini Station, replaced by a new underground railway line and a new station, also underground, only for High Speed Trains; the reuse and recovery of the 1949 Station and its large central area, freed from the rails; the closure of the railway belt, with the reorganization of mobility and public transport throughout the metropolitan area of Rome. All this, in full compliance with European regulations on the liberalization of the rail market.

This essay will illustrate the preparatory studies, the historical studies, the current model, the critical evaluations and the methods of construction of the proposals. The implementation methodology has planned a role-play, where the three main actors of the urban transformation were represented: The Municipality, the company that manages the railway network and the railway buildings, RFI Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato) and finally the citizens themselves.

The proposed solutions are characterized by their urban, transport and mobility and also socioeconomic feasibility. Therefore, they constitute a sustainable proposal for the city of Rome and its public transport system.