Liège-Guillemins Station
As I wandered my way back to Brussels for the Eurostar, I just had to stop of at Liège-Guillemins station and take some pictures.
Is there another station like it in the world? This Google Map shows the layout.
It is a design by Santiago Calatrava. Let’s hope that the Belgians did a good job on building this station. In 2007, I saw some of his buildings in Valencia and the concrete hadn’t worn well!
The totally new station cost €312million, which compares with £500million for the restoration and extension of Kings Cross station. Compare these figures with the reported £44million for the restoration of Manchester Victoria station, the complete reconstruction of Reading and Birmingham New Street stations.
Direct comparisons are difficult, but I cam’t help feeling, that in terms of cost, Manchester Victoria station is out of line with the others. It just shows that god design is often cheaper than bad.
One difference between the British projects and Liège-Guillemins station, is that the British ones are or were updating of existing stations, whereas the Belgian one was a new station built a short distance away.
Perhaps in some ways, to combine rebuilding with moving the station is a better plan, as both Reading and Birmingham New Street could be thought expensive compared to Liège-Guillemins.
So with all the problems there have been during the rebuilding of London Bridge station, would it have been better to have put the rail lines through in an optimal manner for operational purposes and perhaps created a new station further South.
London Bridge station was and still is a difficult problem, but hopefully it’ll be spot on when it opens.
The Anonymous Widower 
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I also like the architecture of Liège station, but if you compare the price spent with the number of users. On an average weekday, about 17.000 people use liege station to get on the train. This is 5 million a year. I don’t know how you count in the UK (incoming & outbound passagers), but this is nothing compared to Reading (15 million)
Also Liege is not in our Top 10 of most used stations, so there’s a lot of jealousy (or questioning) why the money has been spent there.
Comment by stofvdw | June 21, 2015 |
Thanks for the figures. I suspect that we have a big advantage in the UK, as I would think our railways may support a more dense network of passenger trains. Certainly, as I pointed out, the design of the roof at Manchester Victoria looks to be better value than anything else.
I think though in the UK, that as some station designs designs have been very well-received, that good architects are turning their hand to railway architecture at all levels from small one platform halts to massive terminuses. On my last trip, I think that Europe is going in a similar direction. And if the similarities between Leipzig and St. Pancras are anything to go by, ideas are being borrowed to make better stations.
That can’t be wrong!
Comment by AnonW | June 21, 2015 |
[…] think that designing a station to carry the overhead wires in its structure, as I’ve seen at Liege station, may simplify the design and save on the cost of the […]
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