Rail-oriented development on urban and regional levels - potentials and impacts, policy measures and processes

The actual trend of spatial diffused and functional segregated settlement structures causes long term growth in traffic volumes. One step to more sustainability is land use development along existing passenger rail infrastructure. It is a clear strategy of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia e.g., with specific grants to cities, to develop housing close to rail stations. The focus of the presentation could lead to different surveys, each one including the results, their transferablity and the implication for further policy development. According to additional research and development projects at the Land as well as at the European level, further results could be included. 1. Which potentials and which impacts? Both the potentials and the impacts of a rail-oriented development have been analysed by ILS for the NRW Ministry of Urban Development. For the potentials, there has been a survey among over hundred cities in three regions. The results show a considerable amount of available land for new housing around rail stations, but also a substantial variation between regions and among cities. For the impacts, an other survey was accomplished among 2100 persons from six comparable suburban areas with high motorisation rates. It shows, that there is a significant difference in their modal choice, depending on the rail accessibility, although the difference is lower than it might be expected. 2. Policies measures (What?) and processes (how?) The analysis of some best practices both on the urban and regional levels leads to an identification of key factors for success of policy implementation. This was the goal for an ILS survey for the french Ministry for transport and planning, regarding experiences in North Rhine-Westphalia. Not only the "what?" question, about applicated measures and tools, but the "how?" question too, about processes and governance, were investigated. The case analysis is based on the Land level (NRW integrated policies for housing, planning, transport), on the regional level (housing development close to rail stations in the Region Bonn), and on the agglomeration level (integrated local policy in Münster). For this last case for example, several factors are keys of success for a rail oriented development: the continual elaboration of a global strategical concept (giving priority to a polycentric, balanced urban system, promoting resource-efficient settlements patterns, focusing on public transport infrastructure), a clear cooperation among the city departements, (for example based on working groups about the housing program), and a prospective real estate policy (half of the building land belongs to the city, and is mainly close to rail stations). 3. Further experiences and projects Successful experiences exist in NRW from the revitalisation of a railway line and land use development for housing near the stations ("Haller Willem"). Here also activities of NGO`s are of high relevance. Providing housing near railway stations is only a necessary condition for the usage of public transport; accompanied services could increase the effect. So supplying houses with PT tickets inclusive ("mobile home") or the supply of mobility services offered by housing companies could be helpful. The presentation could present ideas and first experiences.