Mons StationClients: SNCB-Holding/Infrabel in cooperation with the Walloon Region and the SRWT. In briefMons station is number fifteen in Belgium and number five in Wallonia in terms of passenger traffic, catering to some 20,000 passengers daily. The train station has 7 track platforms and 13 tracks intended for garage purposes of goods traffic. In 2004, the SNCB [Belgian Rail], then still unified, decided to undertake a major modernisation project for the site by refocusing the station essentially to passenger transport, particularly by developing the Mons Aviation site. It commissioned studies and the supervision of the works that would result in Euro Liège TGV (Euro Liège TGV became Eurogare in 2010). The effort undertaken in 2004 ultimately led to an innovative process, namely to deal with different concerns at one go. Whether functional, architectural, urban, environmental, or mobility-related, such concerns are actually closely involved in this project. The aim is to have the railway site link two districts with very specific characteristics: the historic city centre and the Grands-Prés development estate, thereby securing maximum accessibility as well as intermodal transport. It is also a matter of creating a quality living space, in line with a sustainable development philosophy which, once across the threshold, caters optimally to customers, whether passengers or passers by, and meets their requirements for services, shops, legibility of the premises, comfort in accessing the platforms and in waiting, security, etc. When the study of the project was completed, the Mons train station met the two basic criteria which are now emblematic of the renovation/construction of the country's major stations: translativity and close train-bus intermodal operation. The volumetry and aesthetic aspects of this project have been entrusted to Santiago Calatrava.
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