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The railway stations built in Lithuania during the Soviet era are neither bad nor good in themselves, says Lukas Rekevičius, urban planner and president of the Lithuanian Chamber of Architects. However, the ingrained cult of cars still hampers their development, so we can feel like we are traveling abroad by train.
When planning one of the largest “Vilnius Connect” conversion projects in the Vilnius station district, which aims to align with Berlin, Vienna or Rotterdam, the Lithuanian capital will also find itself on the route of the European “Rail Baltica” track. According to L. Rekevičius, the substantially reorganized Vilnius transport gate will solve many more local problems.
“Train stations are not used much in Lithuania, so far they are not public buildings of primary importance. Many people still choose to travel by car because it is an established tradition. Trains in the country have recently become “comfortable” and this is not the case on all lines, such as Vilnius-Kaunas, Vilnius-Kaunas-Klaipeda. It is more difficult with other cities, but as they grow, the importance of communication would also increase naturally ”, says the architect.
BMW or train ticket?
According to L. Rekevičius, train travel is a service that does not need to be created from scratch and used to it, but is not yet well developed. By organizing local and international train lines, the flow of travelers will also increase.
“The train has internet, electricity, a comfortable table. You drive from Vilnius to Kaunas very fast, you don’t waste that hour either and you can work. There are a lot of professionals here among the passengers and a really rich new generation of entrepreneurs who don’t really invest in a car. It is simply not necessary. The train is better and the state of this new generation is definitely not the car that is part of our eastern identity, “he says.
As residents of a country on the threshold of Eastern and Western Europe, we still have not escaped paradoxes like that of a seventh-class BMW parked in a poor neighborhood in Markučiai. Such behavior is particularly pronounced in a generation that had strong contact with the Soviet era. According to the urban planner, in the new generation, more economically active, these types of demonstrations are practically non-existent, but due to the strong cult of the automobile, railway stations do not get rid of the label that traveling by train is an exceptional fact, not a fact. routine.
“There are around 10 million people living in the Paris region. People, not hundreds of thousands, but millions of people travel to Paris every day to work. This means that the stations do not become an event where we “Let’s find and melt what we still have with our stations; there they are basically routine and just big transport stops. Probably both the Vilnius and Kaunas stations will reach this state in a certain time”, predicts the specialist.
Vilnius needs to prepare
Vilnius as an urban park is something unique that will undoubtedly be preserved. According to the urban planner, when the capital reaches the compaction limit, the issue of coming to work here will become even more acute, which may be faced by residents of closer suburbs, more remote districts and other cities. “We have to be prepared for the station to become the gateway through which people will travel, because Vilnius is gradually becoming a metropolitan area,” says L. Rekevičius.
Sorting the station area is a huge advantage that will determine whether people will want to go here as if they were simply spending time in New York’s High Line Park. The Vilnius Connect conversion project can help solve other important local problems, including the reputation of innovators.
“We are left with a really very isolated district in Vilnius: Naujininkai. It is a fairly closed area, slightly criminal and with considerable social exclusion. There were up to 4 prisons in the area at one time. And this is an area right next to Vilnius old town with old buildings and impressive terrain. Newcomers are worth more, but they have not been successful for decades because they are “cut off” from Vilnius Old Town, “says the urban planner.
According to him, other districts close to the old town have changed and Užupis, which also had a criminal connotation, has become prestigious. However, changes to the station area will also change Naujininkai, remove difficult physical barriers, and allow integration into the city.
“So, in principle, the consequences of the station conversion project will be felt more by the newcomers. If the movement begins, a large migration to the center of Vilnius is planned for the old and new inhabitants of Naujininkai. They will be consumers and customers. important of the converted district, even if they do not plan to travel by train, ”predicts L. Rekevičius.
