I don’t make it by Naples Central Station very often but the husband passes through almost every day on his way to work. He fills me in on the latest updates, reroutings, closures and just plain inconveniences. Some days it’s frustration at yet another “temporary” change or the traffic made worse by the ongoing construction. Other days it’s a “wow you won’t believe what they did now” moment.
Last weekend, in between Cioccoland 2011 at Galleria del Mare and an apertivo with friends, I went by to have a look for myself. I have to say, things are really starting to take shape. While the changes are more trickles than leaps and bounds, little by little, step by step, Naples much maligned Stazione Centrale is inching towards the future.
And a bright one at that, judging by artists’ renderings and animated videos. Designed by the French architect Dominique Perrault, it is going to be a stunning gateway to the city that dare I say, just might encourage passers through to sit a spell rather than run for the hills.
When all is said and done five railway stations will be united under “one roof,” passenger connections will be improved, and traffic will be rerouted in, out and around the station. And after years of neglect, the area around the station, namely that of Piazza Garibaldi will get a much-needed and much deserved facelift.
Stazione Centrale (National Railway (FS) trains) on the ground level of the passenger building, Stazione Piazza Garibaldi (Metro Line 2) below ground and the Circumvesuviana station to the south are already connected via escalators and underground passageways. These three stations will eventually be connected to a new high-speed station, Alta Velocità and the Metro Line 1 station that is being built as part of MetroNapoli’s major expansion of the line.
Passenger connections will include a new underground car park and dedicated bus and tram lanes along Corso Garibaldi, at Corso Novara and at either side of the station. Suburban buses will have dedicated lanes on the north side of the station, city buses on the south side.
The taxi rank has been returned to the front of the station and pedestrian walkways are being installed above and below ground. While there is still one dangerous cross walk, the pedestrian approach to the station has already been made much safer.
Inside, much of the work has already been completed. The station is clean, well-marked and much more manageable.
There is a new Information Point at the southern end of the station behind bins 24 an 25. The staff there was less than pleasant but they did have a variety of tourist information including maps and the Qui Napoli magazine put out by the Naples Tourist Board. They also sell the city’s discount museum pass, the Artecard.
Several of the underground passageways connecting the stations have been completed.
And the planned underground commercial gallery that will include shops, a cinema, restaurants, and caffes is starting to take shape.
Scheduled for completion in 2013 or 2014, there is still much work to be done, especially in Piazza Garibaldi. Barriers on the north side of the piazza conceal any signs of progress on the planned open urban space. At completion however, a series of gardens will lead to the station’s main entrance and there will be entry points to the underground parking, Metro Lines 1 and 2 and the FS station.
Construction of the enclosed urban space on the south side of the piazza however is clearly underway. Formed by huge “tree trunk” like structures rising up from several meters below ground and connecting to a pyramidal roof above, the design takes its reference from the current station (1954 – 1960).
I imagine if you ask commuters making their way through the construction zone that is currently Piazza Garibaldi, they might not see the value of this major redevelopment project. In the end though, I think, or at least I hope it will be regarded as a major improvement and a gateway to the city that Naples can be truly proud of.
Hi, I am back from my travels and trying to catch up with all my favourite bloggers. Some interesting posts to welcome me back to your blog this evening, I am impressed by the look of the new station.
Welcome back!!! I can’t wait to see how things look when the entire project is done 🙂
Dear Bonnie, as Im also enjoying my experience in Napoli I thought I’d add a comment. The rennovations are much welcome as the station was a completely different place not so long ago. Its still taking the city a long time in getting round to finishing off the various metro stations which have long been underway (rumour has it nigh on 20 years!). While the station has had a much needed facelift the problems with Piazza Garibaldi remain.
Notable are the diverse forms of what I will politely refer to as “street entertainment”, those that are found on any evening of the week, of a type that make Amsterdams Red Light district or Hamburgs reeperbahn seem a civilised alternative. Coming originally from a rough corner of East London I’m used to large numbers of immigrants and feel that they add colour to the area. And while it is great to hear that the archaeological excavation currently occupying the centre of Piazza Garibaldi will eventually become “a series of gardens [leading] to the station’s main entrance” and will undoubtedly create a “major improvement and a gateway to the city that Naples can be truly proud of”, I cant help feeling a degree of unease at how long such a sentiment of pride will last.
The reason for my feeling lies not far away from Piazza Garibaldi at the Porta Capuana area. Here a beautiful arch with flanking gardens should be a tourist delight, and moreover an area of historic beauty (which with your background in Historic Preservation, Im sure you’ll agree) and general open space for all. It is unfortunately a meeting place for the crack addicts, prostitutes (of all nationalities), and unemployed ‘ex-communitari’ or immigrants who sleep, litter (mainly bottles of Peroni) and urinate in what should be a beautiful little park. This is the other side of the Garibaldi development, what we could call, to paraphrase the film Star Wars “The Dark Side” of Piazza Garibaldi. Unfortunately it is not a Dark Side that many would feel persuaded to change their own colours for. Perhaps the real problem in the area is not the ‘ex-communitari’ but Napouletani themselves. There is no attempt by anyone to start a volunteer project to clear up the area. The initiative would be simple and my message to Napouletans would be this: Install that same sense of pride in the city, shared unconditionally by most native Napouletans, into the new incoming immigrants. Make them feel they can contribute to making this a better city. Make the immigrants feel welcome, and further be the first example to all before you criticise the actions of others. But this is where the general apathy of most Napouletans sets in. If they themselves continue to throw their own rubbish onto the streets and not into bins, their propensity to point the finger at the “swathes of immigrants” as the cause of many social problems must be questioned. The buck must stop here. Napoli is your City Napouletani…treat her as you would be treated yourselves.
I’ll be waiting for them under the Porta Capuana with my dustpan and broom……Napoli si rifa da cca!
Thanks for stopping by. As you said, the renovations of the Central Station are much welcomed and much needed.
As for Porta Capuana, I haven’t been by there recently so I don’t know how things are looking, but there was a huge volunteer project to clean up the area in July 2011. It was one of the piazzas cleaned up by the organization CleanNap on July 8th of this year and was attended by the new Mayor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMvtlXzJFE
In fact, since they formed in June of this year, they have been organizing citizens via social media to clean up piazzas all over Naples. Here is something from their blog:
“The ideology of CleaNap is very much alike to the one of Let`s Do It: everybody can take part to, no matter what their political or ideological ideas are. Their aim is to create a new urban and voluntary civic movement through the simple but nevertheless extremely challenging actions to raise awareness in citizens and institutions. Even their name stands for all their values. CLEANAP is a crasis of the verb “to Clean” and the town’s name Napoli. If you pronounce it, it will sound as “Clean up” which double meaning seemed particularly appropriated for their mission. Same thing goes for the subheading Piazza Pulita that in Italian means not only “tidy square”, but also “to make a clean sweep of something”. First cleanup organized by CleaNap took place 11 June 2011 and started off with 80 people participating, whereas the last cleanup already joined approximately 500 people and has gained lots of media coverage.
You can keep up with the CleaNap initiatives via their blog at http://cleanap.wordpress.com/ and/or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CLEANAP
And I almost forgot – for more about Social Innovations going on around Napoli – check out this blog post out on Naples Politics – http://naplespolitics.com/2011/08/01/naples-is-becoming-a-laboratory-for-social-innovation/
Bonnie…
Was directed by a friend to your blog and glad I popped in. Nice to see that the piazza is getting an overhaul. It needs it. I came through the other day from Rome and I was pleasantly surprised to see the changes. You info is very nice. Thank you.
Hi Michael and thanks for stopping by. Yes, the station is really coming along and we can’t wait to see what it is like when it’s done.
I love Napoli, e amo i napolitani, the video of pza Garibaldi was fantastic. Our only hope is that it functions as well as the tangenziale, which was built some 40 to 50 years ago. As one who has lived in Naples and still has family there, it is just reassuring to know of the progress that this ancient city, with all its problems, still moves forward. It will be so nice to spend 3 months in Italy this year. Bonnie, I was stationed at capo 50 years ago.
Great to hear you will becoming back to Napoli this summer! Yes, Naples is making amazing progress, becoming a more modern city, but still retaining its history and traditions beautifully!