‘Station communities’ as a strategy for sustainable regional development: A case study of small towns with train stations in the Västra Götaland region, Sweden

Abstract

This thesis concerns sustainable regional structures and takes its point of departure in regional development. It focuses on small towns along railway lines in sparse settlement structures, and on the interplay between land-use planning and transport planning. Rail transportation has come to be widely acknowledged as a strategy for sustainable regional enlargement, for example, through transit-oriented development (TOD) strategies. This has brought about an emphasis on densification and compact settlements around stations, following theories of energy-efficient structures and transportation. In Sweden, the concept of ‘station communities’ has come to be a common element of TOD thinking in the development of regional cores, strategies based on the idea of ‘station communities’ have been advocated. Consequently, in the Västra Götaland region, the promotion of station communities is seen as a strategy for creating sustainable growth. The main purpose of this licentiate thesis is to scrutinise the role of station communities as a means for sustainable regional development of sparsely populated areas. This was done as a multiple-case study of three settlements with a train station in Västra Götaland. The main method for collecting data was interviews and document studies. The thesis has a starting point in the recognition of regional development, and three partly overlapping tensions, namely, the tension between scales and between land-use and infrastructure planning, and the status of train stations as nodes or places. Previous research has emphasised the urban domination of regional planning, and that the strategy of station communities was developed for urban and metropolitan contexts. The results indicate that train stations, together with planning approaches inspired by TOD theory, are regarded as important in municipal planning when identifying future developments, although the prerequisites for TOD are absent and the demand for new housing and businesses is weak. One conclusion is that when advocating development of access to public transport outside urban areas, additional strategies are needed since current TOD theory does not work in the context of sparse settlement structures. Additionally, station communities are understood differently by actors at different levels. Collaboration between actors at different levels is seen as problematic in relation to development of station communities, as there are no clear regional priorities or agreements. There is also a lack of trust between actors and small municipalities have difficulties voicing their issues and concerns. This has implications for the opportunities for regional actors and municipalities to work with train stations and connecting structures as a strategy for sustainable regional enlargement and regional development in sparsely populated areas.