MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom

What qualities should a major
station such as Zurich have?
Laurent Staffelbach. Zurich station is used
by 300, 000 passengers every day. By way
of comparison, slightly over 1 million people
use all the Swiss stations. It is fundamental
for us that passengers feel good in our
stations. We consider them as places
for everybody and not only for people with
a train to take. A station is a place to take
refreshment, go for a stroll, enjoy yourself
or rest. It is a haven in the city, a place
that is alive and pleasant to spend time in.
This conception of things is the basis
of our service offi ce in stations, alongside
a wide choice of services proposed
Zurich Central Station is used by 300,000 people every day.
Three questions to Laurent Staffelbach,
Head of Portfolio Management CFF Immobilier (Swiss Federal Railways)
by the CFF on-board trains, every day of
the week, for a wide time slot. We are also
extremely attentive to safety and cleanliness
in our stations. And then we attach a lot
of importance to the relationship between
the station and the city, through for example
trams and busses, and also to the quality
of our trains and spaces, in particular station
architecture.
On what basis do you make
decisions concerning changes
to the major Swiss stations?
We constantly dialogue with our customers
and commercial partners, and regularly
conduct detailed polls and quality surveys.
It goes without saying that we also take into
account customer feedback that we receive,
mainly from our customer service. Lastly,
we are in close contact with other operators,
whether rail, or airport, both in Switzerland
and abroad. In 2009, the CFF created
a discussion forum with customer
representatives. At an international level,
we have a lot of exchange, notably with
the Stations Managers Group of
the International Union of Railways (UIC)
and the rail operators’ alliance, Railteam.
Lastly, we have regular discussions
at different levels with the political authorities.
Which are the other great
stations in the world that inspire
you to meet your own challenges?
In the future, our main challenge will be
meeting the steady growth in the number
of our customers. We have things to learn
here, for instance from Japan, where
stations every day have to welcome
an incredible fl ow of passengers. Shinjuku
station, in Tokyo, for instance has to process
3 million passengers every day! As far as
shops are concerned, London St-Pancras
seems to me an extremely interesting
example. As for Grand Central Station
in New York, with its extraordinary hall,
there is an incomparable atmosphere there
that makes it a real ‘place to be’, mentioned
in most guidebooks. As far as we are
concerned, it gives us a certain pleasure
to note that Zurich Central Station is often
mentioned as a reference for a great
modern station, which is good for business,
because it combines all the ingredients
that we have just discussed.
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