The impact of regeneration, new life and new uses for abandoned railway properties

Project status: concluded

Description

All over Italy, regenerated railway stations host many different initiatives – social, cultural and tourism services, for example – aimed at inspiring inclusion and social cohesion and promoted and managed by non-profit organizations.

Objectives

The collaboration between Euricse and the Rete delle Ferrovie Italiane (RFI), the Italian railway network, was started with the aim of carrying out a socio-economic analysis of the social reuse of unused railway properties, particularly unstaffed stations, in light of new management strategies for these assets, enacted within the Italian Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) group and oriented towards corporate social responsibility.

Main results

The investigation carried out by Euricse included generating a database relating to initiatives run by non-profit organizations and designed to manage unstaffed stations; producing case studies relating to good practices for the regeneration of unstaffed stations by non-profit organizations and social enterprises; using the collected data to define an entrepreneurial model – the community cooperative – for the management of processes for the regeneration of community assets, particularly in regards to stations and other railway properties; and finally the development of guidelines for measuring the impact generated by these initiatives, thus allowing both the managers as well as the funders and property owners to define all of the benefits generated at various levels.

Pubblicazioni

Zandonai F., Borzaga C. (2013), Il riuso di strutture ferroviarie a scopo sociale: casi studio e indicazioni per la gestione, Research Report Euricse, n. 9.

Partner

Rete delle Ferrovie Italiane