Ede-Wageningen station becomes a high-quality hub for the future

The challenge: Increasing capacity for travellers

Over the coming years, Ede-Wageningen station is due to get a lot busier. ProRail’s High-Frequency Rail Program, which will introduce a greater number of trains between Amsterdam, Schiphol, Arnhem, and Nijmegen, will bring an increase in passenger numbers. And at the same time there is significant real estate development close to the station, including more than 3,000 homes.

As the gateway to the Veluwe National Park and to the municipalities of Ede and Wageningen – including the university – the new station and track layout had to meet the future needs and required capacity of both the rail network and the surrounding area.

All this had to come together in a multidisciplinary integral design with high ambitions for functionality and appearance – all while remaining open to travellers.

The solution: New high-quality, multimodal public transport hub

The integrated team of mobility and rail experts from Royal HaskoningDHV, together with clients ProRail, the municipality of Ede, and Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), have shaped the ambitions of the project into a spatial design that turns the station into a junction in the area and improves transport connections.

To achieve this, we have used our combined expertise: from architecture to design and technology, from sustainability to ecology and energy. Based on a spatial and functional final image, all these disciplines worked together to make the complex public transport hub feasible.
Thanks to combined knowledge across the team, the station has become as impressive as it is practical. Aesthetics, sustainability, accessibility, and a safe feeling are important pillars of the design. It radiates tranquillity through the use of wood and therefore fits well into the surrounding environment.

Focus on sustainability

Sustainability is a central factor in this green hub. That starts with the choice of using sustainable (pine) wood. The station design also prioritises public transport. This is reflected in the central position of pedestrians, the routing for cyclists, the prominent positioning of the bus square, and the parking garage placed furthest away from the station.

The building has solar panels with a combined capacity of 64MWh, the shops are connected to the central public heating network, and Ede-Wageningen is the first station in the Netherlands to have no gas connection. The bus station is ready for electric buses and there are charging stations for electric cars.

All rainwater that falls in the area, including on the roofs, is used for infiltration. The sedum roof on the station building and the canopies retains the water for longer and thus ensures that the rainwater is guided to the infiltration wells more slowly. The sedum roof also provides natural insulation and thus contributes to limiting high temperatures in the station building. The skylights and windows are positioned in such a way that they provide daylight and ensure good light distribution, while preventing heat in the station building and on the platforms.

Crickets and pipistrelle bats

The link with the special flora and fauna of the Veluwe was also given a very practical translation in the design. Part of the original track and the old signal box remain untouched, in order to provide protection for the habitat of the Eumodicogryllus Bordigalensis, a rare species of crickets only living on railway tracks and present in this area. Pipistrelle bats also nest in the relay house and fly and forage along the track. That is why the relay house has remained standing with a new 'residential purpose': the bat house.

The result: Beautiful, durable, and functional in one

The new, high-quality Ede-Wageningen public transport hub is an indispensable link in the mobility transition and in the future of high-frequency train traffic across the Netherlands. In addition to a new station building, the hub includes a bicycle and passenger tunnel, new platforms, a slow-traffic bridge, a bicycle shed with more than 5,500 spaces, shops and restaurants, a new bus station, and a parking garage.

Royal HaskoningDHV, thanks to the use of integrated and combined expertise, opted for a design that links aesthetics and sustainability to functionality. Traffic flows are unbundled where possible and brought together where necessary. The new station creates a hub for sustainable transport and forms the gateway to the Veluwe. It also connects seamlessly to Wageningen University & Research and the newly developed neighbourhoods around the station. The municipalities of Ede and Wageningen can proudly present the new station as the centrepiece in their communities.

The new station is already in operation and is expected to be finally completed by 2026.