No more detours and temporary bridges. The people of Mons can finally take the train, in the station they have been waiting for for years.
The station, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, finally welcomes its first trains and its first commuters since early Wednesday morning. And here is an anthology of what the first users we met think:
“She’s beautiful, honestly. Wow! It’s impressive. She’s very pretty, it looks a bit like a spine with ribs, etc. It’s really very, very pretty.”
“A little impressed though. Plus, I arrived through the main entrance with its whole flight of stairs. It’s impressive. In fact, I’m delighted.”
“It’s very big, it’s airy. The architecture is fantastic. And there you go, I haven’t had the opportunity to discover small stores yet. But I think it’s a success.”
“It’s quite bright, it’s quite large, spacious. I honestly find that it’s a very beautiful station. But obviously I find that it’s a little expensive for what it is.”
A little expensive indeed since the budget has exploded and is close to 500 million euros, or 10 times more than what was planned. So is it at least more practical and pleasant for commuters?
The responses are rather positive:
“First of all, it’s practical. And also for the blind, which is important! And then it’s very bright.”
“It’s certain that it’s a very, very beautiful station. It’s true that at the entrance, there are really a lot of stairs, but I love it and then the elevators are quite numerous as well as the escalators .”
“We found that access to the platforms was really practical: everything is indicated and there are a lot of screens. I really think that we can’t get lost, it looks very, very well done.”
And then there are still some nostalgic people like this commuter:
“I think the old station was more beautiful. It was simple, easy to access. This one seems too big to me and I also find that the journey to get the bus is too long.”
