Beyond the Station: Multimodal Interchange Hubs in Coastal Cities for Urban Integration

Railway stations are increasingly moving beyond their traditional role as mono-functional transport infrastructures and becoming complex multimodal environments, where different mobility systems intersect and where important relationships with urban space are continuously negotiated in relation to accessibility, spatial continuity, pedestrian experience, and the changing role of infrastructure within the city. The issue is particularly relevant in coastal cities, where interchange hubs are shaped not only by transport networks, but also by waterfront conditions, historic urban fabrics, and spatial constraints that are often difficult to reconcile. Starting on this perspective, this paper shows the preparatory work developed before the “Progetto-guida B.5” within the Municipal Urban Plan of Cagliari and it examines multimodal interchange hubs in selected European cities, analysing how transport efficiency, spatial hierarchy, and urban integration are connected in practice. The Cagliari railway station is used as a case study because of its role as a strategic coastal gateway, were metropolitan flows, the historic city, and the maritime edge meet without always forming a continuous urban system. The findings suggest that the “success” of a hub cannot be captured by transit metrics alone, but its effectiveness also depends on the clarity of its spatial organisation, on the readability of pedestrian routes, and on the capacity to maintain continuity across infrastructural barriers. In the case of Cagliari, the coastal station appears as a functional node and also as a possible catalyst for urban restructuring, especially in reconnecting the city’s historical identity with its waterfront and future coastal development.