Council and SBB have major plans to upgrade central area

If a project by the council and SBB goes according to plan, there will be a major upgrading of the vicinity around the station area of the municipality in the future. One feature of these ambitious plans is the construction of a new old people’s home on Buonasserstrasse. As is usually the case in such projects, it will be locals who have the final say in a referendum, possibly in 2020.

As mayor Peter Hausheer pointed out at a public meeting about the project planned for the western side of the station on Monday evening, the station itself had great potential for upgrading, bearing in mind how rail commuter numbers are expected to increase considerably by 2035. Hence, he thought the municipality’s infrastructure needed to be upgraded accordingly, too, with the bus station, for example, being altered to ensure it was more easily accessible for people in wheelchairs. Bearing in mind the canton’s policy of building residential developments to greater levels of density, he felt that it was in order for a further high-rise building to go ahead, and that it should be near the station. He also felt it important that Dorfmattplatz, where markets and such like take place, should remain the core area of public life in the municipality.

Also present at this information evening was Peter Wicki, the head of portfolio management of the SBB Immobilien property company. He mentioned how Rotkreuz was one of the first ever municipalities in which the SBB was planning a “station of the future” i.e. one acting as major transport hub with innovative ideas, optimised transfer opportunities, not to mention the provision of a range of services able to be combined with each other. More use would be made of the station at ground level with Dorfmattplatz being transformed into a mixed-use zone. In other words, the station was not just to be a place where people caught and changed trains, but a place where people may want to linger a while and enjoy all the services on offer.

The SBB’s property company is planning two residential buildings and a service one, with one high-rise one acting as a balance to the one of the Zug-Rotkreuz campus of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) opposite. In addition to flats, the new buildings would also accommodate commercial premises and shops, with arcades and covered areas so people could get to the station area without getting wet. Johannes Käferstein a professor of architecture at the HSLU, waxed lyrical about the project, which he felt was sure to enhance Rotkreuz considerably, with Siglinde Pachlaner, a project leader at the SBB, agreeing. With the planned new old people’s home, the whole centre of Rotkreuz would be offering something to each generation. As to how much the whole project would cost, the SBB was not sure.

Plans for the future development of the eastern side of the station will be published in due course.

Anyone who would like to see the plans for the project can do so by going to the first floor of the foyer in the Dorfmatt centre, where they are on view until Friday 21 December.