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Central versus Peripheral High-Speed Rail Stations: Opportunities For Companies to Relocate?
The cases of Reims Central Station and Champagne-Ardenne Station

This station has become the western gateway to the new Grand Est region (created in January
2016), with Strasbourg, the regional capital, 1 hour and 17 minutes away by HST. Since July
2017, Champagne‐Ardenne station has also been served by Ouigo trains (the French low‐cost
HSR service) to and from Strasbourg, Marne‐la‐Vallée and Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. In
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addition, it is served by regional express trains: the former Champagne‐Ardenne region and the
French state financed a line connecting both stations, enabling TERs that previously terminated
at the central station to continue to Champagne‐Ardenne station. The station is also served by
urban trams and buses, financed by the intermunicipal structure covering Greater Reims.
Both stations benefit from good service levels, but Champagne‐Ardenne station has the
advantage of being directly linked to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, a number of large French
cities, and to a lesser extent Paris and the other towns and cities in the former Champagne‐
Ardenne region.
Companies wishing to locate in Reims now have the option of choosing between the city’s
central and peripheral stations, but this was not always the case, as premises were not available
around both stations at the same time.

3.2 The projects and the realizations around both stations

The central station is located in the Clairmarais district, which developed during the second
half of the 19 century with the onset of industrialization. At the beginning of the 1990s,
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the district was still marked by the vestiges of this industrialization and became the object
of urban‐renewal operations. From the mid‐1990s, the public authorities wanted to create a
business district here (Bazin et al., 2009, Beckerich et al., 2016) and the arrival of the East
European HSL in 2007 led the various public and private stakeholders (Reims City Council, SNCF
(the French national rail operator) and RFF (its sister organization responsible for managing
the national rail infrastructure) , banks, property developers) to think about how to transform
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the district. For the city of Reims, this arrival was also an opportunity to remodel one of the
city’s principal gateways: its railway station. The aim was to transform this district into a
tertiary pole with some 70,000 m² of office space while respecting the urban mix (economic
activity and housing) required by the Urban Renewal and Solidarity Law (Loi SRU) of 2000. SNCF
freed up land and created a new station entrance accessible from Clairmarais by means of an
underground passage, the city centre being on the other side of the station. This new business
district was thus connected to the city centre via the station. Its forecourt was redeveloped
in order to allow a better connection to Place d’Erlon, the square at the commercial heart of
the city.

In 2005, an office complex, an apartment hotel, a residential building, and further office and
housing were delivered. In 2007, a mixed complex comprising offices, business premises and
housing was finalized. In 2008, the second phase of 10,000 m² of office space and a budget
hotel is delivered (Figure 2). In 2009, a multi‐storey car park was built. In 2011 and 2012,
various new constructions were completed in the streets farthest from the station: another
office building in 2011, followed by business premises, housing and a student residence in
2012. In 2015, a residential complex containing social and private housing was developed; and
in 2017, two new business complexes should be delivered. Reims City Council, which was the
main stakeholder in this project, was backed by local developers. In all, more than 70,000 m²
of offices and 500 housing units have been built.

6 However, Ouigo HSTs will not serve Bordeaux, Nantes or Rennes. For these destinations, a change will be necessary at Marne‐
la‐Vallée Chessy station, but timely interconnections are not guaranteed.
7 Since 2015, SNCF Réseau.

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