Munich Central Station

Renovation of the main Munich train station has taken shape. I took a couple of photos a few days ago as a first impression. Practically every day, I go from the mezzanine to the tracks of my regional train. It is probably a shame that I take just one stop by subway from Central Station to Sendlinger-Tor-Platz, but what the heck, I save a couple of minutes and am at home or at my office faster.

For me, a train station is a place to quickly get a connection. It is not a place where I want to stay longer than usual, either to think about design, or to be more precise, worry about the renovation of a public transport station. But in recent years some of the main metro stations have been refurbished including most recently the ‘Karsplatz Stachus’ and among others my favorite station, the ‘Marienplatz’. Maybe I‘m gonna post some nicely designed Subway stations from the last couple of years.

Nice typography.

 

Phone booths.

 

Ticket automat (notice how they are embedded in the walls that are lit from behind.)

 

ATMs, which are embedded in the wall. You’ll notice the color changes in the wall. They appear to switch from time to time from blue to ocher/ yellowish white.

 

Here’s a better view.

 

View with brighter color walls. At times when only a few people are there, it appears to be quite extensive:

 

The MVG Shop:

 

Very nice lighting on the ceiling. Before the renovation, the overhead lights were neon. Now, through the use of LCD lights, the mezzanine is much brighter. Because the lights are installed hidden behind a grid structure on the ceiling, there is an interesting effect. When you walk by, the lights twinkle like stars in the sky.

 

Here’s a look at the staircase:  Tiled walls with white tiles, which continue in the mezzanine (they remind me of my bathroom). Because the tiles are cut quite small, they create beautiful reflections.

Here’s a Subway entrance view from the street. Notice the colored subway logos.