Bologna, August 29, 2026 – The insecurity of the central station does not depend only on the infrastructure itself, which in many ways remains the great unfinished project, but also – and one might say especially – on what revolves around the hub. The main entrance at Piazza delle Medaglie d’Oro intersects with other fragile areas of the city: the Fava gardens, Piazza XX Settembre, and the Montagnola; on the side of Via Carracci, there is the Bolognina.
Often the nooks become makeshift dormitories, shelters for people in a state of fragility not taken care of by services
Barriers and tools for access
Many times, the political debate about the station has focused on the hypothetical installation of turnstiles at the station entrances. Not only at Piazza delle Medaglie d’Oro, but also on the side that gives access to the West square and that of Via Carracci. Automated gates, in short, that would allow the police on duty at the station to better oversee the area, monitoring the entrances, which would be regulated by the purchase of a ticket. A closed access, therefore, to prevent anyone from flooding the station area. Several cities have adopted this measure: Milano Centrale, Roma Termini, Torino Porta Nuova, Napoli Centrale, Venezia Santa Lucia, and Firenze Santa Maria Novella.
The High-Speed labyrinth
Blind corners, alleys leading to landings, lower floors and under-stair areas. Reaching the High-Speed trains also involves this: a ’vortex’ of steps and nooks that become, especially at night, shelter and ’home’ – if one can call a hole in a drywall a home – for people who have no home and live on the street. Especially in winter, when temperatures drop drastically outside, several guests secretly find shelter in that area of the station, less frequented and unknown to passing travelers. We are, in fact, talking about hiding places that welcome fragility: it is almost customary to find syringes, aluminum foil, waste, or dirty clothes in the dark corners of the corridors. Those spaces called nuclei represent the escape route that, from the underground High-Speed tracks, reach the surface floors, the elevated ones. It is there that those who find shelter deep down venture out when the sun rises.
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For over thirteen years, the complex has served as a hinge between the working-class area of the Navile district and the historic center
An area too vast to monitor
The station covers 78,000 square meters, counting about thirty tracks, and also extends over two squares: the East one ’embraces’ Via Barozzi, another thorn in the side for city decay; the West one borders the railway employees’ parking lot, the stretch where train conductor Alessandro Ambrosio was killed on the evening of January 5. An area too vast to control and keep permanently under surveillance, both for the security staff who report to the FS Group, and for the railway police officers who operate daily inside the station. An excessively permeable territory that is therefore complex to protect. A hub. Outside, other law enforcement forces, such as the Army soldiers stationed at the main entrance; the State Police and the Carabinieri, along with local police operators.
The passage from the center to the Bolognina
Since June 2013, the station can also be accessed from the side of Via Carracci, an entrance and an atrium that connect users directly to the underground floors dedicated to the transit of High-Speed train lines. An inauguration, thirteen years ago, that opened the station to the Bolognina: that connection, in fact, has since served as a hinge between the Navile district neighborhood, which connects directly with the historic center. A choice that certainly makes the infrastructure accessible and more easily reachable for those using railway services, but which makes it even more open and permeable, exposing it to risks of insecurity and also petty crime.
