All change here after going underground

Cars will enter Monaco under this building on the Cap d'Ail border

Measuring over half a kilometre in length, 11.6 metres high with a width of 23.8 metres, the avant-garde station has surpassed its two objectives: to cope with more passengers (from 368 in 1868 to 4,840,000 in 2008) and to free up precious land for development in the tiny state.

The old Condamine railway station and Prince Pierre bridge have been demolished to make way for three blocks of state-owned apartments (for Monegasque nationals), and a high school. Heading westwards where the old railway line used to be, massive works have been going on for three years to extend a road that runs straight through the Principality. Not so much a penetrante or voie rapide, but a dorsale (literally backbone) which when finished means drivers from the west will arrive into Monaco underground - so it’s cheerio to the iconic view of the Rock.

All the buildings along rue de la Colle (immediately south of the old railway line) and the Terminus Hotel were pulled down earlier this year. Once the dorsale is completed, this area will be covered in more multi-storey buildings (apartments and a médiateque – library, computers, DVDs, etc).

It is not the first time the railway was moved to make space for development. After World War II and again between 1958 and 1964, the railway line was moved underground to free up land for construction. Next on the horizon is the possibility of a second station, also underground, to cope with the much discussed high speed train service. CL