At railway stations, waiting time is usually an unavoidable aspect of the journey for train passengers. According to the attentional model of time, pleasant surroundings and other forms of distraction reduce perceived waiting time. Not every individual reacts identically in the same surroundings. Passengers in different states of mind enter the station every day. The authors propose that for recreational "lust" passengers, a stimulating environment initiates a more positive waiting time experience, whereas goal oriented "must" passengers respond more positively to a calming environment. A virtual railway station was developed to create a waiting environment in which the arousal level of environmental stimuli (stimulating or calming) was manipulated by the use of colored lighting (study 1) and background music (study 2) in an environment that varied in the degree of density. Results showed that at quiet low-density moments, passengers experienced greater pleasure when stimulating music was played, whereas at busy high-density moments it was the other way around (greater pleasure with calming music). Overall, "lust" passengers seemed more receptive to stimulating environments than "must" passengers. Pleasure increased and the waiting experience improved (with shorter time estimates). In line with reversal theory, the findings shed light on the relationship between environmental stimuli and waiting experience, including the differentiation between low-and high-density surroundings and motivational states of passengers. Designers of waiting environments might choose to design an environment that reverses negative emotions of boredom or stress to positive emotions of excitement and relaxation.Keywords: waiting experience, waiting environment, time perception, reversal theory, railway station Waiting time is an important part of the journey for train passengers but little is known about the waiting experience and how this is related to the waiting environment and time perception. The rail sector has long been measuring objective waiting times, but has never really gone into the question of the subjective waiting experience. Passengers generally dislike waiting and often overestimate how long they have actually been waiting. At the same time, travel and waiting time is a decisive factor in the choice of transportation. Research and investments in the railway sector have long been aimed at shortening the train journey, particularly with the optimization of the objective waiting and travelling time (Mackie, Fowkes, Wardman, Whelan & Bateson, 2001;Peek & Van Hagen, 2002;Wardman, 2004). These efforts are geared to Mark Van Hagen, Netherlands Railways, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Mirjam Galetzka, Behavioural Sciences, University of Twente; Ad Th. Pruyn, Behavioural Sciences, University of Twente.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mirjam Galetzka, Behavioural Sciences, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, the Netherlands, E-mail: m.galetzka@utwente.nl minimize the wait at the station...