Train station

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Image:Railway station lucerne small.jpg
Train station Lucerne, Switzerland

A train station (British English: railway station) is a place where trains stop to allow passengers to board and alight. They vary greatly, and may include platforms, tunnels, bridges and/or level crossings to reach the platforms, counters and/or machines where tickets are sold, waiting rooms, shelters and benches, etc. A train station that is jointly used by several rail transport companies is sometimes called a union station, or an interchange station. Train stations colocated with other transport systems such as trams and busses may also be referred to as interchanges.

Many train stations - unsurprisingly - date from the 19th century and reflect the architecture of the time, grand in scale and size, lending prestige to the city as well as to railway operations. They also reflect the hubris of the time.

Contents

Superlatives

The world's busiest train station, in terms of daily passenger throughput, is Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, Japan. Ikebukuro Station, just minutes away, is the world's second-busiest. By train throughput, the world's busiest train station is Clapham Junction in London, England.

The world's largest train station, in terms of floor area, is Nagoya Station in Nagoya, Japan. However, the Nagoya Station complex incorporates two office towers and an underground shopping concourse, so the railway terminal itself is not large in comparison to others. Shinjuku Station is the second-largest. In terms of platform capacity, the world's largest train station is Grand Central Terminal in New York City, USA.

Terminus

Main article: terminal station

A terminus is a station sited where a railway line ends or terminates. Thus, platforms can be reached without crossing tracks.

Often a terminus is the final destination of a train, but not necessarily. When a train is required to travel onwards from a terminus, it must reverse out of the station to continue the trip. Various methods exist to counter this problem.

The same applies if the station is not a terminus, but the train service involves reversing direction anyway.

Reversing direction often causes some worry to travellers who are inexperienced and have no detailed geographic knowledge of the railway lines � one might assume the train has finished its journey and is returning to the starting location. In reality, the train will usually come to a triangle junction, where it chooses the opposite direction to that leading to the point of origin. Some travellers prefer facing forward; if possible they change place when there is a reversal of direction. In some types of wagons, the train personnel is able to turn the seats when the train changes direction, so that all travellers face forward.

For more on this, see Commuter train.

Train stations in a tunnel

At train stations the railway is often at ground level or elevated. However, some train stations of regular railways are in a tunnel, like the underground stations of metro systems. These include:

The Netherlands:

Belgium:

  • Brussels Central and a few other stations in the tunnel under Brussels.

Italy:

  • Sanremo station in San Remo (also referred to as Sanremo), in a tunnel under the city.

Monaco:

Norway:

Poland:

  • Warsaw Centralna is in a tunnel under the city centre.

United States of America:

Train stations at a crossing

Some train stations are at a non-level crossing of regular railway lines, providing stops on both lines. These include:

The Netherlands:

  • Amsterdam Sloterdijk station (ass): at ground level we have the railway from Amsterdam (asd) to Haarlem (hlm) and to Zaandam (zd), with branches to Alkmaar (amr) and Purmerend (pmr), Hoorn (hn), at elevated level the railway from Amsterdam (asd) to Schiphol Airport (shl) (and further to Leiden (ledn), Den Haag (gv/gvc)). The station hall is at an intermediate level. Also special is that the station square is at this same elevated level. At the southwest of the crossing, at the side of the station square, is the Hemboog railway arc, between Schiphol/Amsterdam-Lelylaan (asdl) and Zaandam, a connection without a station here.
  • Duivendrecht (dvd) station (for details see there).

Australia:

  • Sydney Wolli Creek station: One platform is below ground serving the East Hills/Airport line, and one platform is above, serving the crossing Illawarra line.

Other special configurations

The Netherlands:

  • Amsterdam Muiderpoort station (asdm): serves the line from Amsterdam to Utrecht and the line from Amsterdam to Weesp, and is situated just after the junction; the platforms are at different angles.

Convenience stores at train stations

Netherlands

  • Albert Heijn
  • Wizzle - also selling train tickets (they are typically at small stations which have no separate ticket window or counter; an exception is Rotterdam, with a Wizzle at the back side of the station, while separate ticket windows are at the front side only).


See also

Image:TrainStation.jpeg
Early 20th century station

Signal box, Transport, hump yard, Public transport, Metro station, Bus stop, Human positions, and:


References

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