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At its most basic, a railway station consists of a place without any facilities where trains stop. Stations usually have one or more platforms constructed alongside a line of railway. However, railway stations come in many different configurations - influenced by such factors as the geographical nature of the site, or the need to serve more than one route, which may or may not be connected, and the level of the tracks. Examples include:
- stations in tunnels;
- stations with platforms on more than one level; and
- stations with other unusual layouts (e.g. with staggered, non-parallel, or severely curved platforms).
This page presents some examples of these more unusual station layouts.
Stations in a tunnel
While many railways stations are at ground level, in cities the railway and hence the station platforms are often on an elevated level to facilitate crossings. Also the particular geography of a line sometimes dictates they be elevated (on a bridge, viaduct or embankment), or be built below the level of the adjoining terrain (in a cutting) or inside a tunnel. Examples of individual tunnel stations (i.e. not forming part of a complete metro or underground railway, system) are:
- Brisbane - Central, Brunswick Street and Toowong were once in the open air but have subsequently been built over. South Bank and Milton will soon also be built over.
- Sydney - stations underneath the CBD are on continuations of suburban lines.
- Melbourne - the three underground stations of the City Loop.
- Perth - Subiaco, Joondalup, Esplanade, and some platforms at Perth.
The Netherlands:
- Schiphol Airport - the railway station is in a tunnel under the airport.
- Rotterdam Blaak station - in the tunnel under the Nieuwe Maas waterway (the station is on the north bank).
- Barendrecht station near Rotterdam.
- Rijswijk station near The Hague.
- Best station near Eindhoven.
New Zealand: Auckland's Britomart terminal station is located underground adjacent to the downtown harbour edge. It is one of the few underground stations for diesel trains in the world, and was constructed under the location of an earlier above-ground station, closed in 1930.
- Brussels Central (plus some other stations) in the tunnel under Brussels city centre.
- Paris - Gare de Lyon is a half through half terminating station with most suburban trains being through services and underground.
- The terminus at Hung Hom is beneath the Hong Kong Coliseum.
- San Remo station - in a tunnel under the city.
- Monaco-Monte Carlo - in a tunnel passing beneath the city.
- Oslo Nationaltheatret station - located in the Oslo Tunnel.
- Warsaw Central station - in a tunnel under the city centre.
- Zürich Zürich Main Station has six tracks built in a tunnel, four of them connecting to Zürich Stadelhofen, which is also partially underground. The station at Zurich Airport is also built in a tunnel, below terminal 2. See also Geneva Airport
- Birmingham New Street has a large number of tracks beneath a large shopping centre.
- Sunderland station is in a tunnel under the city centre.
- Grand Central Terminal in New York City
- Pennsylvania Station in New York City is underneath Madison Square Garden.
Stations at a crossing
Some stations, situated where two rail routes cross at different levels, serve both lines. Examples include:
The Netherlands:
- Amsterdam Sloterdijk - at ground level is the railway from Amsterdam to Haarlem and Zaandam, with branches to Alkmaar, Purmerend, and Hoorn; at elevated level is the railway from Amsterdam to Schiphol Airport, thence to Leiden and The Hague. The booking hall is at an intermediate raised level (as too, interestingly, is the station square). On the south-west side of the crossing and beside the station square runs the Hemboog chord, connecting Schiphol and Amsterdam-Lelylaan to Zaandam (platforms on the Hemboog chord are planned but not yet realised).
- Duivendrecht station (near Amsterdam) - for details see there.
- Berlin Hauptbahnhof - On the elevated 'Stadtbahn' a new central station has been built, above a new underground railway line.
- Osnabrück Hbf - at ground level is the railway from Amsterdam to Berlin, at elevated level the railway from Dortmund to Bremen.
- Sydney Wolli Creek station - two side platforms are below ground level and serve the Airport and East Hills line, and one island platform is above ground, serving the Illawarra line, which crosses at approximately right angles at this point.
- In the UK, stations with this layout are frequently distinguished by adding the designations "High Level" or "Low Level" to the platforms. An example is Tamworth, where the low-level platforms are on the West Coast Main Line from London to Glasgow, and the high-level platforms are on the cross-country route from Birmingham to Derby.
- Miami - At Tri-Rail/Metrorail Station, the elevated Metrorail runs on elevated track perpendicular Tri-Rail commuter rail system, which runs at ground level.
- The new Secaucus Junction transfer station in New Jersey, which connects the two main routes of the NJ Transit commuter rail system.
Triangular stations
It is not unknown for a station to have platforms on all three sides of a triangle. If triangular stations are not properly designed, they can have curves that are too sharp, while the legs of the triangle can be too short to fit a train.
- Siu Hong. The Light Rail platforms form a triangle.
- Ambergate, Derbyshire. One set of platforms survives.
- Bishop Auckland. Durham platform demolished 1986, leaving only 1 platform.
- Mangotsfield (now closed)
- Shipley
- Earlestown
Unusual platform or track layouts
Ireland (see rail transport in Ireland):
- Cork's Kent Station is curved, due to the line's entering the station at right angles to the River Lee, but having to connect to a line running parallel to the river.
- Limerick Junction, County Tipperary (formerly Tipperary Junction) is the only place in Ireland where two lines cross at near-90 degrees. It serves several destinations, mainly connections to/from Limerick and the Cork-Dublin main line. The other line served is Limerick-Waterford. The platform layout is not particularly unusual, but track diagrams are complex, resulting in trains needing to reverse behind the station building into one of the platforms on occasion. Until 1967, reversing into platforms was a required manoeuvre for all trains stopping at the station.
- Amsterdam Muiderpoort station - serves the line from Amsterdam to Utrecht and the line from Amsterdam to Weesp, and is situated just after the junction with the platforms at different angles.
- At Liskeard the platform for the branch line to Looe is on the same level as, but at right angles to, those on the Plymouth - Penzance main line.
- At Templecombe the LSWR and S&DJR lines crossed at right angles with a link between them. S&D trains reversed into the LSWR station.
Balloon loops
A balloon loop is a track arrangement that allows a train to reverse direction without shunting or having to stop.
Stations on a balloon loop
- Olympic Park in Sydney
- City Hall and South Ferry subway stations in New York City:
- City Hall station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line is now closed, although the loop track continues to be used to turn trains. These trains discharge and take on passengers at Brooklyn Bridge, one station to the north (see next section).
- South Ferry is a two-track loop station, with a sharply curved side platform for each track. While both tracks continue to be used to turn trains, only the outer platform remains in service as a passenger station. Due to problems with train length and platform clearance, this station will soon be replaced by a standard stub terminus with two tracks and an island platform, although the original trackage will remain in use for turning trains when necessary.*
- Dungeness (Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway) in Kent, England
- Newcastle-upon-Tyne has a station that trains from London can arrive at in either direction and return to London, but this loop-like feature is seldom used.
- Yuen Long of KCR Light Rail
- In some cases, multiple stations lie on a balloon loop.
- Terminals 1–3 and Terminal 4 stations at Heathrow Airport on the London Underground
Stations with a balloon loop
The balloon loop is past the station.- Bowling Green on New York City's IRT Lexington Avenue subway line currently serves as the southern terminus for service at all times except rush hours, with the South Ferry inner loop (see previous section) used to physically turn trains.
- Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall, also on New York City's IRT Lexington Avenue Line, currently serves as the southern terminus for Lexington Avenue local service (the train), with the City Hall loop (see previous section) used to physically turn trains.
- Howard Station on the CTA Red Line in Chicago.
Large stations
This is a list of largest railway stations in the world in terms of number of tracks. Note that the number of platforms is usually smaller, as many of these stations have island platforms, with a track on each side.
The way tracks are counted is not uniform; a long track may be counted as two if two trains can be parked there, etc.
See also
Rail infrastructure | Railway stations | Railway track layouts
"Railway station layout"