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A terminal station or terminus (plural: termini) is a bus or railway station where a route or line terminates.
Inter city bus services
A Bus terminal is a bus station or terminal station, like the Toronto Bus Terminal, for intercity bus lines such as Greyhound Lines as well as others, and/or for suburban buses.
Rail services
In the context of rail transport, a terminal station refers to the termination of the railway line or service at that point. Hence, all platforms may be accessed without having to cross the rail tracks. This may not be true if the station yard lies behind the passenger station, but in this case the station may not strictly be regarded as a terminus.
The largest and most famous rail terminal in the United States is Grand Central Terminal in New York City, USA. Often major cities, such as London and Boston will have one or more termini, rather than routes straight through the city. Train journeys through such cities often require alternative transport (metro, bus or taxi) from one terminus to the other. Some cities, including New York, have both situations. Chicago has four major rail terminals presently in service, of which only one provides Amtrak intercity service (see Rail stations of Chicago).
Through services with reversal
A terminus is usually the final destination of trains serving the station, but this is not always the case. Where the terminus is an intermediate point on a train's itinerary, the train must leave in the reverse direction from that of its arrival.
In such a situation operating convenience favours the use of train types where the driver has only to walk to the other end of the train. These may be:
- Multiple units (diesel or electric) which can operate in either direction.
- Push-pull trains, with a specially adapted locomotive at one end, passenger cars specially equipped with control lines in between and a passenger car fitted with a driving-cab at the other end (a cab car). The train is capable of being controlled from either end of the train, the locomotive either pulling the carriages or pushing them.
In the absence of such arrangements, the locomotive which brought the train into the station must detach from its train and either 'run around' to the other end of the formation or be replaced at the other end by another locomotive, which takes the train out.
The above considerations also apply to trains which reverse direction in stations other than termini.
Examples of routes involving reversal at a terminus:
- The Hague Centraal, Netherlands (at night only): multiple unit.
- Roma Termini
- Antwerp Centraal, Belgium: locomotive at one end and a passenger car with driver's cabin at the other.
- Eastbourne, for trains running from Lewes to Hastings or vice-versa.
- All of Chicago's Metra trains reverse direction in their downtown termini, either by means of push-pull or electric multiple units.
Examples of routes involving reversal at a station other than a terminus:
- Haarlem (hlm), Utrecht Centraal and Arnhem, Netherlands: multiple unit.
- Rotterdam Centraal, Netherlands (a few times a day on the Amsterdam - Hoek van Holland route): multiple unit.
- Redhill, for trains from Gatwick Airport to Reading.
- Konstanz Zentral, for trains to and from Germany as well as trains to and from Schaffhausen in Schwitzerland
- Konstanz Schweitzerbahnhoff, directly south of Konstanz Zentral (within easy walking distance), for trains to and from Schwitzerland. The railway tracks run through between the two Konstanz stations
Reversing direction sometimes causes anxiety to passengers unfamiliar with the route who fear they are being taken all the way back to their starting point. Passengers who prefer facing forwards tend to change their seat, if they can, when there is a reversal of direction.
See also
rail infrastructure | Railway stations | Bus stations
Kopfbahnhof | Kapostacio | Kappgare | Kopstation | ターミナル駅 | Säckstation
"Terminal station"