Railway station layout
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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.
[edit] 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.
- 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.
- Doai and Yubiso stations - one track in the Shin-Shimizu tunnel (13,490m long).
- Monaco-Monte Carlo - in a tunnel passing beneath the city.
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 Transport Centre 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.
- Oslo Nationaltheatret station - located in the Oslo Tunnel.
- Warszawa Centralna 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 Zürich Airport is also built in a tunnel, below terminal 2. See also Geneva Airport
- Taipei Main Station is in an underground tunnel
- Birmingham New Street has a large number of tracks beneath a large shopping centre.
- Sunderland station is in a tunnel under the city centre.
- Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central low level stations on the North Clyde Line and Aryle line respectively are both in a tunnel system. Furthermore, Glasgow Queen Street upper level station is also at the end of a fairly long tunnel under the city.
- The Liverpool Overhead Railway rather paradoxically terminated in a half-mile tunnel and ended at the underground Dingle station.
- Flatbush Avenue station in New York City is underneath Brooklyn
- Grand Central Terminal in New York City
- Market East Station in Philadelphia
- Millennium Station in Chicago
- Pennsylvania Station in New York City is underneath Madison Square Garden.
- Suburban Station in Philadelphia
- Union Station in Chicago
[edit] 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. Several other examples exist on the Berlin S-Bahn, at Westkreuz, Ostkreuz, Südkreuz and Schöneberg, and with one of the lines in tunnel at Friedrichstraße.
- 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.
- Norristown Transportation Center in Norristown, Pennsylvania - Norristown High Speed Line has its station above the R6 railway line station.
- The new Secaucus Junction transfer station in New Jersey, which connects the two main routes of the NJ Transit commuter rail system.
- In Queens, New York City, the Woodside-61st Street subway station is on a viaduct directly above the Woodside station of Long Island Rail Road.
[edit] 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
- Queensbury in West Yorkhire (closed).
[edit] Vee stations
Stations located in the V of a junction include:
- Asnières-sur-Seine, on the Paris - Caen and Paris - Versailles Réseau Saint-Lazare suburban lines.
- Cannes La Bocca, on the Marseille - Ventimiglia and Grasse - Ventimiglia TER PACA lines.
- Lisieux, on the Paris - Caen and Paris - Trouville-Deauville lines.
- Serquigny, on the Paris - Caen and Caen - Rouen RD lines.
- Arth-Goldau in Arth
- Canton Junction station in Canton, Massachusetts - at junction of MBTA's Providence/Stoughton Line and Stoughton Branch
- Clybourn station in Chicago — at junction of Metra's Union Pacific/North Line and Union Pacific/Northwest Line
- Denville station in New Jersey — at junction of New Jersey Transit's Morristown Line and Montclair-Boonton Line
- Floral Park station in Floral Park, New York — at junction of Long Island Rail Road's Hempstead Branch and Port Jefferson Branch
- Princeton Junction station in New Jersey — at junction of Northeast Corridor and Princeton Branch
[edit] Unusual platform or track layouts
Ireland (see rail transport in Ireland):
- Cork's Kent Station is curved, due to the lines 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.
The Netherlands:
- 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.
- Edinburgh Waverley is laid out as two back-to-back terminus stations. The station building is located between banks of east and west facing bay platforms, with only a few through tracks connecting the two ends north and south of the station building.
- At Inverness, the platforms to the south are at angle to the platforms to the north, with a triangular connection. Through trains reverse into the station.
- At Dorchester, trains used to have to reverse into the platforms, because the original deadend was not compatible with a later extension of the line.
- Latour-de-Carol is unusual in being a "junction" for lines of three different gauges: metre gauge of the Yellow Train (Train Jaune/Tren Groc), the standard gauge of SNCF and the broad gauge (1668mm or 5 ft, 5½ in) of RENFE.
[edit] Balloon loops
A balloon loop is a track arrangement that allows a train to reverse direction without shunting or having to stop.
[edit] 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.[1]
- 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
- Peasholme Park, on the North Bay Railway in Scarborough, North Yorkshire has a reverse balloon loop, with the "neck" of the balloon facing the buffer stop. The loop is used to allow the locomotive to run round the train and reverse at the same time.
[edit] 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 5 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 6 train), with the City Hall loop (see previous section) used to physically turn trains.
- Howard Station on the CTA Red Line in Chicago.
[edit] Two level stations
Stations are sometimes built a two levels so as to provide level access to a township that is located on one side only. One level is for trains going one way, and the other level for the other way. Metro system as general practice have multilevel stations where lines intersect, usually without any connection for the trains, and these are too numerous to list here. Some unusual examples include:
- Airport MTR Station, Hong Kong - arriving trains arrive at the level of the Departure lounge while departing trains leave at the level of the Arrival lounge.
- Kostrzyn (Poland)
[edit] Reversals
A reversal station is where a through train has to change direction, because the station is or has become a terminal of two lines.
- Bere Alston
- Battersby
- Urangan, Queensland
- Beach Forest, Victoria - would have been a reversal station, but the narrow gauge made it possible to reverse in a balloon loop with a tennis court inside the balloon.
- Mount Gambier - when break of gauge, the narrow gauge lines were a reversal station on the west side, with broad gauge on the east side.
- Bradford Interchange
- several in Japan
[edit] Stations with crossings at grade
It was and still is common in the United States for stations to be located where two line cross at the same level, often without a connection between them.
Rare examples in the United Kingdom include:
- Newark North Gate railway station is just south of the Newark flat crossing, where the East Coast Mainline, and the Lincoln to Nottingham line cross. It is the fastest such crossing in the UK, with East Coast trains allowed to do 100mph (160 km/h) over the crossing.
- Retford until replaced by dive.
[edit] Joint stations
Since passenger interchange between different lines can be important, independent companies often but not always build joint stations so that all activities are concentrated at the one location.
- Carlisle would be a good example.
- Sydney railway station is built on a huge grant of land made for its original 1 platform station, now filling the site with 25 platforms and 2 more to come. The station has only ever been operated by a single railway organisation.
- Melbourne originally had two separate terminii used by several companies, which were eventually connected by 2 then 4 then 6 through tracks by an amalgamted railway system.
- numerous Union Terminals in the United States are joint stations.
[edit] Disjoint stations
- Lincoln used to have two separate stations. Eventually tracks were rationalised with a few new links, and one of the stations was abolished.
- Glasgow has two main terminii, rather than one.
- London has always has more railway lines and companies that could ever have been served by a single station, though sometimes stations are side by side. They are now connected by various London Underground lines.
[edit] Platform numbering
Platforms are normally numbered, often according to princples that differ from country to country (or even from railway to railway.
In the United Kingdom the numbering usually starts from the left when looking in the "up" direction of the line (i.e., towards the capital). New Cross station has its London Underground platforms numbered A-D.
In Denmark platform numbers traditionally start from the station building, regardless of the direction of the line as such.
[edit] Road stations
Many stations are not located near the towns which they purport to serve. Some stations are honest about this and include the word "Road" in their name, indicating that they are "on the road to such-and-such".
- Stroud Road
- Lawrence Road
- Walcha Road
- Green Swamp Road
- Builth Road
- Gwinear Road
[edit] Platforms high and low
The height of platforms has a bearing on station layout design.
With high level platforms following British practice, wide platforms are normal, with wide track centres when island platforms are provided. Access to inner platforms is usually via footbridges and subways.
With low level platforms such as in North America, platforms are narrow, there is usually one platform on each side of every track, while access to inner platforms is via a pedestrian crossing at grade.
Subway systems the world over generally have high level platforms for quick access to the trains.
Trains may be fitted for high or low platforms only, and sometimes have folding stairs to match both high and low platforms.
Since broad gauge trains are typically wider than narrow gauge trains, they can share low level platforms, but may not be able to share high level platforms.
[edit] Longest platforms
[edit] Large stations
This is a list of largest railway stations in the world in terms of number of tracks (where 20 is taken as a minimum definition of 'large'). 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.
| Tracks | Station | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 67 | Grand Central Terminal | Manhattan, New York City | |
| 46 | Gare du Nord | Paris | |
| 33 | Shinjuku Station | Tokyo | |
| 32 | München Hauptbahnhof | Munich, Germany | |
| 32 | Waterloo | London | Including the 5 platform international complex used by Eurostar. All terminus platforms. |
| 30 | Birmingham New Street | Birmingham, England | All platforms signalled half-way along plus sidings. Larger Virgin Trains use a 'double' platform in essence, as such length requires both the 'a' and 'b' section of the platform. |
| 30 | Tokyo Station | Tokyo | |
| 29 | Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof | Frankfurt, Germany | |
| 28 | Termini Station | Rome | |
| 27 | Gare Montparnasse | Paris | |
| 27 | Gare Saint-Lazare | Paris | |
| 26 | Euston | London | 18 mainline platforms plus two intermediate roads, 6 underground |
| 25 | Central Station | Sydney | 27 with 2 unused platforms used for MetroPitt scheme, announced 2005 |
| 25 | Zürich Main Station | Zürich | |
| 24 | Cape Town Station | Cape Town | |
| 24 | Leipzig Hauptbahnhof | Leipzig, Germany | |
| 24 | Milan Central Station | Milan | |
| 21 | Howrah Station | Kolkata, India | |
| 21 | Pennsylvania Station | Manhattan, New York City | |
| 21 | Brussels South | Brussels | |
| 20 | Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof | Düsseldorf, Germany | |
| 20 | Union Station | Chicago | Two sets of tracks, 10 each facing north and south. Serves both Amtrak and Metra trains. |
| 20 | Paddington | London | |
| 20 | Stockholm Central Station | Stockholm |
