Train station

A train station is a place where trains stop to pick up or deposit passengers. These 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.

Note that the term train station is American English. In British English the term railway station is usually used instead.

A terminus is a station at the end of a railway. Platforms can be reached without crossing tracks.

Often a terminus is the final destination of a train, but not necessarily. If not, the driver walks to the other side. For such a train service preferably a train is used that does not require connecting a locomotive on one side and disconnecting the other one. A multiple unit can be used, or in the case of a long train, one with both a pushing and a pulling locomotive. A train may also have a locomotive on one side and a passenger car with driver's cabin on the other side.

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

The first applies at:

• The Hague Centraal, Netherlands (at night only): multiple unit.
• Antwerp Centraal, Belgium (weekends only): locomotive on one side and a passenger car with driver's cabin on the other side.

The second applies at:

• Haarlem and Utrecht, Netherlands: multiple unit.
• Rotterdam Centraal, Netherlands (a few times a day on the route Amsterdam-Hoek van Holland): multiple unit.

Reversing direction often causes some worry to travellers who are inexperienced and have no detailed geographic knowledge of the railway lines: they think they will be going back all the way, but instead, there is of course a junction soon, where the train takes another branch than where it came from. Some travellers prefer facing forward; if possible they change place when there is a reversal of direction.

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 stations of underground systems. These include:

The Netherlands:

• Schiphol Airport train station, in the tunnel under the airport.
• Blaak station in Rotterdam, in the tunnel under the Nieuwe Maas waterway. The station is on the north bank.
• Rijswijk station near The Hague, in a tunnel under part of the suburb Rijswijk.

Belgium:

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

Poland:

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

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: at ground level we have the railway from Amsterdam to Haarlem and Alkmaar, at elevated level the railway from Amsterdam to Schiphol Airport (and further to Leiden, Den Haag). The station hall is at an intermediate level.
• Duivendrecht station (for details see there).

Other special configurations:

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; 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

Transport, Public transport, Human positions and:

• Birmingham, England
  • Birmingham New Street station
  • Birmingham Snow Hill station
• Bristol, England
  • Bristol Parkway rail station
  • Bristol Temple Meads rail station
• London, England
  • Blackheath railway station
  • Cannon Street Station
  • Clapham Junction railway station
  • Euston station
  • Kings Cross station
  • Liverpool Street station
  • London Bridge rail station
  • Marylebone station
  • Paddington station
  • Waterloo Station
• Milan, Italy
  • Milan Central Station
• New York City
  • Pennsylvania Station
  • Grand Central Terminal[?]
• Tokyo,Japan
  • Shinjuku Station[?]
  • Tokyo Station[?]