RAILWAY STATION LAYOUT

A railway station is a place where trains make scheduled stops. 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.

Contents

Location-specific

In a tunnel

At a rail-rail crossing

On a public road

Geometry-specific

Triangular

Vee (open triangle)

Unusual platform or track

On balloon loop

With balloon loop

On two or more levels

Terminus

Multiple lines

Joint stations

Disjoint stations

Platform numbering

Road stations

Platforms high and low

Longest platforms

Large stations

See also

Location-specific

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:
Australia:

★ 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 and Box Hill.

★ Perth - Subiaco, Joondalup, Esplanade, and some platforms at Perth.
Belgium:

★ Brussels Central (plus some other stations) in the tunnel under Brussels city centre.
Canada:

★ Central Station is located underground, at the south end of the tunnel under Mount Royal. Since the station is on a hill, the southern approach tracks are elevated.
Denmark:

★ Nørreport station in Copenhagen
France:

★ Paris - RER - a network of suburban train lines run in tunnels through the city centre
Germany:

★ Potsdamer Platz station, Berlin is located in a tunnel running under Berlin which also includes the lower level of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
Hong Kong:

★ The terminus at Hung Hom is beneath the Hong Kong Coliseum.
Italy:

★ San Remo station - in a tunnel under the city.
Japan:

★ Doai and Yubiso stations - one track in the Shin-Shimizu tunnel (13,490m long).
Monaco:

★ 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.
Norway:

★ Oslo Nationaltheatret station - located in the Oslo Tunnel.
Poland:

★ Warszawa Centralna and Warszawa Śródmieście PKP stations - in a tunnel under the city centre.
Switzerland:

★ 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
Taiwan:

★ Taipei Main Station is in an underground tunnel
United Kingdom:

★ Birmingham New Street has a large number of tracks beneath a large shopping centre.

★ City Thameslink is located under the City of London on the cross-city Thameslink line

★ Moorgate, Old Street, Essex Road and Highbury & Islington are all located on the underground section of the Northern City Line in London.

★ Stansted Airport station is located under the main terminal buidling.

★ Heathrow Airport Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and Terminal 4 are both underground railway stations.

★ 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 Argyle Line respectively are both in a tunnel system. Furthermore, Glasgow Queen Street high level station is also at the end of a fairly long tunnel under the city.

★ The Liverpool Overhead Railway (now disused) rather paradoxically terminated in a half-mile (800 m) tunnel and ended at the underground Dingle station.
United States of America:

★ 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

At a rail-rail 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).

★
★ Map, track diagram

★ Duivendrecht station (near Amsterdam) - for details see there.
Germany:

★ 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.
Poland

★ Kostrzyń (originally Küstrin Neustadt in Germany)
Australia:

★ 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.
United Kingdom:

★ 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.
United States:

★ 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 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.
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, located just North of Newark, (until replaced by dive).

On a public road

In Oakland's Jack London Square, the Amtrak and Capitol Corridor rail services, as well as through freight trains, actually operate along the street, with tracks embedded in the pavement (much the same way a tram would be expected to operate). The station itself is in a structure some yards away from the platforms.

Geometry-specific

Triangular

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.
Hong Kong:

★ Siu Hong. The 'Light Rail' platforms form a triangle.
United Kingdom:

★ 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).

Vee (open triangle)

Stations located in the V of a junction include:
Australia

★ Werris Creek

★ Footscray
France

★ 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.
Germany

★ Augsburg-Hochzoll, at the confluence of the Munich-Mering-Augsburg permanent way and the Ingolstadt-Dasing-Augsburg permanent way.
Ireland

★ Howth Junction
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.
Switzerland

★ Arth-Goldau in Arth
United Kingdom

★ Penistone, on the Penistone line.

★ Virginia Water, where the Weybridge branch splits off from the Waterloo to Reading main line.

★ Cheadle Hulme, where the Crewe-Manchester and the Stafford-Manchester lines split.
United States

★ 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

Unusual platform or track

Belgium:

★ In Charleroi's light subway system, the Waterloo station has a two platform tracks, which diverge in two directions on both sides of the station, but two of those lines come together to form a single link, so trains can go from any direction to any direction without reversing.
France:

★ 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.

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.
South Korea:

★ At Anyang, where both subway and passenger train stops, rapid subway train platforms(high level platforms) are connected with passenger train platforms(low level platforms). Passenger can move from subway platform to passenger train platform without stairs and vise versa. Deokso Station have similar platform layouts.
United Kingdom:

★ 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 South, trains used to have to reverse into the platforms, because the original dead end was not compatible with a later extension of the line.

★ Manchester Victoria and Manchester Exchange (now closed) were adjacent and connected by a single common platform which was the longest railway platform in Europe. Trains would pass through one station on through lines and then stop at the other station, rather than stopping at both stations.

★ Clapham Junction in Wandsworth, London spans several lines that diverge either side of the station, and is made up of two separate sets of island platforms linked by a footbridge and a subway.

On balloon loop

A balloon loop is a track arrangement that allows a train to reverse direction without shunting or having to stop.

★ 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]

★ Juniper Street Station in Philadelphia, the eastern terminus for the SEPTA Subway-Surface Lines

★ World Trade Center station on the PATH subway system linking New York and New Jersey.

★ 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

★ Peasholm, 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.

With 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.

★ 69th Street Terminal, the western terminus of the SEPTA Market-Frankford Line in Philadelphia. Westbound trains discharge passengers at the 69th Street station platform and go around the loop to one of two eastbound platforms at 69th Street to pick up passengers for their eastbound journey.

On two or more levels

Stations are sometimes built at 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:

★ Rødovre station

★ 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.

★ München Marienplatz, Germany

★ Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Berlin Central Railway Station) (Germany)

Terminus

A reversal station is where a continuing train has to change direction, because the station is or has become a terminal of two lines.

★ Bere Alston

★ A line closure at Battersby now means trains on the Esk Valley Line have to reverse.

★ Urangan, Queensland

★ Kilkenny railway station

★ Killarney railway station is situated on a spur off the main line. Trains must either reverse in or reverse out.

★ 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.

★ At Bourne End, the lines to Marlow and Maidenhead both enter the same end of the station, meaning trains have to reverse.

★ Bradford Interchange and Bradford Forster Square on either side of Bradford, United Kingdom

★ Several in Japan

Multiple lines

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 is a good example.

★ Other examples are Nam Cheong Station in Hong Kong and the SBB station of Basel, Switzerland.

★ Melbourne originally had two separate termini used by several companies, which were eventually connected.

★ Numerous Union Terminals in the United States are joint stations.

Disjoint stations

Examples abound in the UK, where it was common for the many different companies that built the rail network to each build their own main station in a town. In some cases settlements with populations of a few thousand would have three railway stations. Examples include:

★ The city centre of Manchester/Salford has five stations, the two busiest Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria were finally linked by the Metrolink system in 1992.

★ 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 termini, rather than one.

★ London has always had more railway lines and companies than could ever have been served by a single station, though sometimes stations are side by side. Some stations are now connected by the Thameslink line.

★ Windsor in Berkshire has two separate stations on two separate lines, resulting from a race between two separate companies to provide a rail service with which Queen Victoria could travel into London.

★ Wath-upon-Dearne, South Yorkshire once had three railway stations, originally built by the North Midland Railway, South Yorkshire Railway and Hull and Barnsley Railway railway respectively, despite only having a population of a few thousand (2006 population 7,500).
In the United States:

★ Stockton, California hosts an Amtrak station, as well as a station for the Altamont Commuter Express (ACE), located some blocks north and east--and connected by the San Joaquin "trolley," taxi, or walking.

Platform numbering

Platforms are normally numbered, often according to principles that differ from country to country (or even from railway to railway).
In Denmark platform numbers traditionally start from the station building, regardless of the direction of the line as such.
In France, platforms bear letters as designations. Except some stations in Paris, where the platform number exceeds 26, such as Saint Lazare with 27 numbered platforms, platforms are always given letters.
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 or other principal destination). Letters are sometimes used in order to avoid confusion with nearby numbered platforms; thus the platforms at Waterloo East station are designated A–D to distinguish them from those at Waterloo station with which they form a single complex. When lines are removed, platform numbers are not necessarily updated to reflect this fact, such as at Shrewsbury where platforms 1 and 2 have no railway. At Manchester Victoria Platform numbers are given to National Rail services and Letters A, B and C are given to Manchester Metrolink platforms to avoid confusion between the two systems.
In Victoria, Australia platforms are numbered. Stations with only one platform are only numbered within the metropolitan network (Metlink). Stations with two platforms are usually numbered so that platform 1 is the city/Melbourne-bound ("up") service and platform 2 is the outbound ("down") service. In the suburban network of Melbourne a third platform is usually reserved for local services during the peak hours and the second platform used by express services. Stations with four platforms are usually at stations with two or more lines passing through. In the off-peak platforms 1 and 3 would be inbound "up" services and platforms 2 and 4 would be for the outbound "down" services. Two inner city stations, North Melbourne and Richmond, have several platforms. Again, odd number platforms are for the "up" trains and the even number platforms are for the "down" trains, often with a platform serving one line each or a group of lines.

Road stations

Many stations are not located near the towns which they purport to serve. Some stations include the word "Road" in their name, indicating that they are "on the road to such-and-such".

★ Attercliffe Road

★ Builth Road

★ Edlington for Balby Doncaster

★ Green Swamp

★ Gwinear Road

★ Lawrence Road

★ Stroud Road

★ Walcha Road

★ Newick and Chailey located halfway between the two villages in purported to serve.
However, care should be taken: some Road stations are simply named after nearby roads. Derby Road station in Ipswich is not anywhere near Derby, for example.
In recent years the designation "Parkway" has become popular for a station some distance from the town or city it serves, but which has a large car park attached. A notable example is Bristol Parkway.
In Germany this is manifested most often in the form of a station being called by the name of the town it serves, but with the express 'bahnhof' terminology. In many instances these stations were constructed during the early years of railway development, and towns have since grown up either independently around the proximity of the station, or increased in size to eventually include the station. The best examples are:

★ Grafing Bahnhof, some 5km from Grafing proper

★ Wasserburg Bahnhof, actually located in Reitmehring, and a separate station from Wasserburg "Stadt"
This practice can also be found in Italy (e.g. Montepulciano Stazione) and in many other countries.
In New South Wales, Australia, a few stations are named for the locality they are situated but are stations representing a larger nearby centre. Examples of such are Bomaderry, the station for Nowra (indicated on CityRail maps and timetables as "Bomaderry (Nowra)"), and Dunmore, the stations for Shellharbour (indicated as "Dunmore (Shellharbour)".

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 many places in North America, platforms are typically 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 and sometimes have folding stairs or "trap doors" on internal stairs to match both high and low platforms. In the United States, New Jersey Transit accommodates high platforms at all its car doors and low platforms using longer doors and trap-doored steps at the ends of the car. With this setup the middle doors in a car do not open to 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.

Longest platforms

★ Kharagpur, India - 1072m

★ Manchester Victoria station/Manchester Exchange station, United Kingdom - 670m (closed 1969)

★ Gloucester railway station, United Kingdom - 602m

★ Cronulla - 370m plus - double length

★ Albury railway station, New South Wales, Australia - longest in Australia

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	Tracks are on two underground levels: 41 on upper level and 26 on lower level
44	Gare du Nord	Paris	There are 40 tracks on the main level, including 2 service tracks that are not open to the public, and 4 tracks in the basement.
33	Shinjuku Station	Tokyo
32	München Hauptbahnhof	Munich, Germany
30	Birmingham New Street	Birmingham, United Kingdom	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. There are 12 through platforms, with three bay platforms although only one is used for passenger trains.
30	Manchester Piccadilly	Manchester, United Kingdom	14 Mainline Platforms each with an 'A' and 'B' designation, 2 Underground Metrolink Platforms.
30	Tokyo Station	Tokyo
29	Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof	Frankfurt, Germany
29	Pennsylvania Station	Manhattan, New York City	21 numbered tracks are used by Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, and the Long Island Rail Road. The station complex also has two separate New York City Subway stations with 4 tracks each.
28	Termini Station	Rome
27	London Waterloo	London, United Kingdom	Not including the platforms of Waterloo International and Waterloo East.
27	Gare Montparnasse	Paris
27	Gare Saint-Lazare	Paris
26	London Euston	London	18 mainline platforms plus two intermediate roads, 6 underground
26	Zürich Main Station	Zürich	16 mainline and 4 S-Bahn platforms above ground; 6 S-Bahn platforms underground
25	Central Station	Sydney	27 with 2 unused platforms used for MetroPitt scheme, announced 2005
24	Cape Town Station	Cape Town
24	Leipzig Hauptbahnhof	Leipzig, Germany
24	Milan Central Station	Milan
24	Hoboken Terminal	Hoboken, New Jersey	18 numbered New Jersey Transit tracks and 3 Hudson-Bergen Light Rail tracks along the river, plus 3 PATH tracks underground.
21	Howrah Station	Kolkata, India
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

See also

★ Balloon loop

★ Island platform

★ Side platform

★ Bay platform