UNION STATION

:''For other meanings, see Union Station. See list of Union Stations for a specific station with the name.''
A 'union station' or 'union terminal' is a train station where tracks and facilities are shared by two or more railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently between them. Often the station is used by all passenger trains serving the city, but this is not necessarily true; specifically, commuter trains in Chicago, Illinois, for example, still use four different terminals.

Contents

North America

Europe

United Kingdom

Germany and Switzerland

Bohemia and Moravia

External links

North America

In North America, a union station is usually owned by a separate corporation whose shares are owned by the different railways which use it, so that the costs and benefits of its operations are shared proportionately among them. This contrasts with the system of ''trackage rights'' or ''running rights'', where one railway company owns a line or facility, but allows another to company to share it under a contractual agreement. However, the company that owns the union station and associated trackage does assign trackage rights to the railroads that use it.

Europe

Outside the United States, railroads have usually been owned and operated by state enterprises. With only one railway company, there has been no need for a "joint station".

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom the term used is 'joint station'.

Germany and Switzerland

In Germany, the term ''Hauptbahnhof'' differs from the English term ''Union Station''. Instead it means the most important and usually most frequently used station of a city. In Germany and Austria the word is abbreviated to "Hbf" in timetables, while the equivalent abbreviation in Switzerland is "HB", e.g. Berlin Hbf, Innsbruck Hbf, Zürich HB.

Bohemia and Moravia

In Bohemia (the part of the territory of the Czech Republic today) were called as the '"společné nádraží"' (the common station) some stations before the state buys out the private railway companies.
"Praha-Smíchov společné nádraží" is to this day the functional name of the second station, that was built from the same investor at 1872 near the first station Smíchov of Pražská západní dráha (Prague Western Railroad) from 1862. The new station served as the main marshalling yard of Prague; they was three railroad routes flowed into it: Pražská spojovací dráha (the Prague Connecting Railroad, 1872), the extension of Buštěhradská dráha from Hostivice (1872) and Pražsko-duchcovská dráha (the Railroad Prague – Duchcov, 1873). Nowaday the "společné nádraží" forms a unremarkable separate platform of station Praha-Smíchov, in timetable called as "Praha-Smíchov severní nástupiště" (the northern platform).
"Společné nádraží" was built 1845 – 1848 at Brno.
"Společné nádraží" was at Železná Ruda as well, station at border Bavaria – Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was in operation 1878 – 1938.
Nowadays the biggest of stations are called "hlavní nádraží" (main station).

External links

★ The Straight Dope: ''Why do so many cities have a "Union Station"?''