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Railway station layouts

At its most basic, a railway station consists of 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, the need to serve more than one route which may or may not be connected. Examples include:

• stations (other than those which are part of a complete underground railway system) built 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.

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), be built below the level of the adjoining terrain (in a cutting) or sometimes even inside a tunnel. Examples of individual tunnel stations (i.e. not forming part of a complete metro, or underground railway, system) are:

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).
• Rijswijk station near The Hague - in a tunnel under part of the suburb of Rijswijk.
• Best station near Eindhoven

Belgium:

• Brussels Central, plus some other stations, in the tunnel under Brussels city centre.

Italy:

• San Remo (also referred to as Sanremo) station - in a tunnel under the city.

Monaco:

• Monaco-Monte Carlo - another station in a tunnel passing beneath the city.

Norway:

• Oslo Nationaltheatret station - located in the Oslo tunnel.

Poland:

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

United States of America:

• Grand Central Terminal in New York City: Metro-North lines

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 (and thence to Leiden and The Hague). To the station hall is at an intermediate raised level (as too, interestingly, is the station square). On the southwest side of the crossing and beside the station square, but without platforms of its own, runs the Hemboog chord, connecting Schiphol and Amsterdam-Lelylaan to Zaandam.
  • ,
• Duivendrecht station - for details see there.

Australia:

• Sydney Wolli Creek station - one platform is below ground and serves the East Hills, New South Wales|East Hills/Airport line, and one platform is above, serving the Illawarra line which crosses 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 Mainline from London to Glasgow, and the high-level platforms are on the cross-country route from Birmingham to Derby.

United States:

• The new Secaucus Junction transfer station in New Jersey, which connects the two main routes of the NJ Transit commuter rail system.

Unusual platform or track layouts

Ireland (see rail transport in Ireland):

• Cork's Kent Station is curved, due to the line's entering the station at right angles to the River Lee, but having to connect to a line running parallel to the river. Space constraints dictated that the station was sited on the curve, hence the curved platforms.
• 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 City and the Cork City-Dublin mainline. 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.

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.