Favourite non-UK station

[JB_B]

Antwerp has been mentioned several times, my chance to recommend 'Austerlitz' by W G Sebald, on the first page he describes how he used to frequently travel to Belgium, he was not quite sure why, when one day he found himself in Antwerp train station
There is a lot more to the book than that..

Yes - that's great novel. I think of it each time I pass through Liverpool Street.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

For me has be Sydney Central, so many services coming and going. A close 2nd would be Sofia

There are some very nicely preserved stations in NSW.
Sydney Central is rather lop-sided with most traffic on the through lines, while the older terminus is very quiet off-peak.
The concourse is very nice though, with trams outside the front door and (now) downstairs too.

The nation's capital station in Canberra is a bit of a joke though, just a single platform (3 tpd) in what looks like a goods yard.
Very nice scenic run to/from Sydney though.

 

[Dr Day]

Limoges Bénédictins - not sure if still the case but historically clocks were intentionally 2 minutes fast to hurry up intending passengers.

 

[duesselmartin]

Limoges Bénédictins - not sure if still the case but historically clocks were intentionally 2 minutes fast to hurry up intending passengers.

Was/is that not the case at Edinburgh Waverly?

 

[Mal75756]

I have to add, cologne station as one of the best, managed to stay in a hotel over looking the station for a few days and the station is staggeringly busy. Trains every minute. After a day out sightseeing to get back and watch the trains moving was great, never turned the television on at all whilst I was in that room

 

[soccermad]

As mentioned already Antwerpen Central has stunning architecture.

 

[davetheguard]

Yes - that's great novel. I think of it each time I pass through Liverpool Street.

Thanks for the tip: I'd never heard of it, but I have now! Looks interesting, so I've placed an order.

 

[Jamesrob637]

I have to add, cologne station as one of the best, managed to stay in a hotel over looking the station for a few days and the station is staggeringly busy. Trains every minute. After a day out sightseeing to get back and watch the trains moving was great, never turned the television on at all whilst I was in that room

Köln has lots of passenger but lacks on freight apart from very early and very late since most freight has its own tracks (often the way with larger German cities)

Many of the stations on the Rhein, while a bit basic and functional in themselves, are unrivalled for freight especially if you can see the other tracks on the other side of the river.

 

[raetiamann]

Köln has lots of passenger but lacks on freight apart from very early and very late since most freight has its own tracks (often the way with larger German cities)

Many of the stations on the Rhein, while a bit basic and functional in themselves, are unrivalled for freight especially if you can see the other tracks on the other side of the river.

Bf Koeln West is a great place to watch freight.

 

[dazzler]

I have to add, cologne station as one of the best, managed to stay in a hotel over looking the station for a few days and the station is staggeringly busy.

In 1997, my father and I were stopping for a few nights in the Hotel Victoria in Brig. Both of us being (at the time) railwaymen, imagine our delight on finding that our 2nd floor balcony overlooked the BVZ/FO (as it was at the time, now MGB) station, with the SBB/BLS station behind it. This was before the building of the new link to the east of Brig, making Brig MGB a through station. At this time everything reversed in Brig.

The evening entertainment every day was the "shunting" of a first class "Panorama" coach, which had been uncoupled at the east end of the platform, to the west end for the return working. In the absence of a station pilot loco, one of the platform staff wound off the handbrake, then he and his mate **pushed** the coach down the platform. Once up to speed, the first guy then jumped onto the footboard and scooted the coach along, before using the handbrake to stop the coach in the correct place down the other end of the platform!

Abbreviations:
BVZ - Brig-Visp-Zermatt Bahn
FO - Furka Oberalp Bahn
MGB - Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn
SBB - Schweizerische Bundesbahnen
BLS - Bern-Lötschberg Bahn

 

[theageofthetra]

I'm putting a vote in for Beijing Station. Incredible variety of services, stock and loco movements. Amazing architecture and you get great views of the station approaches and rail traffic from the Dongbianmen tower, in one of the few remaining parts of the old city walls.

 

[Alfonso]

Geneva airport station?

The only station I've visited with a ticket machine offering free tickets, in a country not known for being cheap

 

[THC]

Dublin Connolly for me. Always a variety of rolling stock, even in these ICR times; the combination of terminus and through platforms; the nearest thing Ireland has to an international service; and oh so many childhood memories of dragging suitcases along the platform to make the Sligo train.

THC

 

[Richard Scott]

The only station I've visited with a ticket machine offering free tickets, in a country not known for being cheap

The tickets are only free if you're in airport and not gone through customs, I thought?

 

[Alfonso]

The tickets are only free if you're in airport and not gone through customs, I thought?

Quite possibly, can't remember. I just remember there being a plain vanilla machine and a separate machine with one button that issued a free local ticket.

 

[Richard Scott]

Quite possibly, can't remember. I just remember there being a plain vanilla machine and a separate machine with one button that issued a free local ticket.

That's the one, it's just before you get out into main airport concourse at end of baggage reclaim. Very useful it is too!!!

 

[tetudo boy]

Has anyone noted how gorgeous Gwangmyeong Station is?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Has anyone noted how gorgeous Gwangmyeong Station is?

Pretty much all the new-build Chinese main city HS stations are impressive, more like airports than railway stations.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Pretty much all the new-build Chinese main city HS stations are impressive, more like airports than railway stations.

Just to be clear, Gwangmyeong station is in Seoul, South Korea.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Just to be clear, Gwangmyeong station is in Seoul, South Korea.

Oh, apologies to the South Koreans who probably wouldn't like that error!

My point stands on its own, though, I suppose - the new-build Chinese HS main stations are all really impressive.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof isn't perhaps as grand and splendid some others in Germany (Frankfurt-Main and Köln for example) but I feel it has a particular charm about it. It's none the worse for lacking the overall roof of those mentioned above.

Praha-Masarykovo is another "characterful" station. It's a smallish city centre terminus that's a bit rough around the edges... rather like Marylebone in the early 1990s.

re Praha-Masarykovo & Marylebone - LIKE!

 

[JohnKelly]

Having toured the England and Scotland by car in 1999 we have always regretted not having travelled by train and so am unfamiliar with the railway stations of the United Kingdom or Ireland.

We have however travelled by train to various parts of Australia and the station that really took my fancy was Longreach in central Queensland.

We travelled on the Spirit of the Outback from Brisbane to Longreach a distance of 1325 k's taking 26 hours.

Longreach Railway Station - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Longreach Railway Station, Longreach: See 40 reviews, articles, and 32 photos of Longreach Railway Station, ranked No.11 on Tripadvisor among 11 attractions in Longreach.

www.tripadvisor.com.au

JohnKelly
RailRoads

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Dippoldiswalde*
Been through there, the line was rebuilt after devastating floods, an all-new bit of narrow-gauge steam railway, there is a great walk through the gorge beside the line

* 'Dipps' to the locals

 

[OVS Flatbottom]

Was/is that not the case at Edinburgh Waverly?

Isn't that specifically the clock on the Balmoral (formerly North British) Hotel (see for instance http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180913-scotlands-clock-thats-almost-never-on-time)? I think the clocks on the station itself keep normal time.

 

[AverageTD]

Smith-9th Street on the NYC Subway, it has quite the backdrop.

Sadly can't claim this belter of a photo

 

[tony6499]

Mine is Luzern, walk outside and the lake is right in front of you.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Mine is Luzern, walk outside and the lake is right in front of you.

Locarno is similarly located but has a bit of a more relaxed Italian charm about it, I'd go for that instead myself.

It also has a narrow gauge line with an entertainingly rude name (in English) in the basement

 

[tony6499]

Locarno is similarly located but has a bit of a more relaxed Italian charm about it, I'd go for that instead myself.

It also has a narrow gauge line with an entertainingly rude name (in English) in the basement

I was meant to be going there last Summer on an Interrail trip

 

[duesselmartin]

Mine is Luzern, walk outside and the lake is right in front of you.

But the building itself is a concrete monster.

 

[Brooke]

Agree with a lot of the great posts so far: Grand Central, Madrid, Antwerp, Liege, etc. And as a Swiss resident, agree with many of the ones here too.

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Venezia Santa Lucia yet?

For anyone who’s not been, it’s an « otherworldly » experience - leaving behind an industrial area, trundling over the lagoon with views of the Dolomites in the far distance, into a very nice 1950s station - and then the perennial delight of stepping outside and discovering the canal outside, where the street should be...