Railway stations with border crossing infrastructure

[Bungle158]

Padang Besar, station situated within Malaysia, but has permanent Malaysian and Thai customs and immigration facilities.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

Kensington Olympia had facilities for emergency use if Waterloo was ever out of action to Eurostar.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

I don't know if it counts, but travelling between Bulgaria and Romania, our passports were taken by some border official and processed somewhere inside the station and then given back, while you had to wait on the platform (in Vidin, and Ruse) or inside the train (in Giurgiu Nord). In Vidin you could even separate the international platform and close its entrance, although in our case it was just us two so they already let us out and had us wait on the main platform for them to process the passports.

 

[rf_ioliver]

Would Vaallimaa in Finland count? While not a station you can get a ticket to per so, it is a stop on the Helsinki-St.Peterburg route and used by border control and customs. You can get off the train there, but wandering too far from the carriage might get you into trouble. Unfortunately not used for passenger services at the moment for political reasons.

There was a train from Joensuu to Petrozavodsk (??) running for short while as a test a few years back. Not sure how this was done but that would have made Joensuu or Niirala on the border fit this definition too possibly?

 

[lineclear]

Tirano RhB in Italy has a customs office.

 

[subk2010]

China:
Beijing Xi (Mainland-HongKong)
Shanghai (Mainland-HongKong)
Changping (Mainland-HongKong)
Guangzhou Dong (Mainland-HongKong)
↑ Will be closed officially later

Mohan (Laos)
Pingxiang (Vietnam)
Erlian (Mongolia)
Suifenhe (Russia)
Manzhouli (Russia)
Alashankou (Kazakhstan)
Khorgas (Kazakhstan)

Ceke (Reserved for Mongolia, there should be a border control)

It is obvious that the border controls above for customers are all closed. Sad story.

 

[SeanG]

Oh yes. Even doing the interchange between West Berlin U-Bahn lines there was quite disconcerting the first time.


Or indeed anyone going between East and West Berlin by S-Bahn.

If anyone is in Berlin, I would highly recommend the Berlin Unterwelten tours, a couple of which focus on the operations of the U-Bahn in such times, and the means of entry/escape. Fascinating!

 

[Cloud Strife]

It is obvious that the border controls above for customers are all closed. Sad story.

Thanks, that's a great list! I've added them all to the list. You're right, it is very sad that they're currently closed.

Tirano RhB in Italy has a customs office.

Good call - I've found a picture showing that you need to pass by a box (for making a customs declaration) inside the station.

Would Vaallimaa in Finland count?

Strictly speaking, no. It needs to be a physical border crossing within the station, where identities or goods were or are checked. Thanks for the information though, it's good to know more about how border crossings are handled in general!

I don't know if it counts, but travelling between Bulgaria and Romania

Thank you - but I'd say it doesn't. There are quite a few similar crossings like this in/around the Balkans, but they usually have the local police turn up to check a handful of passengers rather than being permanently manned.

Kensington Olympia had facilities for emergency use if Waterloo was ever out of action to Eurostar.

That's a brilliant piece of information! Do you know any more about it? I mean - was there a specific area set aside for immigration/passport control, or was it something that they could quickly build if needs be?

Immigration formalities were carried out at the stations on each side

Can you tell me - was it done by people standing on the platform, or was there a physical control (like in a container on the platform, or inside the building?)?

There are quite a lot of former borders, so there are probably stations which met your criteria in the past but which are now not near a border.

Thanks for the bit of info about Gorlitz: that certainly clears up one question I had about why Gorlitz doesn't appear to have any border crossing facilities, despite Zittau having had them. Yes, you're absolutely right, there must be plenty of border stations that had identity/customs controls and now no longer have them due to border movements.

It's your list, so your choice, just interested in your criteria so can pick suggestions more helpfully.

An overnight, nothing more! But thank you very much for pointing it out - it's absolutely to be included. You've got the criteria right - it's all about some kind of physical controls or infrastructure within the station.

Thank you as well for the other corrections and additions - Bourg-Saint-Maurice is a new one for me. It looks to me like there's some kind of separate area for Eurostar services, but I'll do some more digging.

If anyone can confirm whether both Belfast stations (for Dublin services) had customs controls for direct Belfast-Dublin trains, it would be great. I'm pretty sure they did, but I haven't found anything to definitively confirm it. I'm also wondering if Newry had them, given the amount of smuggling that took place across the Irish border.

If you mean Customs and Immigration controls, then Dover Marine, Folkestone Harbour, Newhaven Marine, Harwich PQ (?still existing) and of course their onetime mainland equivalents from Dieppe to Hoek.

Sorry for overlooking this earlier, but I have a question: did they exist within the railway stations? I mean - let's say I'm arriving from France into Dover. When I leave the ship, are the customs/immigration controls for everyone located within the station?

 

[D6130]

When I first travelled on the Dublin-Belfast line in 1978, there were customs facilities at both Dublin Connolly and Belfast Central....and Dundalk station was completely rebuilt in the early 1920s to facilitate customs examination of passengers on the majority of cross-border services which stopped there. IIRC, the present Newry station was built after customs formalities between NI and the ROI had been effectively abolished.

 

[Railsigns]

There are border controls inside the international station building at Ungheni, Moldova.

Ungheni Prut on the Romanian side of the border has border controls carried out in containers on the platform.

 

[Cloud Strife]

When I first travelled on the Dublin-Belfast line in 1978, there were customs facilities at both Dublin Connolly and Belfast Central....and Dundalk station was completely rebuilt in the early 1920s to facilitate customs examination of passengers on the majority of cross-border services which stopped there. IIRC, the present Newry station was built after customs formalities between NI and the ROI had been effectively abolished.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for!

I wonder if Dundalk had actual infrastructure, or if it was simply a place with offices so that people could be inspected on an ad-hoc basis?

Newry appears to have been opened in 2009, but the older station was reopened in 1984 - so maybe something did exist between 1984-1993.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-railway-magazine/20210503/281702617570488 - there's a fascinating article here about the Irish border and the railway customs posts. It confirms that Great Victoria Street was used for the direct Belfast-Dublin trains, too.

There are border controls inside the station building at Ungheni, Moldova.

Thanks! Another one added to my list

 

[Nohab1142]

As historical example: Haparanda (for the border between Sweden and Finland).

 

[dazzler]

As far as I'm aware Cerbère/Portbou on the French/Spanish border had infrastructure for border checks (and I've had my passport checked at both a couple of times). I'm not sure whether Puigcerdà/La Tour de Carol do/did but I would have thought so.

La Tour de Carol definitely had customs/passport infrastructure in the main station building the first time I went there in the very early 80s. The track layout was somewhat different to today, the Spanish gauge line ran up next to the east side of the island platform (where it terminates today), then swung across a diamond crossing to terminate adjacent to the north end of the station building on the main platform. Standard gauge EMUs from Toulouse would cross the other arm of the diamond crossing to terminate at the south end of the main platform (adjacent to the little yellow train platforms) - the loco-hauled night train to/from Paris used the west side of the island platform where there was a run-round loop and it could sit out of the way all day. There was a barrier segregating the French and Spanish platforms, with the only access to/from the Spanish gauge platform being through the station building.

Puigcerdà didn't appear to have border facilities at that time, as the only trains serving it were the RENFE Barcelona - La Tour de Carol services. There were no SNCF through services from France.

 

[JRT]

Anyone mentioned Konstanz yet?

 

[Cheshire Scot]

In 1984 I travelled from Graz to Budapest via Szentgotthard where the Border Controls were carried out in the station building.

 

[D6130]

I wonder if Dundalk had actual infrastructure, or if it was simply a place with offices so that people could be inspected on an ad-hoc basis?

Newry appears to have been opened in 2009, but the older station was reopened in 1984 - so maybe something did exist between 1984-1993.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-railway-magazine/20210503/281702617570488 - there's a fascinating article here about the Irish border and the railway customs posts. It confirms that Great Victoria Street was used for the direct Belfast-Dublin trains, too.

Dundalk had the full customs infrastructure, but I had forgotten that Goraghwood (now closed) was rebuilt at the same time and dealt with customs formalities for Northbound services which were not non-stop from Dublin to Belfast. The cross-border 'Enterprise' services terminated at the old - and latterly much-bombed - Great Victoria Street station until the opening of Central (now Lanyon Place) in the mid-1970s....and it too had full customs facilities until closure. When the new Great Victoria Street/Europa rail/bus interchange was built more recently, it was - very shortsightedly - only provided with platforms long enough for six car DMUs, but it is currently being remodelled with longer platforms to enable the 'Enterprise' services to once again take their rightful place in a city-centre terminus.

 

[Beebman]

Anyone mentioned Konstanz yet?

I was thinking of there too as in the 1980s I travelled on an SBB train from Zürich which reversed there before continuing along the southern side of the lake. I've just done a little online research and I've found some information at this link (in German):

https://eisenbahn-amateur.ch/2017/1...nhof-konstanz-ein-fast-verpasster-geburtstag/

The second-last photo shows the entrance to the former passport/customs control area at the station.

 

[duesselmartin]

For Germany you can add Emmerich, Aachen, Flensburg and Puttgarden, unless I missed them.

 

[Gloster]

For Germany you can add Emmerich, Aachen, Flensburg and Puttgarden, unless I missed them.

Border controls at Puttgarden and Rødby F. in Denmark were mostly done on the train, with German staff joining Denmark-bound trains as far back as Lubeck. There were controls in the station/terminal for passengers using local services, but they always seemed fairly casual.

 

[Beebman]

From this article I've found (again in German) it looks like Probstzella had a building for passport control:

https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/d...ostrecke-1098c823-0001-0002-0000-000000107754

The second picture is an aerial photo of the building taken in 1981 and the fifth shows the interior after closure. I always thought that passport control between East and West Germany took place on trains while they waited at border stations but maybe not? Or was this for people transferring to and from local trains?

In September 1990 just before reunification I travelled from Frankfurt (Main) to Erfurt and back, and on the return the train was still scheduled to wait for some time at Gerstungen. I was free to get out and wander around (while the border guards sat in a room playing cards and probably waiting for their redundancy notices!) and I remember that there was no sign of any passport control facilities on the station, at least not in the areas I explored.

 

[181]

Erlian

I'm not certain whether that meets the OP's criteria. When I arrived in China that way in 2007, the border check was done on the train, if I remember rightly somewhere near the gauge-changing shed, although that doesn't exclude the possibility of controls in the station for people arriving from Monglia and finishing their journey there, or vice versa (I can't remember whether the train entered the station before the border control and gauge changing, but we -- continuing to Beijing on the same train, but not leaving for a while -- were confined to the train until after all that).

I'm wondering whether Frankfurt an der Oder might have had a similar arrangement to Görlitz for passengers ariving from Poland and disembarking, or vice versa, but never having done that I don't remember noticing it. Can anyone else shed any light on this?

On the subject of the inter-war Polish-Soviet border, this thread from last year features the Polish border station at Stołpce (see my post, #30); I think the building in the picture posted by the OP (at the station, but separate from the station building) was used for customs, and I presume immigration checks took place inside it.

 

[QJ]

Rotterdam Central and Amsterdam Central in the Netherlands obviously have them in their Eurostar facilities.

As far as I know those are the only border control facilities within stations the Netherlands ever had. Roosendaal and Maastricht have quite large buildings which used to house customs and other border control related staff, but I don't remember actual border checks inside the station.

Until sometime in the 1980s Nijmegen had Customs Facilities in the station building for the trains running to and from West Germany on the now closed line via Kleve.

I had to pass through the Customs in the station building there on 22/10/1981 before being allowed to board the 1424 to Frankfurt (Main) Hbf.

There were Customs in the stations on the France/Spain border too. Canfranc and Irun had island platforms with standard gauge tracks (SNCF) one side and Iberian gauge the other. You would get off the the arriving French train, go through Customs then board the waiting RENFE train.

Basel SNCF/SBB had Customs in the main station building to go through before being allowed into the SBB part of the station or vice versa.

 

[D6130]

Basel SNCF/SBB had Customs in the main station building to go through before being allowed into the SBB part of the station or vice versa.

Likewise Geneve Cornavin IIRC.

 

[QJ]

Likewise Geneve Cornavin IIRC.

Yes. I couldn’t remember whether it was a Customs grip on the platform at Cornavin or you actually went through the station building (given access to and from the platforms was by subway). The last time prior to Schengenisation I went that way from France to Switzerland was on a through coach to Basel that got shunted via the carriage sidings east of Cornavin station.

 

[dutchflyer]

Basel SBB still has a kind of ´french section´ and in the past there were also the usual border checks. Before that it even also had FRench ticketing beyond it (not quite sure anymore of how exactly placed). I think it has now been all rebuilt, but for a very long time it remained as a desolate and forgotten empty pocket in this station.
In Roosendaal/NL, the traditional main checkpoint for NL-BE: for a very long time the concrete customs-benches to check goods etc. were still there in an empty hall, about same as I remember for the FR/ES border stops.
Do arrival points shipside in GB also count? Harwich Parkesto Quay and esp. that quayside at Sheerness-for the Olau LIne-we continentals were always utterly distrusted there.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Thank you again to everyone so far! The more discussion, personal experiences and so on, the better! I've added the latest updates, with comments below:

Yes. I couldn’t remember whether it was a Customs grip on the platform at Cornavin or you actually went through the station building (given access to and from the platforms was by subway). The last time prior to Schengenisation I went that way from France to Switzerland was on a through coach to Basel that got shunted via the carriage sidings east of Cornavin station.

I've seen some pictures, but it's still not clear to me how it worked/s in Geneva at all. There is a kind of 'walk through' hall that appears to be on the platform given the narrowness of it, but I've always wondered how it was/is handled there.

I'm wondering whether Frankfurt an der Oder might have had a similar arrangement to Görlitz for passengers ariving from Poland and disembarking, or vice versa, but never having done that I don't remember noticing it. Can anyone else shed any light on this?

To the best of my knowledge (having spent an absurd amount of time on this), no, it didn't. It seems that all controls were carried out at Kunowice by both Poland and the DDR/Germany. This doesn't explain Słubice station however, which was opened in 2002, and I don't think there's anywhere for trains to start/terminate between there and the Oder bridge? So, it is possible that controls were also carried out within Frankfurt (Oder) station, but I've never found any evidence of them. There is some evidence that the Oderbrucke station served as a transit point between the Polish and East German railways, but it's very unclear as to whether passengers were processed here, or just freight.

There were controls in the station/terminal for passengers using local services, but they always seemed fairly casual.

This is very interesting, thank you! I guess part of the reason for the relaxed nature of them was that most smuggling took place around Flensburg, part of the legendary Butterfahrt travels.

The second-last photo shows the entrance to the former passport/customs control area at the station.

It is fascinating that Switzerland removed a lot of the infrastructure relating to customs controls on the border, although the customs border still very much exists. I expected them to retain them, similar to how the road borders were handled post-Schengen. Thank you very much for the link though, I did wonder if Konstanz had infrastructure relating to identity controls and customs.

Thank you again to everyone that has contributed so far!

 

[Railsigns]

I'm wondering whether Frankfurt an der Oder might have had a similar arrangement to Görlitz for passengers ariving from Poland and disembarking, or vice versa, but never having done that I don't remember noticing it. Can anyone else shed any light on this?

When I took a train from Frankfurt an der Oder to Poland in 2007, someone on the platform asked for my passport as I boarded the carriage. I encountered no other border controls at that station.

 

[Kreissignal]

Rosenthaler Platz and Jannowitzbrücke, on the Berlin underground line U8, were border crossings in between the fall of the Wall and reunification.

 

[Beebman]

When I took a train from Frankfurt an der Oder to Poland in 2007, someone on the platform asked for my passport as I boarded the carriage. I encountered no other border controls at that station.

In April 1991 I travelled from Hannover to Poznan via Frankfurt an der Oder, and between Frankfurt and Rzepin I had a very thorough passport/customs check by Polish officials (at that time a visa was still required by UK citizens to enter the country). However that was soon quickly forgotten at Rzepin by the sight of two 2-10-0 steam locos shunting in the yard.

On the return journey I changed at Frankfurt for a train to Dresden. After Rzepin I had a passport/customs check by both Polish and German officials but it was relatively quick. On arrival at Frankfurt I went into the main building to buy some food and drink before catching my next train. I don't recall passing through any checks at the station but maybe my train was considered to have been 'cleared' for entry into Germany so there was no need for them.

 

[181]

To the best of my knowledge (having spent an absurd amount of time on this), no, it didn't. It seems that all controls were carried out at Kunowice by both Poland and the DDR/Germany. This doesn't explain Słubice station however, which was opened in 2002, and I don't think there's anywhere for trains to start/terminate between there and the Oder bridge? So, it is possible that controls were also carried out within Frankfurt (Oder) station, but I've never found any evidence of them. There is some evidence that the Oderbrucke station served as a transit point between the Polish and East German railways, but it's very unclear as to whether passengers were processed here, or just freight.

Thankyou. Three of my four pre-Schengen crossings of the border by that route were in the small hours of the morning, so I just sleepily handed over my passport without noticing exactly where we were -- it could well have been Kunowice (I had at least one passport stamp saying 'Kunowice', which suggests as a minimum that the staff were based there).

On the other occasion (going east in August 1999, leaving Berlin just after 6 p.m.), I don't remember stopping at Kunowice, and my diary of the trip indicates that German controls took place on the train before Frankfurt, and Polish ones on the train while at Frankfurt station. Presumably something like this would have happened for anyone boarding there:

When I took a train from Frankfurt an der Oder to Poland in 2007, someone on the platform asked for my passport as I boarded the carriage. I encountered no other border controls at that station.