but don't those in the US call them Railroad stations though rather than train stations?
I've never heard that, not to say it doesn't happen though. "Station" used to be a mainly naval term before the railways. A ship would be "on station" when she was where she was supposed to be. There were also various "stations" around the world, meaning areas of interest (India, West Indies, Gibralter, etc), and it later adapted itself into such phrases as "action stations". The term may have passed through the canals (although I've never heard "canal station", "barge station" or "boat station" in such a context). Anyway, the railways got hold of it to mean "place where the train stops", and the non-nautical public would only have encountered the word "station" to do with railways. "Railway station" as a phrase only really became well-known when "power station", "petrol station" and "bus station" began to spread, so it's mainly 20th Century. Still, it's a dignified phrase, whereas "train station" is not.
Still, are companies such as South West Trains and Arriva Trains Wales not guilty of perpetrating the same thing? What happened to "South Western Railway" and "Arriva Welsh Railways"?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I don't think I've ever really used the term 'railway station'. 'Train station' seems to roll off the tongue better!
The bus station is where you go to catch a bus, the tube station is where you go to catch a tube, and the train station is where you go to catch a train.
A tube station would also be a railway station- after all, the tube runs on rails! And a bus station would be a 'road station'- which really doesn't work!
To be honest, if I say 'train station', people understand what I'm talking about, and likewise if people say 'railway station'.
The Americans also use the term 'Terminal'. As far as I'm concerned the terminal is something at an airport. The Americans also use the word terminal to describe any station where all the trains terminate.
Termin
us, Americans should learn Latin.