Central station


Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the city centres themselves. As a result, "Central Station" is often, but not always, part of the proper name for a railway station that is the central or primary railway hub for a city.

Development

Emergence and growth

Central stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century during what has been termed the "Railway Age". Initially railway stations were built on the edge of city centres but, subsequently, with urban expansion, they became an integral part of the city centres themselves.
For example, the first centralized railway terminal in Germany was Hanover Hauptbahnhof, built in 1879. This set the precedent for other major German cities. Frankfurt followed in 1888 and Cologne in the 1890s. Classic German central railway station architecture "reached its zenith" with the completion of Hamburg Hauptbahnhof in 1906 and Leipzig Hauptbahnhof in 1915.
In Europe, it was normal for the authorities to exercise greater control over railway development than in Britain and this meant that the central station was often the focal point of town planning. "Indeed, in most large continental cities the station was deliberately fronted by a square to set it off." During the 1880s "world leadership in large station design passed to Germany, where state funding helped secure the building of central stations on a lavish scale." By contrast, British entrepreneurialism led to a great diversity of ownership and rights and a lack of centralised coherence in the construction of major stations.
In time the urban expansion that put many of these stations at the heart of a city, also hemmed them in so that, although they became increasingly central to the town or city, they were further away from airports or, in some cases, other transport hubs such as bus stations leading to a lack of interoperability and interconnectivity between the different modes of transport.
A revival of fortunes for central stations arose during the 1980s, boosted by the advent of high speed rail and light rail services, that saw opportunities being seized for upgrading central stations and their facilities to create large intermodal transport hubs simultaneously serving many modes of transport, while providing a range of modern facilities for the traveller, creating a "city within a city."

Present-day function

Transport nodes

Today, central stations, particularly in Europe, act as termini for a multitude of rail services - suburban, regional, domestic and international - provided by national carriers or private companies, on conventional rail networks, underground railways and tram systems. These services are often divided between several levels. In many cases, central railway stations are collocated with bus stations as well as taxi services.

Industrial and commercial centres

Central railway stations are not just major transportation nodes but may also be "a specific section of the city with a concentration of infrastructure but also with a diversified collection of buildings and open spaces" which makes them "one of the most complex social areas" of the city. This has drawn in railway business - freight and local industry using the marshalling yards - and commercial business - shops, cafes and entertainment facilities.

High speed rail

The reinvigoration of central stations since the 1980s has been, in part, due to the rise of high speed rail services. But countries have taken different approaches. France gave greater weight to 'peripheral stations', stations external to cities and new high speed lines. Germany and Italy went for the modification of existing lines and central stations. Spain opted for a hybrid approach with new high speed railway lines using existing central stations.

"Central Station" as a name

English-speaking countries

"Central Station" is a common proper name for a railway station that is the central or primary railway hub for a city, for example, Manchester Central, which is not to be confused with those stations in which "Central" appears in name not because they were "central" in the sense above but because they were once served by railway companies with "Central" as part of their name. For example, Leicester Central railway station was owned by the Great Central Railway, and Central Station was owned by the Illinois Central Railroad.

Non-English-speaking countries

When translating foreign station names, "Central Station" is commonly used if the literal meaning of the station's name is "central station", "principal station" or "main station". An example of the last is the Danish word hovedbanegård. Travel and rail sources such as Rough Guides, Thomas Cook European Timetable and Deutsche Bahn's passenger information generally use the native name, but tourist, travel and railway operator websites as well as the English publications of some national railway operators often use "Central Station" or "central railway station" instead.
Non-English names for "Central Station" include:
  • Централна гара in Bulgarian
  • střed or hlavní nádraží in Czech
  • Centraal Station in Dutch
  • Gare centrale in French
  • Hauptbahnhof, historically also Centralbahnhof or Zentralbahnhof, in German
  • תחנה מרכזית in Hebrew
  • Stazione Centrale in Italian
  • sentralstasjon in Norwegian
  • Estação Central in Portuguese
  • Estación Central in Spanish
  • centralstation in Swedish
Non-English terms that literally mean "principal station" or "main station" are often translated into English as "Central":
  • Glavni kolodvor in Croatian
  • hlavní nádraží in Czech
  • hovedbanegård in Danish
  • Hauptbahnhof in German
  • Dworzec Główny in Polish
  • hlavná stanica in Slovak

    Examples of central stations

The following are examples of stations from around the world where "Central Station" is part of their name in English or can be translated as such from their native language.

Europe

Austria

  1. Wien Hauptbahnhof
  2. Graz Hauptbahnhof
  3. Linz Hauptbahnhof
  4. Salzburg Hauptbahnhof
  5. Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof
  6. St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof
  7. Wels Hauptbahnhof
  8. Wörgl Hauptbahnhof
  9. Leoben Hauptbahnhof

    Belarus

  10. Brest Central Station

    Belgium

Three stations in Belgium are named "-Central".
  1. Antwerp Central Station
  2. Brussels Central Station - not to be confused with the city's main international station, Brussels Midi.
  3. Verviers-Central railway station

    Bulgaria

There are three stations with "central" in their names:
  1. Central Railway Station, Sofia
  2. Central Railway Station, Plovdiv
  3. Ruse Central railway station

    Czech Republic

The following stations are named "hlavní nádraží" :
  1. Brno hlavní nádraží
  2. Česká Lípa hlavní nádraží
  3. Děčín hlavní nádraží
  4. Hradec Králové hlavní nádraží
  5. Karviná hlavní nádraží
  6. Kutná Hora hlavní nádraží
  7. Mladá Boleslav hlavní nádraží
  8. Nymburk hlavní nádraží
  9. Olomouc hlavní nádraží
  10. Ostrava hlavní nádraží
  11. Pardubice hlavní nádraží
  12. Plzeň hlavní nádraží
  13. Praha hlavní nádraží
Hlavní nádraží – the corresponding metro station in Prague
  1. Prostějov hlavní nádraží
  2. Trutnov hlavní nádraží
  3. Ústí nad Labem hlavní nádraží
The following stations are named "střed" or "centrum", indicating their central location between other stations serving the town:
  1. Brumov střed
  2. Louny střed
  3. Mikulášovice střed
  4. Ostrava střed
  5. Pardubice centrum,
  6. Smržovka střed
  7. Trutnov střed
  8. Zlín střed
In addition to the above, Praha Masarykovo nádraží was named "Praha střed" from 1953 until 1990.

Denmark

Two Danish stations, as follows, have names often translated as "Central".
  1. Aarhus Central Station – the busiest Danish station outside the Copenhagen area
  2. Copenhagen Central Station – the largest station in Denmark
Both stations bear the title of Hovedbanegård in Danish, which literally translated means main-way-yard, but which actually refers to the infrastructure complexity, size and importance. A station of lesser importance is calld a banegård. However a city can have several banegårde as well as a hovedbanegård, and several cities and towns that have a banegård such as Aalborg do not have a hovedbanegård. Thus, Copenhagen Central Station is not the most central in Copenhagen, nor is it the most central that serves a broad range of routes, that would be Nørreport Station, which has been translated into English as Nørreport Metro Station. Copenhagen Central Station is however the most important, with its many more platforms and historic facilities, and despite serving almost the same amount of regional and intercity trains as Nørreport, it allows for longer stops and with much more room for passengers to traverse the station along serving international trains.

Finland

Two Finnish stations can be translated to central:
  1. Helsinki Central railway station
  2. Turku Central railway station

    France

  3. Strasbourg-Ville station, Strasbourg
  4. Marseille-Saint-Charles station, Marseille
  5. Nantes station, Nantes
  6. Nice-Ville station, Nice

    Germany

The German word for "central station" is Hauptbahnhof ; historically Centralbahnhof and Zentralbahnhof were also used. Geographically central stations may be named Mitte or Stadtmitte, e.g. Koblenz Stadtmitte station. In most German cities with more than one passenger station, the principal station is usually the Hauptbahnhof; some German sources translate this as "central station" although stations named Hauptbahnhof may not be centrally located.
While using Hauptbahnhof in its journey planner and passenger information, in English-language publications Deutsche Bahn uses variously Hauptbahnhof, Main and Central.
The following stations historically bore the name Centralbahnhof or Zentralbahnhof as part of their proper name :
  1. Chemnitz Hauptbahnhof
  2. Köln Hauptbahnhof
  3. Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof
  4. Hamburg Dammtor station: documents from around the time of the opening of the station refer to Centralbahnhof. or Zentral-Bahnhof.
  5. Ingolstadt Hauptbahnhof
  6. Magdeburg Hauptbahnhof
  7. Mainz Hauptbahnhof
  8. München Hauptbahnhof until 1 May 1904.
  9. Oldenburg Hauptbahnhof
  10. Osnabrück Hauptbahnhof
  11. Stuttgart Zentralbahnhof was a centrally located station on the Zentralbahn.