There is a wide range from the simple village station, with its one short siding, to the great city terminus, with its labyrinth of lines and sidings, and its groups of platforms, offices, warehouses, and other accessories. Each station should be laid out with a view to meet the special requirements of the principal traffic likely to arise, whether passenger, timber, coal, stone, cattle, or general merchandise, and ample space should be retained to permit further enlargement and additional sidings at any future time. If provision is not made for the latter in the outset it will certainly lead to large expenditure at some later date. Land adjoining a railway station is quickly appropriated by the public on account of its proximity and convenience for conveyance, and soon covered with store-yards, warehouses, and other buildings, and when any portion of these have to be acquired for station enlargements, they can only be obtained at a large cost, very often ten times as much as the value of the original ground.
When laying out approach roads to goods or passenger stations, whether intermediate or terminal, due importance should be given to the advantage of making them wide, easy in gradient, and fairly straight. A narrow, crooked access to a busy goods yard is a great impediment to the expeditious working of a heavy traffic; and road waggons conveying long pieces of timber or ironwork along such a route, would be very apt to block the roadway and delay the passage of other vehicles. A steep gradient will prevent the carriers taking full loads, and will add to the cost and time of delivery.
An approach road to a large passenger station should be laid out with a long frontage to a wide footpath to enable the numerous intending passengers to alight conveniently from the conveyances which bring them to the station. A portion of the footpath and carriage-way in front of the entrance to the booking-hall should be covered over with a light roof to provide shelter during inclement weather. The footpath should be on the same level as the vestibule or booking-hall, so that the public may pass at once to the ticket-office and their luggage be wheeled on hand-barrows direct to the platform or luggage-room. Every effort should be made to avoid introducing steps from the footpath to the booking-hall, as they check the proper ingress of the passengers, and are very severe on elderly persons and invalids, besides necessitating the dilatory method of carrying each piece of the
passengers’ luggage by hand. Experience has shown the inconvenience of steps to be so great that in many cases a large expenditure has afterwards been incurred to do away with them, and bring the setting-down footpath to the same level as the booking-hall. For a large station the booking-hall should be spacious and well provided with separate ticket windows for the different classes of passengers and districts of the line; and the access or communication with the platform should be ample and free from obstruction. Small doors and narrow passage-ways check the movements of the passengers and create confusion and delay.
Waiting-rooms for the different classes of passengers, inquiry-offices, luggage-rooms, lavatories, etc., will have to be provided according to the amount of traffic to be accommodated. In large stations it may be necessary to have two or more groups of such rooms to suit the different sets of platforms.
At the most important terminal stations of our home railways it is usual to lay down the main-line arrival platforms with a cab or carriage rank alongside, so that the passengers alighting from the railway carriages have merely to walk across the platforms, and step into the cabs or vehicles waiting to take them and their luggage away from the station. This arrangement is not only a great convenience to the passengers, but expedites the clearing of the platform and the making way for another incoming train. It would not, however, be of any service on continental lines, or other foreign railways, where all arriving luggage must first be taken to the general luggage room, to be examined by the local customs, or octroi officers, before being allowed to pass out of the station.
