Inside track on dramatic departures
EDITED BY NIGEL THOMPSON Some of the world’s finest train stations are attractions in their own right, says ANDREW EAMES
No railway station has appeared in more movies – for example Superman, The Fisher King and The Taking Of Pelham 123. An art nouveau construction built by 10,000 workers and which opened in 1913, its glory is not the train shed part but the dramatic entrance concourse, with marble floor, four-faced brass clock and a ceiling frescoed with stars.
These days it’s a place for scurrying commuters rather than long-distance travellers and some
10,000 people come here just for lunch, in places like the original oyster bar under vaulted ceilings downstairs.
All Amtrak long-distance trains now leave from Penn Station but there are compelling commuter journeys to be made from Grand Central, particularly out along the Hudson River all the way to Poughkeepsie, with its genteel 18th century mansions.
This praying mantis of a station perches on the rim of the town’s ancient centre and is a particularly audacious bit of town planning. Cool, light and airy and designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, known for his City of Sciences in Valencia, its giant wings are carved out of glass, ready to go airborne any minute.
On chilly days it is a bit too airy however and passengers would rather wait in one of the brown bars in the pedestrianised heart of Liège nearby.
Liège is on the Thalys high-speed route from
Brussels to Cologne. The latter station also has a giant glass roof but in much more traditional style and sits right under the blackened spires of Cologne’s famous cathedral.
Final destination?
Standing proud on the banks of the Bosphorus, the strait that separates Europe from Asia, Haydarpasa’s magic is partly to do with its location, as there can be few major terminals that are best approached by sea.
The station, below, has extra charisma for all the destinations it service to Ankara is pencilled in; meanwhile it is still worth decamping off a Bosphorus ferry into its hallowed hallways and imagining yourself booked on to the Taurus Express – sister train to the Orient Express
– that once ran all the way to Baghdad. A gleaming confection of girder and glass that is barely a decade old, Berlin’s main station, below, is a symbol of the city’s reunification. It’s a nimble mix of atrium, escalators and shopping centre, part above and part below ground, with a cross-hatching of tracks on different levels going in different directions.
A selection of vantage points allow you to peer right down through to the bottom layer, marvelling at the