Terminal station
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Terminal Station was also the name of a railway station in Chattanooga, Tennessee; see Chattanooga Choo Choo.
A terminal station, or terminus (plural: termini or terminuses) is commonly used to describe a bus station or train station/railway station. Specifically this refers to an end destination, where the route or line terminates.
Rail services
In the context of rail transport, a terminal station refers to the termination of the railway line at that point. Hence, all platforms may be accessed without having to cross the rail tracks. This may not be true if the station yard lies behind the passenger station, but in this case, the station may not strictly be regarded as a terminus.
The largest and most famous rail terminal in the United States is Grand Central Terminal in New York City, USA. Often major cities, such as London and Boston will have one or more termini, rather than routes straight through the city. Train journeys through such cities often require alternative transport (metro, bus or taxi) from one terminus to the other. Some cities, including New York, have both situations. Chicago has four major rail terminals presently in service, of which only one provides Amtrak intercity service (see Rail stations of Chicago).
Through services with reversal
A terminus is usually the final destination of trains serving the station, but this is not always the case. Where the terminus is an intermediate point on a train's itinerary, the train must necessarily leave in the reverse direction from that of its arrival.
In such a situation operating convenience favours the use of train types where the driver has only to walk to the other end of the train. These may be:
- Multiple units (diesel or electric) which can operate in either direction.
- Push-pull trains, with a specially adapted locomotive at one end and a carriage fitted with driving-cab at the other, capable of being controlled from either end of the train, the locomotive either pulling the carriages or pushing them.
- Occasionally, trains are run with two locomotives, one at each end.
In the absence of such arrangements, the locomotive which brought the train into the station must detach from its train and either 'run around' to the other end of the formation or be replaced at the other end by another locomotive which takes the train out.
The above considerations also apply to trains which have to reverse direction in stations other than terminuses.
Examples of routes involving reversal at a terminus:
- The Hague Centraal, Netherlands (at night only): multiple unit.
- Roma Termini
- Antwerp Centraal, Belgium: locomotive at one end and a passenger car with driver's cabin at the other.
- Eastbourne, for trains running from Lewes to Hastings or vice-versa.
- All of Chicago's Metra trains reverse direction in their downtown termini, either by means of push-pull or electric multiple units.
Examples of routes involving reversal at a station other than a terminus:
- Haarlem (hlm), Utrecht Centraal and Arnhem, Netherlands: multiple unit.
- Rotterdam Centraal, Netherlands (a few times a day on the Amsterdam - Hoek van Holland route): multiple unit.
- Redhill, for trains from Gatwick Airport to Reading.
Reversing direction sometimes causes anxiety to passengers unfamiliar with the route who fear they are being taken all the way back to their starting point. Passengers who prefer facing forwards tend to change their seat, if they can, when there is a reversal of direction.