The 36 most beautiful train stations in the world
Beautiful train stations are arguably a city’s most treasured architectural landmark. With nonstop flights going seemingly everywhere, people tend to prefer the sky over the rail. That said, there’s something nostalgic – and even glamorous – about boarding a train that simply cannot be replicated in any other form of transportation – especially planes, which are getting more modern by the year. After all, trains are often credited with completely transforming the United States in nearly every regard (socially, politically, and economically) during the most financially lucrative period, the Gilded Age.
And with the popularity of trains on the rise throughout the latter half of the glittering 19th century, some of the stations are unsurprisingly beautiful works of architectural magic. From the celestial-inspired frescoes on the towering ceilings to the glossy red brick floors, the most eye-catching beautiful train stations are proof of the economic boom such transportation hubs introduced.
Whether it’s on your daily commute or on daring adventures across the globe, you’d be amazed to find that some of the world’s most stunning architecture can be found in train stations. From the spectacular Gothic Revival look of London’s St Pancras International to the Art Deco and Spanish Colonial styles of John and Donald Parkinson’s Union Station in Los Angeles, the dramatic designs featured in these transportation hubs make catching a train an awe-inspiring experience. Next time you find yourself booking a worldly adventure, make sure to plan a stop at any one of these renowned stations.
Getty ImagesAntwerpen-Centraal Station, Belgium
The glorious waiting hall of the Antwerp station, completed in 1905, is lavishly adorned with more than 20 kinds of marble and stone, but what keeps this from feeling ponderous is the counterpoint of soaring arched windows and skylights that fill the concourse with light. The upper train platform, too, features a magnificent vaulted iron-and-glass roof.
Thanks to a careful 2009 restoration, dilapidated pediments and turrets that were removed in the 1950s have been reconstructed, and the integrity of the original terminal has been maintained even as new tunnels have been dug to allow for through traffic and high-speed rail.
AlamyHaydarpaşa Railway Station, Turkey
Less famous – but no less grand – than Istanbul’s Sirkeci station, Haydarpaşa has the distinction of being built on land reclaimed from the Bosporus Strait, which leaves it surrounded by water on three sides. The imposing neoclassical edifice, designed by German architects Otto Ritter and Helmut Conu, was inaugurated in 1909 on the birthday of the reigning sultan, Mehmed V.
The station’s concourse features coffered barrel-vault ceilings and generous windows. While Haydarpaşa closed in 2012 for restoration and the development of high-speed lines, it’s still an impressive sight from the exterior, best viewed by boat.
AlamyHungerburg Station, Austria
Architect Zaha Hadid first made her mark on Austria’s Innsbruck region with the 2002 Bergisel ski-jump tower. She returned with this design for the Nordpark Cable Railway, a four-station funicular line that replaced a 100-year-old tram and transports passengers up a vertiginous incline for 1.1 miles. Each of Hadid’s stations is capped with swooping glass shapes that suggest ice floes and snowdrifts. Here, a view of Hungerburg Station, the final stop in the funicular’s ascent which was completed in 2007.
AlamyKanazawa Station, Japan
When Kanazawa’s circa 1898 station was upgraded in 2005, the initial reactions were mixed. The addition of the ultramodern glass-and-steel dome and giant drum-shaped wood gate struck many as ill-fitting. But visitors continue to flock to the Ishikawa, Japan station's dramatic add-ons, and the new structures’ allure competes handily with the historic town’s other attractions, including a geisha district and former samurai quarters.
Getty ImagesKuala Lumpur Railway Station, Malaysia
Designed by a British government architect named Arthur Benison Hubback and opened in 1910, the Kuala Lumpur station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is a neo-Moorish delight, a fantastical agglomeration of minarets, dome-capped pavilions, and articulated archways. Now more of a hub for commuters than tourists, the magnificent white-and-cream Anglo-Asian station is still worth a stop.
AlamyLiège-Guillemins Railway Station, Spain
Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed the latest incarnation of the Liège-Guillemins Railway Station using steel, glass, and white concrete. His version, completed in 2009, replaces a 1958 International Style building (which itself replaced an 1842 Beaux Arts structure), and intentionally lacks a single façade in order to unite two neighbourhoods previously separated by the railroad tracks. Calatrava’s interest in the plasticity of concrete is evident here, and the immense ribbed vault he created flows organically, suggesting a wave breaking over the thousands of passengers that flow under it daily.
Getty ImagesMilano Centrale, Italy
Italy’s second-largest station (after Rome’s Stazione Termini) opened in Milan in 1931. It was originally modelled after Union Station in Washington DC, but when Mussolini came into power, he expanded the Beaux Arts design to include elements of Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The stunning results feature 118,000 square feet of marble flooring, an array of muscular stone sculptures, and five train sheds covered with vast iron-and-glass canopies.
AlamySão Bento Railway Station, Portugal
Architect José Marques da Silva turned to 19th-century Paris for inspiration when he designed the stone façade and mansard roof of Porto, Portugal station, which opened in 1916 in Portugal’s second-largest city. The station’s centrepiece was created by the painter and native Jorge Colaço, who covered the atrium walls with scenes from Portugal’s history. Although Colaço often worked on canvas, the technique used here enlisted 20,000 tin-glazed ceramic tiles. It took the artist 11 years to complete the murals.
AlamySirkeci Railway Station, Turkey
As Istanbul’s gateway to Europe, the magnificent Sirkeci station was appropriately a melding of French Art Nouveau and Ottoman aesthetics. When it opened in 1890, it was considered quite modern for its time, boasting 300 gas lanterns and tile stoves imported from Austria. The station, which stands at the foot of the Bosporus Strait, features bands of bricks across its façade, clock towers, and stained-glass windows. The station served as the terminus for the famed Orient Express, which connected Paris’s Gare de l’Est to Turkey in an 80-hour journey until the line stopped serving Istanbul in 1977.
AlamySouthern Cross Station, Australia
Stretching an entire city block, Melbourne’s elaborate station features an undulating roof that rests on a series of Y-shaped columns. The structure was renovated in 2005 (and renamed – it was previously known as Spencer Street Station for its location) and now displays an innovative design by Grimshaw Architects.
Photo: Dennis K. Johnson/Getty ImagesWorld Trade Center Transportation Hub, USA
Architect Santiago Calatrava’s highly anticipated World Trade Center Transportation Hub finally opened in Lower Manhattan. The centrepiece of the project is the 800,000-square-foot glass-and-steel structure known as the Oculus. The hub connects 11 subway lines, the PATH train, the Battery Park City Ferry Terminal, and several downtown buildings. The soaring main hall features white marble floors and a 355-foot retractable skylight. The Oculus is also now home to the 365,000-square-foot Westfield World Trade Center mall, which opened in August 2016.
Photo: Nigel Killeen/Getty ImagesUnion Station, USA
Father-son architects John and Donald Parkinson blended Spanish Colonial and Art Deco styles for Los Angeles’s main railway station, completed in 1939, which is the largest passenger train terminal in the western US Patios line the walls of the station’s waiting room, while travertine marble covers the station’s interior walls on the lower level.
- Photo: joe daniel price/Getty Images
Gare du Nord, France
Opened in 1864, this majestic Beaux-Arts complex in Paris’s 10th arrondissement is one of the oldest rail stations in the world, still one of the busiest, and perhaps the most magnificent. Twenty-three female statues adorn its façade, each personifying a destination served by the rail line. The station’s interior is bathed in natural light thanks to soaring windows, and the train shed’s glass-and-cast-iron roof is a triumphant merger of engineering and beauty.
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Rotterdam Centraal Station, Netherlands
Like many older cities with outmoded train stations, Rotterdam needed its central rail hub to accommodate more passengers as well as high-speed and commuter lines. Rather than preserve a nondescript 1957 terminal, the city commissioned a team of architectural firms to collaborate on a new complex, which opened in March of this year. The centrepiece of the design is the main entrance’s shiny boomerang-like canopy, a stainless-steel projection that is warmed by a partial cladding of wood. A similar melding of cool and warm materials occurs at the train platforms, where a transparent roof is supported by wood beams. Less visible, but no less impressive, is the use of 130,000 solar cells spread across the roof area, making this one of the largest rooftop solar projects in Europe.
- Photo: fstockfoto/Getty Images
Union Station, USA
This Beaux Arts wonder, completed in 1907, was the first major structure in the country to be built of Bethel, Vermont, white granite, a stone prized for its strength and brightness. The station brought Washington, DC’s two rail hubs under one roof, allowing the railroads to dismantle central trackwork and create the National Mall.
The station itself, designed by architect Daniel H. Burnham, features a stunning coffered plaster ceiling and draws inspiration from classical elements such as Rome’s Arch of Constantine (reflected in the main façade) and Baths of Diocletian (seen in the vaulted interiors). Surface embellishments make liberal use of marble, gold leaf, and mahogany.
- Photo: williamhc/Getty Images
CFM Railway Station, Mozambique
The bronze dome of Maputo, Mozambique’s central rail station cuts an impressive silhouette against the uncluttered skyline that surrounds it. A high-water mark of Portuguese colonial architecture – built by Alfredo Augusto Lisboa de Lima, Mário Veiga, and Ferreira da Costa and completed in 1916 – the station overlooks Praça dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Square). The modestly handsome structure features a mint-green-and-white exterior, wrought-iron latticework, and a display of antique steam locomotives.
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King’s Cross Station, UK
The historic section of King’s Cross Station in London was designed by architect Lewis Cubitt and completed in 1852. At the time, its two train sheds’ glass roofs were considered cutting-edge, although their laminated timber beams were replaced with steel girders, and their two platforms and 14 tracks quickly fell short of demand. A new edge has been honed with a 15-year, $650-million renovation project that has as its most prominent feature this new concourse designed by John McAslan. Covering a new ticket hall and pedestrian thoroughfare, the enormous single-span structure, a sweeping steel grid that looks a bit like a bisected funnel, opened in time for the 2012 Olympics.
- Photo: rarrarorro/Getty Images
Estación de Atocha, Spain
The original 1851 Atocha station was mostly destroyed by fire and was replaced in 1892 with a shed that features a soaring wrought-iron-and-glass inverted-hull roof (almost 90 feet high) connecting two brick flanks. The architect for the project, Alberto de Palacio Elissagne, also built palaces and bridges and on this project collaborated with Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, who had just finished his eponymous Parisian tower. Atocha continues to serve as Spain’s largest train station, but in 1992 its main hall was transformed into a shopping mall centred by a one-acre tropical garden.
- Photo: IulianUrsachi/Getty Images
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, India
Formerly known as Victoria Terminus Station, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, India is a mash-up of Victorian Italianate Gothic Revival and traditional Indian architecture. Designed to serve the country’s leading mercantile port and completed in 1888, the station took ten years to build, with tremendous labour involved in executing architect F. W. Stevens’s plan for decorative stone carvings and statuary of local flora and fauna, gargoyles, allegorical grotesques, and busts representing the country’s castes and communities.
- Photo: Matteo Colombo/Getty Images
Grand Central Terminal, USA
The original Grand Central was built by transportation magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1871, but that building was demolished in 1903. The current iteration, completed in 1913, continues to be a jewel in New York’s architectural crown. Its vast concourse is distinguished by elegant marble staircases at either end and a four-faced milk-glass-and-brass clock above its central information booth; the painted zodiac constellations on its cavernous domed ceiling, meanwhile, were almost completely obscured by cigarette-smoke damage until a 1998 restoration.
Other highlights of the terminal include the Tiffany clock on its 42nd Street façade and the landmark subterranean Oyster Bar restaurant, which features a serpentine lunch counter, a whispering gallery in its entryway arch, and terra-cotta Guastavino tiles lining its vaulted ceiling.
- Photo: Artie Photography (Artie Ng)/Getty Images
Amsterdam Centraal Station, Netherlands
Amsterdam’s neo-Renaissance station is the largest railway station in the European Union, serving over 260,000 passengers each day, having opened to the public in 1889. Designed by Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers, the Gothic-style terminal features a cast-iron platform room.
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Napoli Afragola Station, Italy
Just over seven miles north of Naples, the Zaha Hadid Architects-Napoli Afragola Station opened in June of 2017 as a solution to the increase in demand for train travel throughout the small European country. The train station boasts the British-Iranian architect’s highly modern – almost futuristic – look, with an enormous elevated concourse comprised of exposed steel bones and a glazed roof. From afar, however, the young train station looks like a bright white abstract wave-like shape among a completely beige landscape. Surely, that was the architect’s intention.
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Hua Hin Train Station, Thailand
In Hua Hin, Thailand, the Hua Hin train station is one of the country’s oldest railway hubs. Built in a traditional Thai architectural style, perhaps the small station’s most striking space is the Royal Waiting Room, erected in 1911 during the reign of King Rama. However, it’s been knocked down and rebuilt more than a few times. The original station building was erected a year earlier in 1910 and later rebuilt in 1926 by Prince Purachatra Jayakara, who wanted a more Victorian feel for the petite structure. And in 1967, Colonel Saeng Chulacharit planned for a relocation of the Sanam Chandra Palace Railway pavilion to what is currently in Hua Hin.
- Photo: ALESSANDRO RAMPAZZO/Getty Images
Helsinki Central Station, Finland
In the capital of Finland, the Helsinki Central Station is one of the city’s most widely recognised landmarks. The one standing today, an Art Deco-looking structure with a curved grand entrance, replaced the city’s first railway station, which was built in 1860 and ran between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna. Though the new one was met with instant popularity, it was off to a rocky start because Carl Albert Edelfelt’s (the original architect) structure was too small, so the government organised a contest to replace him. After receiving 21 entries, Eliel Saarinen won the coveted role as the railway station’s new designer. His new creation was finished in 1909, and the station opened 10 years later.
- Photo: Domingo Leiva/Getty Images
Gare do Oriente, Portugal
Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who also created the Olympic Sports Complex of Athens, the Milwaukee Art Musem, and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in lower Manhattan, Gare do Oriente in Lisbon opened in 1998. Though modern at first glance, the new station subtly references the Gothic style that reigned in Europe between the late 12th and 16th centuries. The lattice structure that seemingly hovers over the terminal and galleries beneath, however, is Gare do Oriente’s most recognisable feature.
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Union Station, USA
Designed as a reactionary response to the second great Kansas City flood, which completely consumed the original Union Depot railroad station, rail executives quickly decided to build a new train station, but on higher ground this time. The result? Union Station, the brainchild of Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt, who took on the project in 1906. Eight years later, the new station opened to the public and was met with instant admiration.
That said, the station is famous for a few reasons other than its success, one of which is The Union Station Massacre of 1933 when convicted mobster Frank Nash was unexpectedly shot and killed outside the station during what turned out to be a shootout. Nash and four police officers were killed. Those who frequent the train station today claim they can see the scars on the station’s facade from the bullets.
- Photo: Corinne Poleij/Getty Images
Gare de Metz, France
Serving the city of Metz, the capital of Lorraine, France, Gare de Metz is often referred to by locals as the Station Palace because, if you look in the right place, you can see the former apartments of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. Built during the first annexation of Metz into the German Empire, the station boasts an undeniably German look. That’s because it was designed by German architect Jürgen Kröger. He spent three years building the neo-Romanesque building that still houses the original departure hall, honorary lounge, and former station restaurant.
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Jungfraujoch Station, Switzerland
Jungfraujoch Station, 3,500 meters above sea level, is a mountain railway station in the Bernese Alps – specifically Fieschertal, Switzerland. After decades of trying to figure out how to inaugurate a railway station so high up, a final plan was put forward in 1893 by Adolf Guyer-Zeller, an industrialist and railway expert from Zürich. It wasn’t built, though, until 1930.
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William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, USA
As is the case with many train stations built during the Art Deco period of the 1920s and 30s, the William H. Gray III 30th Street Station in Philadelphia replaced a small station that couldn’t support the city’s growing population. With soaring porticoes, a massive concourse, and museum-quality works of art, the Alfred Shaw-designed eight-story building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since the late 1970s. Designed in the elegant Neoclassical style, the William H. Gray III 30th Street Station is one of the most architecturally opulent structures in the entire city.
- Photo: SbytovaMN/Getty Images
Strasbourg-Ville, France
It may not be in Paris, but the Strasbourg-Ville station, which opened in 1841 and was rebuilt about 40 years later, is one of the busiest in France. German architect Johann Eduard Jacobsthal designed the bulk of the late 19th-century station, but the building’s most famous section, the Salon de l’Empereur, which was added in 1900, was the work of another German architect, Hermann Eggert, who designed the nearby Palais du Rhin. The station was refurbished by French architect Jean-Marie Duthilleul between 2006 and 2007. Though much of the renovation consisted of restoring the original architects’ work, Duthilleul added the iconic glass roof that covers the entire historical façade.
- Photo: Alexander Ließ/Getty Images
Union Station, USA
Cities in Colorado – especially Denver – are most famous for their enormous role in the Gold and Silver Rushes of the 19th century, but the mountainous state is also home to a collection of architecturally historical buildings that serve as landmarks today. One such structure is Union Station, which burned down only three years after it was built in 1881. Luckily, it was quickly rebuilt, and the new one was 40 feet taller. That one didn’t make it either; it was too small to accommodate the city’s growth, so it was demolished. The one that took its place, the current Union Station, is a Beaux-Arts and Renaissance Revival-style building made of carved granite and terra-cotta. This one opened to travellers in 1914 and is one of the city’s most cherished buildings.
- Photo: Howard Pugh (Marais)/Getty Images
St. Pancras International, UK
London is rife with train stations, but some, like St. Pancras International, are more beautiful than others. Originally opened during the height of the Victorian era in 1868, the station is largely considered one of the most elegant stations in the world. Designed by William Henry Barlow and built by the Midland Railway Company, who infused the station with Gothic moments throughout, St. Pancras International served as the main line into London from neighbouring cities. And with all of the travel into the city, the M.R. constructed the Midland Grand Hotel right on the station’s façade. Not only does it still operate as a hotel, but it’s a Grade I-listed building.
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Wemyss Bay, UK
Tucked within its namesake village near the coast of Scotland, Wemyss Bay railway station was designed by James Miller and opened in 1865. However, it was completely rebuilt in 1903 to accommodate the growing number of travellers. Unlike the original, the new Wemyss Bay station is outfitted with a series of curved corridors to ease the flow of travellers, minimising their need to make sharp, hard turns.
- Photo: Kevin Schafer/Getty Images
King Street Station, USA
The architects behind Seattle’s King Street Station know a thing or two about beautiful railway hubs. St. Paul, Minnesota-based Reed and Stem were the associate architects behind the design of one of America’s most famous train stations, Grand Central Terminal. When it came to King Street Station, however, they took the lead on the design. Wanting to create something that felt unexpected and different for Seattle, the architects designed the 242-foot-tall tower to mimic the fallen Campanile di San Marco in Venice, Italy and filled it with four gargantuan clockfaces from Boston’s E. Howard & Co.
- Photo: REDA&CO/Getty Images
Toledo Metro Station, Italy
In the early 2000s, Neapolitan subway stations underwent a prestigious makeover courtesy of internationally renowned architects. One of them, the Toledo metro station, was designed by Spanish architect Oscar Tusquets, whose inspiration came from earth, water, and light. The new station, which debuted in 2012, is a spectacular display of intricate mosaics.
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Union Terminal, USA
A National Historic Landmark in Cincinnati, the Union Terminal is an Art Deco masterpiece that opened in 1933, a time when the end of the railroad era seemed near. After all, car ownership was massively up throughout the 1920s and ’30s, making people think rail was relatively over. Of course, that never happened, and the new terminal thrived, even during the Depression years.
The impressive station was the work of Roland Wank, of New York firm Fellheimer and Wagner and Philadelphia-based architect Paul Philippe Cret, who spent four years designing and building the beloved structure.
A version of this article was originally published on House & Garden.
