Why do European stations generally have underpasses?

[edwin_m]

Which has two underpasses right next to one another (one with ramps to the platform and the other with lifts), although the city centre end is either ramp down to 3/4 from street level or via two over bridges from the Fishergate centre side.
Also approached from the south on bridges over the River Ribble

(Arguably it's both below ground level (city side) and at/above ground level (Christian Road) - presumably built by leveling off a section of the hill side - so a cutting on one side? Fishergate descends quiet a bit after it crosses the station.

Is Nottingham actually a below ground station as opposed to the entire station concourse being on a bridge over the station?

Most of the station is at ground level, but Station Street does rise up at the Carrington Street end meaning you enter the station at street level to go down steps to access platforms serving tracks at street level. Carrington Street also rises up passing the station front - much more noticeable coming in from the Meadows. The southern relief road (Queens Road/Drive?) also noticeably climbs up to cross over Carrington Street. I always wonder if this was the original lie of the land, or if the station building was built above the tracks with Carrington Street & Station Street ramped up to meet it?

Carrington Street is very much on a bridge nowadays and this appears to be well above ground level - The level of which immediately west of the station (i.e. at track level) suggests it was built above ground level.

View attachment 187933
(Photos shows Nottingham station taken from Wilford Street - surface carpark to the right is at track level, Carrington Street clearly a bridge (behind a gantry) and the bottom of the station building notably higher than the land in the foreground.

The London Road end is on a bridge which noticeably rises over the tracks.

The land originally sloped fairly gently and the tracks are at about the original ground level. When the line first crossed Carrington Street (extending towards Lincoln) it was by a level crossing. I can't remember if Carrington Street and its side streets were raised up when building the current station (c1910) or earlier, but this definitely happened. It's most obvious in the showroom building to the south, formerly the Queens Hotel, where there are some windows mostly buried at footway level.

 

[kevjs]

The land originally sloped fairly gently and the tracks are at about the original ground level. When the line first crossed Carrington Street (extending towards Lincoln) it was by a level crossing. I can't remember if Carrington Street and its side streets were raised up when building the current station (c1910) or earlier, but this definitely happened. It's most obvious in the showroom building to the south, formerly the Queens Hotel, where there are some windows mostly buried at footway level.

Thanks

Looking at the NLS mapping the bridge existed by the end of the 1880s.

I always wondered what was off with the Queens Hotel hadn't realised they would have been above ground windows! - Wonder if that was the Southern Relief road works that did that - before then it was an extension of Queens Walk so would not have needed every bit of available space.

 

[edwin_m]

Thanks

Looking at the NLS mapping the bridge existed by the end of the 1880s.

I always wondered what was off with the Queens Hotel hadn't realised they would have been above ground windows! - Wonder if that was the Southern Relief road works that did that - before then it was an extension of Queens Walk so would not have needed every bit of available space.

View attachment 187939

One of the books I have (but don't ask me which one) confirms that the burial of the original ground floor was related to the raising of the road to go over the railway. If the windows were still windows at the time of building the inner relief road then they would have left them as they were and made a narrower footway with a retaining wall. I also noticed on arriving on a train this afternoon that the "bridge" is two different structures joined together, probably an earlier one supporting Carrington Street and a later one supporting the station building.

Birmingham New Street is an example of a station in a cutting that has subways beneath it, albeit built for mail and parcels rather than passengers.

 

[AndrewE]

Birmingham New Street is an example of a station in a cutting that has subways beneath it, albeit built for mail and parcels rather than passengers.

as does Liverpool Lime St - near the country end of the platforms. Carved into the bedrock like the station and platforms were.
Not very big (but it is high enough to walk through) and filled with electric power and comms cables when I saw it about 20 years ago.

 

[deerokus]

Thanks. I have observed that in mainland Europe the railway through towns is almost invariably on some sort of embankment and did wonder why - in the UK it's far more commonly at ground level or in a cutting (the latter allowing for easy bridging over by roads). That would as you say partly dictate the difference.

UK stations that are elevated above the town do generally have underpasses rather than bridges, e.g. Rochdale, Watford Junction and Hemel Hempstead. I can't think of one where you enter below track level and have to go up to and then above it to cross to the other platforms, aside from the edge case of Manchester Piccadilly 13/14 I suppose.

Edit: Manchester Oxford Road is an example of a station on an embankment which has a footbridge. It does also have an underpass but only accessed via the lifts.

An example of this is Busby. Station is on a bridge over a road, you have to walk up stairs to get to the platform and then over a footbridge. They've just put in a new footbridge due to electrification which is much taller than the old metal one, so it feels pretty high up being on a bridge on a bridge.

You can of course walk along the road under the station instead but the pavement is quite narrow and only on one side of the road.

 

[AndrewE]

An example of this is Busby. Station is on a bridge over a road, you have to walk up stairs to get to the platform and then over a footbridge. They've just put in a new footbridge due to electrification which is much taller than the old metal one, so it feels pretty high up being on a bridge on a bridge.

You can of course walk along the road under the station instead but the pavement is quite narrow and only on one side of the road.

I can't find a Busby, where is it? I can't see a bridge on Google Streetview at Long Buckby, although the station is on a bridge.

 

[zwk500]

I can't find a Busby, where is it? I can't see a bridge on Google Streetview at Long Buckby, although the station is on a bridge.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

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In Glasgow

 

[AndrewE]

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

In Glasgow

Thanks, I searched the NewAdelstrop map, forgot it doesn't cover Scotland. Google wasn't much help either - obviously I should have just put it into RTT!

 

[quantinghome]

UK stations that are elevated above the town do generally have underpasses rather than bridges, e.g. Rochdale, Watford Junction and Hemel Hempstead. I can't think of one where you enter below track level and have to go up to and then above it to cross to the other platforms, aside from the edge case of Manchester Piccadilly 13/14 I suppose.

Edit: Manchester Oxford Road is an example of a station on an embankment which has a footbridge. It does also have an underpass but only accessed via the lifts.

Leeds and Reading come to mind as stations which are at least partly accessed via bridges from below track level and previously had underpasses but have since switched. Manchester Piccadilly is built on a viaduct and AFAIK was always accessed via bridges.

 

[RailWonderer]

An interesting case is Micheldever station which has a single island platform with an underpass and no footbridge. The station would need a longer footbridge with three exit steps which would probably make the economics less appealing for a station so rural. Credit to James Mayl for the image.

 

[Birkonian]

Many European stations have subways that can be accessed from both ends. Ideal for the higher numbers of cyclists compared to U.K.
BTW, the platforms at one of my local stations, Port Sunlight, are accessed via a subway. Steps only, no lift or escalator

 

[The exile]

Thanks. I have observed that in mainland Europe the railway through towns is almost invariably on some sort of embankment and did wonder why.

Generalisation - but (re-) built several decades later and often either at the dictate of the state / military or at the very least with their backing.

 

[izvor]

Generalisation - but (re-) built several decades later and often either at the dictate of the state / military or at the very least with their backing.

Exactly. This was certainly the case in Germany (Saxony, Prussia) when the railway network was developing.

 

[30907]

Exactly. This was certainly the case in Germany (Saxony, Prussia) when the railway network was developing.

Indeed - but beyond pre-1918 Germany and perhaps Austria it's much less common.

 

[The exile]

Indeed - but beyond pre-1918 Germany and perhaps Austria it's much less common.

That does, of course, account for an awful lot of Europe!
I have just, in fact, experienced an extreme example of footbridge construction - at Řetenice (just outside Teplice in Czechia). Not only has the station footbridge part apparently been raised relatively recently by about human height (you could nearly fit a person standing up between the top wire and the underside of the footbridge) but having crossed the tracks you then are treated to the delights of a communist era enclosed bridge passing over a factory for at least 100 metres (I’m hopeless at distances!)

 

[LickeyIncliner]

...

Birmingham New Street is an example of a station in a cutting that has subways beneath it, albeit built for mail and parcels rather than passengers.

Given the way it's cut across the hillside, it must be a fairly shallow cutting on the southern (Station Street) side ?

 

[edwin_m]

Given the way it's cut across the hillside, it must be a fairly shallow cutting on the southern (Station Street) side ?

At the south east corner there are steps down from the exit to the street, and as the exit is at concourse level the tracks must be about street level. But at the south west there are high retaining walls around the signal box.

 

[AndrewE]

At the south east corner there are steps down from the exit to the street, and as the exit is at concourse level the tracks must be about street level. But at the south west there are high retaining walls around the signal box.

Central Brum has been so heavily rebuilt that it's not easy to guess the original ground levels, but I am sure that looking over the wall between the station front and Smallbrook Parkway / the Rotunda was also to look down into a deep cutting. However a few decades ago the parish church was well below the adjacent shopping area, so that end of the station might have been nearer ground level.
Digging in the NLS maps needed...

 

[edwin_m]

Central Brum has been so heavily rebuilt that it's not easy to guess the original ground levels, but I am sure that looking over the wall between the station front and Smallbrook Parkway / the Rotunda was also to look down into a deep cutting. However a few decades ago the parish church was well below the adjacent shopping area, so that end of the station might have been nearer ground level.
Digging in the NLS maps needed...

Yes, thinking about it I believe the original ground level must have sloped up from the southeastern exit to the platforms, so that although it was near track level at the exit it was considerably higher where the platforms now are.

 

[DJ_K666]

Itzehoe has an underpass with a luggage conveyor belt up the stairs. It's not unpleasant in there but white tiled. Some might call it sterile but you don't go in there to look at the wall tiles, unless your name's Siddy Holloway