High Speed Rail Terminus Stations

[Purple Orange]

With HS2 being planned around a network of terminus stations, with the potential for reversing through services in Manchester, what examples are there around the world where there is a high speed service that requires a train to reverse in a terminus station before heading onwards?

 

[stuu]

Frankfurt, Stuttgart (for now), Florence (as a "short term" measure before the through tunnel is finished) and Valencia off the top of my head

 

[AlbertBeale]

Frankfurt, Stuttgart (for now), Florence (as a "short term" measure before the through tunnel is finished) and Valencia off the top of my head

Both Milano Centrale [though some through fast trains go via Porta Garibaldi and avoid a reversal] and Roma Termini see services reversing. Though I think they're often in and out within 10 minutes or so.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Frankfurt, Stuttgart (for now), Florence (as a "short term" measure before the through tunnel is finished) and Valencia off the top of my head

Apart from Valencia, they are all "classic" stations rather than new-build for high speed.
I think Valencia Joaquin Sorolla only reverses AVEs for the odd extension on the classic line up the coast to Castellon.
I can't think of another new-build high speed station that reverses traffic, as might happen in Manchester.
Berlin Hbf Tief reverses some ICEs to Gesundbrunnen, but that's mainly to get them usefully out of the way for a bit, and Hbf is a rebuilt classic station really.
Frankfurt Hbf is likely to get a through east-west underground line, meanwhile the main ICE through route serves the FFM Airport station.
I suppose Birmingham Curzon St could reverse trains if needed, but Interchange is intended to avoid that.

 

[DanielB]

Köln Hbf also has reversing ICEs despite there being an option to run through-trains avoiding the Hbf.
In The Netherlands the Amsterdam - Brussels services are reversing at Breda. They were never intended to do, but this way the need for a seperate shuttle service Breda - Antwerpen was avoided.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Through services between northern and southern Spain and v.v. via Madrid do a double-reversal in and out of the high-speed terminal platforms at Atocha to gain the {broad-gauge) cross-city line to Chamartin. This will cease when the standard-gauge tunnels open - initially there will be no low-level platforms at Atocha at all.

 

[Ianno87]

Marseille St Charles

Quite a few reversals in non-terminal stations too, such as at Lille Europe for Brussels-South of France TGVs.

 

[JonasB]

Leipzig Hbf also see Berlin-Munich ICEs reversing at the station.

Another non-terminal station that sees a lot of reversing trains is Frankfurt airport.

 

[Purple Orange]

Cheers everyone. So it’s quite a varied spread all in all.

 

[Kreissignal]

Nürnberg (also not a terminus) also sees quite a few ICEs reversing.

 

[DanielB]

Another non-terminal station that sees a lot of reversing trains is Frankfurt airport.

Neither a terminus nor high speed services, but in numbers of reversing trains quite a significant one: at Utrecht Centraal there are twelve reversing intercity services an hour.
Would consider that as an example of very efficient reversing as well, with up to 15-car trains reversing in as little as 4 minutes.

 

[30907]

Nürnberg (also not a terminus) also sees quite a few ICEs reversing.

About 1 per 2 hours each way (anything via Augsburg).
Hamburg Hbf similarly (IC/ICE) - anything via Bremen/Hannover to Lübeck or Rostock/Stralsund.

 

[StephenHunter]

Doesn't Munich have a few?

 

[30907]

Doesn't Munich have a few?

Mainly the IC/EC (Villach-)Salzburg-Stuttgart etc, which has a bit of 200km/h, but only a couple of ICEs.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

All the above are classic stations which happen to handle high some speed trains, often arriving/continuing on classic lines.
There are very few purpose-built HS stations which reverse trains with any frequency - certainly not several trains per hour which seems to be the ambition at Manchester Piccadilly HS, combining HS2 and NPR.
It's as though the Manchester Hub project, which was found necessary to avoid reversals and clashes on the layout at Piccadilly (current station) had never existed.
At the very least, you need a grade-separated triangular junction outside the city to take through traffic, as exists at (say) Lille Europe or Madrid Atocha.
There's still the "Stuttgart 21" option of a tunnelled route from Piccadilly under Manchester to Miles Platting, as appears on some proposals.

 

[Purple Orange]

All the above are classic stations which happen to handle high some speed trains, often arriving/continuing on classic lines.
There are very few purpose-built HS stations which reverse trains with any frequency - certainly not several trains per hour which seems to be the ambition at Manchester Piccadilly HS, combining HS2 and NPR.
It's as though the Manchester Hub project, which was found necessary to avoid reversals and clashes on the layout at Piccadilly (current station) had never existed.
At the very least, you need a grade-separated triangular junction outside the city to take through traffic, as exists at (say) Lille Europe or Madrid Atocha.
There's still the "Stuttgart 21" option of a tunnelled route from Piccadilly under Manchester to Miles Platting, as appears on some proposals.

The difference with Piccadilly HS2 (current plans) and Stuttgart is that the main reasons for Stuttgart 21 do not exist at Piccadilly, which are chiefly that Stuttgart requires more platforms and no conflicts. Obviously building 6 HS2 platforms at Piccadilly satisfies the first objective of Stuttgart 21 and the flying junctions satisfies the other objective.

 

[Kreissignal]

There aren’t very many purpose-built HS stations on the German network anyway, but Frankfurt (Main) Flughafen Fernbahnhof is one of them, being 90% ICE traffic on a new-build high-speed line & completely separate from the regional station & line - even if it’s not a terminus.

ICEs 618 and 619 reverse in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Frankfurt (Main) Flughafen, Frankfurt (Main) Hbf, and Köln, probably the most reversals of any high-speed train: the Nürnberg-Binz ICEs reverse in Hamburg & Rostock, and the ICEs for Binz via Berlin reverse in Stralsund, using the bay platforms.

 

[30907]

For those who don't already know, ICE 618/9 run overnight München-Frankfurt and continue to/from Essen at slightly more civilised times.