Whether you are a frequent traveller or not, you must have noticed some stations' names have suffixes like ‘junction’, ‘terminal’ and ‘central’. Ever wondered what they suggest?
Here is the answer for you:
Railway stations are generally of three types such as junction, terminal and central.
For a station to be called a junction, at least three train lines should be passing through it and it must have at least two outgoing train lines.
Some railway junctions in Odisha are Balangir junction railway station, Bargarh Road junction railway station, Bondamunda junction railway station, Barang junction railway station, Cuttack junction railway station, Jharsuguda junction railway station, Jakhapura junction railway station, Koraput junction railway station, Khurda Road junction railway station, Kapilas Road junction railway station, Lanjigarh Road junction railway station, Rajathgarh junction railway station, Rourkela junction railway station, Rupsa junction railway station, Sambalpur junction railway station and Titlagarh junction railway station.
It is worth mentioning that Mathura junction is the largest railway junction in India with as many as seven outgoing lines.
A station from where no train goes further is called a terminus or terminal.
There are some stations in India to which trains can enter only but can’t go out. In other words, tracks or routes end at the station. Such stations are called terminus or terminal. Terminal means termination. In other words, it means coming to an end. Such are the stations from where no train goes further.
Puri railway station is a terminal railway station.
Some of the largest terminals in India are Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus/Victoria Terminus and Lokamanya Tilak Terminal, Howrah Terminus and Bandra Terminus.
The busiest railway station in a city is called a central station.
Usually, a central station is an important station in a city. It is a very large one with multiple stations. A large number of trains arrive and depart from here. Some of the central stations in India are Trivandrum Central, Mumbai Central, Chennai Central, Mangalore Central and Kanpur Central.