RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. 251 



passengers' luggage by hand. Experience has shown the incon- 

 venience of steps to be so great that in many cases a large 

 expenditure has afterwards been incurred to do away with them, 

 and bring the setting-down footpath to the same level as the 

 booking-hall. For a large station the booking-hall should be 

 spacious and well provided with separate ticket windows for the 

 different classes of passengers and districts of the line ; and the 

 access or communication with the platform should be ample and 

 free from obstruction. Small doors and narrow passage-ways 

 check the movements of the passengers and create confusion and 

 delay. 



Waiting-rooms for the different classes of passengers, inquiry - 

 offices, luggage-rooms, lavatories, etc., will have to be provided 

 according to the amount of traffic to be accommodated. In 

 large stations it may be necessary to have two or more groups 

 of such rooms to suit the different sets of platforms. 



At the most important terminal stations of our home rail- 

 ways it is usual to lay down the main-line arrival platforms 

 with a cab or carriage rank alongside, so that the passengers 

 alighting from the railway carriages have merely to walk across 

 the platforms, and step into the cabs or vehicles waiting to take 

 them and their luggage away from the station. This arrange- 

 ment is not only a great convenience to the passengers, but 

 expedites the clearing of the platform and the making way for 

 another incoming train. It would not, however, be of any 

 service on continental lines, or other foreign railways, where all 

 arriving luggage must first be taken to the general luggage 

 room, to be examined by the local customs, or octroi officers, 

 before being allowed to pass out of the station. 



Main-line departure platforms should be of ample width to 

 allow of the free movement of the passengers, ticket examiners, 

 officials, and men wheeling passengers' luggage. The accom- 

 modation should not only be sufficient for the normal traffic, but 

 allowance should be made for the large crowds which may 

 assemble for excursion trains during the holiday season or other 

 occasions of national gathering. Additional or local platforms, 

 frequently termed dock platforms, may be required for sub- 

 urban trains, and may be made narrower in width, and without 

 cab ranks, as the passengers using them only travel short 

 distances and rarely have more luggage than they carry in their 

 hands. These dock platforms are generally made available for 



