Station code
A station code is a brief, standardised abbreviation, or alphanumeric code, used by railways to identify a railway station uniquely (within a country or region). Codes are mostly used internally but can be seen on railway traffic signs and on some timetables.
In most countries, station codes are purely alphabetic, usually compromising a few capital letters for ease of identification, in some countries one capital and one or some lowercase letters.
Americas
United States
Amtrak encodes a few stations in Canada which it serves.
Asia
Hongkong
India
For example, Whampoa station of the MTR has the code of WHA.[1] Indian Railways uses one- to four-letter codes.[2] Most stations of the Indian Railways are assigned three letter codes, for example, the station code for Mumbai Central station is BCT.[3]
One-letter station codes of the Indian Railways[3]
- G: Gondia Junction railway station
- J: Jalna railway station
- M: Mahendragarh railway station
- R: Raipur Junction railway station
- S: Shrirangapattana railway station
- V: Vashi railway station
- Y: Yeliyur railway station
- Unallocated one-letter station codes of the Indian Railways include A, B, C, D, E, F, I, H, K, L, N, P, Q, T, U, W, X and Z.
South Korea
In South Korea, station codes are purely numeric, to reduce the problem of language and writing system barriers. For example, Seoul Metropolitan Subway's Singeumho station has the code of 538.[4]
Europe
UK
[5] Three-letter alpha codes (formerly called CRS codes - Computer Reservation System) are issued by National Rail which is responsible for railways in Great Britain. Station codes are not used by Northern Ireland Railways for stations in Northern Ireland.
In England, Scotland and Wales of the UK, railway stations are assigned three-letter codes and are issued by National Rail and are called the Computer Reservation System (CRS), this is not the case in Northern Ireland.[5] In Sweden and Denmark, railway stations are assigned a capital letter followed by a sequence of lowercase letters that represent the station's name. For example, Stockholm commuter rail's Stockholm City Station has the station code Sci. Deutsche Bahn in Germany uses an alphabetic station code system called the DS 100 code, for example, Luckenwalde station in Brandenburg has the station code BLD.[6]
Lists
Standards for station codes in different countries include:
See also
References
- ^ "Whampoa | ExploreHK". explorehk.com. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
- ^ "[IRFCA] Indian Railways FAQ - Railway Stations". www.irfca.org. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
- ^ a b "Station codes" (PDF). Indian Railways. 10 October 2022.
- ^ "Metro Lines in Seoul" (PDF). KORL. 10 October 2022.
- ^ a b List of National Rail Station codes Archived November 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Übersicht der Betriebsstellen und deren Abkürzungen aus der Richtlinie 100" (PDF). Deutsche Bahn AG (in German). August 2015.