World's Most Beautiful Train Stations

Antwerp-Central, the world's most beautiful train station.

Travel and Leisure recently named the world's top-15 most beautiful train stations.  This year, the title of world's most beautful went to Belgium's Antwerp Central Station.  The station, which is truly massive and beautiful station opened in 1905 and sees tons of trains daily that travel to destinations all around the region. 

Somehow Travel and Leisure missed this hole in the
ground when making their list up!

But of those top fifteen stations, three of them were in the United States.  Los Angeles Union Station came in at #8, Union Station in Washington DC came in at #11, and Grand Central Terminal right here in New York rounded out the top 15.

Conspicuously absent from the list was the LIRR's riders little slice of architectural heaven, New York Penn Station.  From its crowded, cramped, dim, and dreary concourses to is smelly, hot, and bothersome platforms, New York Penn did not make the top fifteen (or top hundred, or top thousand).

In the end, it's truly a shame that North America's busiest rail station is also its ugliest.  We all know how magnificent Penn Station once was, and many of us are likely aware of the grandiose and expensive plans to put some sort of proper station back, but in the meantime let's pay some attention to some of the LIRR's more beautiful stations. Travel and Leisure's report went into the world's most beautiful station, but let's take a quick poll to see what is the LIRR's most beautiful (and most ugly) station.  Use the box below to submit your choices and I'll reveal the results in a post on Thursday.



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