The World's 18 Strangest Train Stations

Background: Originally opened in 1968, the Drassanes Station, part of the Barcelona Metro, serves the green line in the Ciutat Vella district in Barcelona. The small station was remodeled in 2009 by architects Eduardo Guitierrez and Jordi Fernandez.

Why It's Unique: Because the original station was so small, the architects had to efficiently redesign the station within certain limitations. Guitierrez and Fernandez believed that a subway car already possesses all of the traits that passengers need. And since the train cars and platforms are at the same height, the architects sought a continuous design, covering the old surfaces of the station completely with the materials that are found in subway cars. Martin Nielsen, transit-station design expert and principal architect for the firm Busby Perkins and Will, emphasizes that the material choice is an important aspect of transit-station design. "We like to use nice materials," he says. "We always want to use materials that are durable, that will hold up over time. We want to use materials that are resistant to vandalism at the same time." Drassanes Station incorporates these principles in an incredibly innovative and fun manner.

Background: Designed by architect Tadao Ando, the Shibuya station is one of the busiest commuter-rail stations in Japan—it serves over 2 million passengers each day. The station is a gateway from the center of Tokyo to its suburbs.

Why It's Unique: Nielsen says that when architects are designing a station, they want a commuter's experience to be pleasant. "We're trying to encourage people to use the system," he says. "We're trying to encourage people to get out of their cars and take transit." Ando designed his station as an underground spaceship. Passengers are carried down into the underground flying saucer through a three-level atrium in the station. And this spaceship is also environmentally conscious, allowing fresh air and light to travel through the atrium and ventilation shaft, as well as holding a water cooling system in the fiberglass walls, cutting down the station's power usage.

Background: The Estacion de Atocha is the largest railway station in Madrid: People can catch commuter, regional and high-speed trains from Barcelona and Seville. After the being destroyed by a fire, the station was rebuilt in 1892 with a design by Alberto de Palacio Elissagne and Gustave Eiffel, the designer of the Eiffel Tower, in a wrought-iron renewal style.

Why It's Unique: While the physical building of the station is a great work of architecture on its own, it wasn't exactly a full of fun experiences for the rider. Nielsen explains that a great enhancement of passenger experience is having great views in their station. "You're waiting for a train for five, 10, even 15 minutes," he says. "A lot of these elevated stations actually have incredible vantage points that the public never gets to see." In 1992, the station brought the views inside with the addition of a 4000-square-meter jungle to its interior, complete with over 500 species of animals and plants. Now that's something to check out while you wait.

Background: Designed by architects Hermann + Ottl, St. Quirin Platz station is on the U1 line of the Munich U-bahn.

Why It's Unique: Subway stations can be dark and dreary and waste precious energy on sufficient lighting. Nielsen believes that daylight in a station can enhance rider experience. "If you can bring in daylight through skylights into an underground station, that's really important to people," he says. "It makes them feel better. Sunlight has a very positive quality." The architects of this station did not take on this need lightly. St. Quirin Platz boasts a completely glass-made shell overhead, letting sunlight into every area of the station and allowing the station to be integrated into a park. You better grab your sunglasses if you're getting on the U-bahn.

Background: T-Centralen is the only station in the system where all of the lines of the Stockholm Metro meet. On the typical day, the station sees around 220,000 passengers passing through, making it the busiest stop on the system.

Why It's Unique: The Stockholm Metro is often regarded as the longest art gallery in the world, and the T-Centralen Station is no exception—its walls host a collection of beautiful painted murals. But the murals aren't the only interesting part of this station: Rather than adding man-made materials to the walls of the interior, T-Centralen's design incorporates the original cavern walls of the city's rocky core.

Background: Serving the Musee des Arts et Metiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts), the station is home to two lines of the Paris Metro, and was redesigned in 1994.

Why It's Unique: Lying below a museum rich with unique and innovative pieces, the Arts and Metiers station needed to feature a similarly unique character. "Where the opportunity within the structural system is really to make an expressive structure, something that tells a story or that talks about a movement or transition, or refers to the neighborhood, you do things that tie into the surroundings, that pick up on the vocabulary of the surrounding neighborhoods," Nielsen says. Arts and Metiers, redesigned by comic book artist Francois Suiten in 1994, does just that by turning its interior into a quirky copper submarine to honor Jules Verne, author of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The station completely fits in with the character of its museum neighbor above.

Background: Designed by Norman Foster (who also designed the Hearst Tower, where Popular Mechanics has its offices) and partners, the Expo Station was built to serve the Singapore Expo Center. It was completed in 2000.

Why It's Unique: Singapore's tropical climate called for architectural elements to keep passengers cool. Nielsen says the main goal of transit design is protection from the elements—"whether it's keeping people warm in winter, or dry from the rain, or out of the sun," he says. Rather than using a plain roof to make shade, the architects took a more innovative approach, creating a large UFO-like roof disc with titanium panels to reflect the sun's rays away from the station, decreasing the inside temperature. The roof also reflects natural daylight and car headlights into the station, and animates the station with reflections of the people below.

Background: Built for Expo 98's World's Fair, the Gare do Oriente Station is one of the world's largest transit stations and is the transportation hub of Lisbon. It holds metro, high-speed, commuter and regional rail, a bus station, a shopping center, and a police station. The station hosts 75 million passengers each year.

Why It's Unique: Designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, the station is distinguished by its unique roof, which places platforms on a bridge-like setting. Gothic influences can be found in Calatrava's design, which stands as an architectural masterpiece. Calatrava is also slated to design the upcoming New Jersey PATH train station at the World Trade Center site.

Background: Another Calatrava design, the Lyon Airport station connects Lyon to the Saint-Exupery Airport.

Why It's Unique: With striking features on both the inside and outside of the station, Calatrava's design emulates a bird in flight, with two long steel arches forming the wings of the station's structure and converging at the bird's beak, as well as protruding concrete tongue-like balconies jutting out of the second floor on the inside of the station. "There's just more opportunities to be expressive and do crazy things, Nielsen says. "The structure is getting more adventuresome, is getting lighter and more delicate in many ways, and more daring, and I think it's talking about the technology of the time, the expression of the building technology of the time." The magnificent structure of the building shows just how innovative transit architecture can be.

Background: As the second busiest rapid transit system in the United States, the Washington DC Metro contains five lines and 86 stations, with 215.3 million trips in 2008.

Why It's Unique: While in office, President Lyndon Johnson called for architecturally noteworthy stations to be in place in the DC area. Most metro stations boast a distinctive geometric style with a column-free interior, giving the DC Metro a distinctive character recognizable to anyone who has made a trip on the metro of the nation's capital.

Background: The second station on the list built for Expo '98, the Olaias station was designed by Tomas Taveira and a team of Portuguese artists.

Why It's Unique: The station, like many others in Portugal, boasts a contemporary art design in its interior, with dramatic coloring and beautifully designed tiles, allowing the station to stand as a work of art on its own.

Background: With over 40 million passengers passing through each year, Canary Wharf is the busiest station on the London Underground outside of central London; it serves the business district. It is the second station on the list designed by Norman Foster and partners.

Why It's Unique: On the ground level, the station's entrance features two large glass canopies, which draw natural light into the station, separated by a park which lies above the roof of the station. The interior boasts an incredibly vast space. "I think you're going to see more structural exuberance and gymnastics," Nielsen says on the future of transit stations. "They're large, dramatic spaces." The station's high passenger traffic called for a large space; Foster and partners took to an extreme, designing a cathedral-like interior which has been used for a wedding and in the 2002 film 28 Days Later.

Background: Designed by architect Makoto Sei Wantanabe, the Iidabashi Station is home to Oedo line on the Tokyo Metro, one of the busiest subway systems in the world.

Why It's Unique: The station features computer-generated "evolutionary architecture" on both the inside and outside of the station. The interior features a geometric green light sculpture lining the escalator shaft, while the exterior features futuristic glass and steel pod shapes. The station looks like something from another world.

Background: A busy transfer station in west Frankfurt, the Bockenheimer Warte station is home to three Frankfurt U-bahn lines.

Why It's Unique: "In terms of the stations themselves, they need, in our mind, to have some form of identity," Nielsen says. "You should be able to identify that that is a transit station and that's a transit stop." The Bockenheimer Warte station could not possibly make it more clear, with its strange entrance that is a classic-style train car bursting through the ground. Inspired by surrealist art, this station is one with a sense of humor.

Background: One of the oldest railway stations in Thailand, the Hua Hin station serves a small beach town—at one time the destination of Thai royalty—with trains that originate in Bangkok.

Why It's Unique: While one of the smallest stations on the list, the station features the unique Thai architectural style and could arguably be one of the world's most beautiful rail stations. The station contains the Royal Waiting Room, which once served to welcome the king and his court upon their arrival in Hua Hin.

Background: Serving the Singsing district in Kaohsiung, Formosa Boulevard is a transfer station between the Red and Orange lines of the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit System, which serves approximately 120,000 passengers each day.

Why It's Unique: The entrances of Formosa Boulevard, designed by Japanese architect Shin Takamatsu, are comprised of shell-shaped glass coverings that have been said to symbolize hands in prayer. On the interior, the station becomes even more spectacular with its famous Dome of Light. Designed by artist Narcissus Quagliata, it stands as the largest one-piece stained-glass work in the world.

Background: Because of the fast-growing population of the city, the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority found strong demand for a rail system and began work on the Dubai Metro in the early 2000s. Still a work in progress, the system will contain two lines with approximately 50 stations between them when completed. The Mall of Dubai Metro Station is on the red line, located right next to the Burj Khalifa, home of the tallest building in the world.

Why It's Unique: Like much of the architecture in Dubai, the Mall of Dubai Metro Station boasts spectacular features. Its shell structure, which to some can be interpreted as a reference to ancient pearl diving, encloses the station with no supporting structure or internal columns. The roof allows for environmentally sound cooling and ventilation, and the skylights allow for natural light to enter the station. This design is similar to other stations in the Dubai Metro and fits right in with the architectural prowess demonstrated in so many of the structures in the city.

Background: The Nordpark Railway consists of four stations that lead to Innsbruck's northern mountain chain. Designed by Zaha Hadid architects, the station designs change with the altitudes and surroundings as they get closer to the mountains.

Why It's Unique: Not only are the stations met with spectacular views of the mountains of Innsbruck, but they also are sites in and of themselves. The unique fluid shapes were influenced by glacial movements using materials reminiscent of airplane wings and cars.