Railway Station

RAILWAY STATION, passenger buildings of railway stations, part of station buildings intended for the needs of passengers and railway agents serving passenger traffic. According to the "Technical Conditions for the Design and Construction of Normal Type Mainline Railways" (published by the People's Commissariat of Ways of Communication), railway stations, in addition to technical requirements, must satisfy a number of sanitary-technical rules. The latter stipulates the building material of structures and conditions under which the construction of passenger stations is permitted in marshy, flood-prone, and malarial areas. Plans for railway stations must comply with sanitary-technical norms issued in development of the existing regulations of the People's Commissariat of Ways of Communication and coordinated with the People's Commissariats of Health of the union republics. The area of passenger and office spaces of railway stations is determined depending on climatic conditions, the population of the area served by the station, the density and nature of train traffic, etc. The minimum area, not including vestibules, staircases, corridors, living quarters, and spaces arranged for the needs of other departments (military, postal, etc., except railway security), is determined at 55 sq. m. At small stations and junctions where the area of passenger and office spaces does not exceed 90 sq. m, such spaces may be allocated in residential buildings, barracks, and semi-barracks, correspondingly enlarged. When designing new large stations, the dimensions of passenger halls, vestibules, and baggage rooms are temporarily calculated in accordance with the norms of the former Engineering Council, based on passenger accumulation schedules in the passenger building. For example, when compiling the project for a new railway station building "Leningrad" of the October Railway, based on this schedule, the following floor area norms were considered for passenger halls: for one passenger occupying a hard seat--0.77 sq. m and for one passenger occupying a soft seat--1.5 sq. m, with an addition for seeing-off passengers, on average, 20%. In office spaces, with an internal height of at least 3 m, at least 5.5 sq. m should be allocated per agent working in them, and with a height from 2.8 to 3 m--6 sq. m per agent. In the stationmaster's office, regardless of the internal height of the room, 6 sq. m of area should be allocated per agent. The internal height of passenger and office spaces should be at least 3.5 m. In railway station spaces arranged in a residential building, barracks, or semi-barracks, the height may be reduced to 3.0 m. Office spaces should preferably be located on the s.-e. or s.-w. sides. In the interior spaces of railway stations, dark or poorly lit nooks and corridors should be avoided. Corridors without daylight illumination are not permitted. Central corridors of office spaces, with a corridor length up to 20 m, should not be narrower than 2.5 m, and with a length over 20 m--3 m (with two-sided natural light and the possibility of cross-ventilation of the room). The length of a corridor with one-sided illumination should not exceed 20 m. When rooms are located on one side of a corridor, its width should not be less than 1.7 m. The light surface of passenger and office spaces should be at least 1/5 of the floor area. - Heating of passenger and office spaces should be calculated for a temperature of 18°C inside the rooms. For small buildings, stove heating is more convenient, for large railway stations--central heating. In addition to transoms in double window frames, exhaust ventilation is also mandatory, arranged when equipping stove heating so that there is exhaust from each separate room through heated channels in the walls or through chimneys. With centralized exhaust ventilation, ventilation is arranged based on a double air exchange per hour, and for toilets and kitchens, separate exhaust chambers are arranged based on a triple air exchange per hour. - Public toilets must have direct daylight illumination, be heated, and have reliable and adequate ventilation. Where a water supply network exists, flush water closets should be installed; where there are no water supplies, inside railway stations, earth closets should be arranged, correspondingly isolated from other rooms and equipped with reliable exhaust ventilation. In internal closets with one seat, the floor area should be at least 1 sq. m, with a door opening outward, and 1.5 sq. m with a door opening inward. In closets with several seats, the floor area for each seat should not be less than 0.5 sq. m, and for each urinal--not less than 0.4 sq. m. External toilets are arranged heated (at passenger buildings) or of the simplest type, provided that proper sanitary maintenance of them is ensured. Ventilation of cesspools and unheated toilets is carried out by exhaust pipes with tightly closing cleaning covers on the upper parts of the cesspool. Toilets should have at stations no less than two seats, and at junctions--no less than one.-At stations with a large number of passengers, junction stations, and with long stops of passenger trains, rooms for a buffet with a kitchen and pantries should be arranged. At stations with water supply, water heaters should be installed to supply passengers with boiled drinking water.*- The vestibule together with passages constitutes about 1/5 of the entire area of the passenger building and is one of its most important parts; in it, ticket and baggage offices, baggage acceptance and delivery are usually concentrated, and at stations with heavy passenger traffic--also the post and telegraph office, a room for storing hand luggage, a book kiosk, etc. Vestibules should be arranged so that passengers can easily orient themselves to the location of other passenger spaces, which, like platforms, should be reachable from the vestibule by the shortest, most convenient, and, if possible, direct route. Passenger Halls. Depending on the volume of passenger traffic, one general hall or several are arranged, with some central railway stations in Germany having separate halls for trains of one direction or another and separate halls for smokers and non-smokers. By order of the People's Commissariat of Ways of Communication No. 7624 of September 2, 1925, para. 4, similar special smoking rooms are proposed to be allocated in railway station buildings of the USSR railways. For organized human contingents (resettlers, seasonal workers), separate passenger halls and ticket offices are usually arranged (Bremen in Germany, Penza, Rtishchevo, etc. in the USSR). Entry into passenger halls, especially in areas with a harsh climate, is made from the vestibule and a corridor running inside the building parallel to the platform. The equipment of passenger halls should be such that maintaining them in cleanliness can be done without difficulty. In passenger halls of all stations, a room for women is arranged, and at railway stations with an area of at least 135 sq. m--also for men.- At large passenger stations, barbershops should be arranged, designed and equipped according to the norms provided for by the order of the People's Commissariat of Ways of Communication and the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR (of August 16, 1926, No. 8863), subject to special supervision by sanitary transport authorities; they are opened and moved to other premises only on the recommendation of the latter. A sanitary journal and a personal journal of barbershop employees should be kept at each barbershop for recording the results of their medical examinations. Sanitary rules should be posted in a conspicuous place.- Buffets. The arrangement, equipment, and maintenance of them are regulated by rules issued on October 13, 1926, jointly by the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR and the People's Commissariat of Ways of Communication and coordinated with the People's Commissariats of Health of the union republics (order No. 8950). According to this order, the allocation and arrangement of premises for buffets are preliminarily coordinated by the administration with the sanitary transport supervision authorities, which also participates in concluding the contract for leasing premises for buffets. When equipping or allocating ready premises for buffets, general sanitary requirements are followed, as well as the size of the enterprise, its capacity, etc., are taken into account. For buffets with hot dishes, separate premises are allocated: a) for the kitchen, pantry adjacent to it, cellar or icehouse, and if necessary--for vegetables and root vegetables, b) for the washing room and samovar room, c) for buffet halls, d) for serving personnel and storage of their clothing. For buffets with cold dishes, premises may be limited only to the hall and kitchen (which is also the utility room, samovar room, and washing room). The area of the buffet premises should be such that tables, displays, cabinets of various purposes, room iceboxes, storage for beverages, samovars, tables for pouring tea, etc. can be freely placed in it. The passage between common tables and individual tables should be at least 2.5 m. Access to display tables should be, if possible, free from all sides. Displayed dishes should be protected from dust and insects. For storing visitors' clothing and for a book kiosk, a special place should be provided, not included in the general area count. The height of premises should be at least 3.0 m, and the daylight coefficient at least 1:12. Kitchens should be light, spacious, isolated from other premises; their size depends on the capacity of the buffet.

For better isolation of kitchens, they should be located on the upper floors, necessarily equipped with elevators for delivering food to the buffet, and with sufficient incoming and exhaust ventilation. The installation of kitchens in basement and semi-basement floors is prohibited. The coefficient of daylight illumination should be no less than 1:12. Artificial lighting must be of sufficient intensity. Separate rooms are also needed for installing boilers and samovars. In small buffets, it is permitted to install boilers not in separate rooms (provided the rules for the installation of devices for the removal of smoke, gases, vapors, etc. are observed), with the agreement of the sanitary authorities. Maintaining cleanliness in the railway station, measures to improve the condition and use of passenger premises, elimination of improper use of these premises, freeing them from obstructing kiosks, stalls, etc., and the mandatory involvement of sanitary authorities in the discussion of these measures are provided for in orders of the NKPC (No. 8345, of March 20, 1926; No. 7750, of October 6, 1925; No. 7983, of November 28, 1925; No. 5, of January 2, 1924, VPѹ357; No. 7293, of October 19, 1923, and 'No. 1843 code. 5994 of 1924'), some of which are agreed upon with the NKZdravs of the union republics.