Wikipedia:Naming conventions (UK stations)

This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention.

Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

Shortcuts

This is a standard naming convention for railway stations in the United Kingdom. It is related to conventions for stations in Canada (WP:CANSTATION), Ireland (WP:IRLSTATION), Poland (WP:PLSTATION), and the United States (WP:USSTATION).

The following table is an extension of the standard for London at Wikipedia:WikiProject London/Naming conventions:

Rail service	Name	Example	Short-form template
"mainline" rail (National Rail), Heritage railways	x railway station	Swindon railway station, Stogumber railway station	{{Stnlnk}} or {{rws}}
London Underground	x tube station	Pimlico tube station	{{Tubestation}} or {{lus}}
Docklands Light Railway	x DLR station	Poplar DLR station	`{{stl\|Docklands Light Railway}}` or `{{stl\|DLR}}`
Tyne and Wear Metro	x Metro station	Pelaw Metro station	`{{stl\|Tyne and Wear Metro}}`
Glasgow Subway	x subway station	Buchanan Street subway station	{{Subway}}
Trams and light rail* **	x tram stop	Bilston Central tram stop	{{Tram}}
Any two or more of the above	x station‡	London Bridge station	{{Station}} or {{stn}}

* Where in the same building as a railway station they appear as a section on the appropriate x railway station page e.g. Altrincham station, Manchester Piccadilly station. This also holds for simple stops part of the station interchange, even if outside the station building e.g. West Croydon station, but not for directly connected yet distinct stops e.g. Deansgate-Castlefield tram stop.

** There is no consensus that all tram stops are automatically notable enough for their own article.
‡ Some multimodal stations are written as *blah* Interchange when both the different types of transport are more integrated and the official name ends with Interchange. In these cases, station is not needed at the end e.g. Meadowhall Interchange, Bradford Interchange, Hull Paragon Interchange.

Official names

The official name of the station should normally be used with the appropriate suffix, except where this would be ambiguous.

If there is any doubt about what the official name is, the name given on the station platforms should be used.

The last official name should be used for closed stations. Where this is now in use elsewhere the closed station should take the disambiguation.

Heritage railway stations

Stations (re)opened by heritage railways should use the current name, even if different from the official name at closure. Where names are shared by different heritage and mainline stations, the heritage station should normally take the disambiguation.

Stations served by both National Rail and a heritage railway are not distinguished from stations that serve only one of these, e.g. Smallbrook Junction railway station

Redirects

In most cases redirects from one form to another are recommended (e.g. Bristol Temple Meads station → Bristol Temple Meads railway station, Sheffield railway station → Sheffield station).

Redirects from non-ambiguous former and alternate names are appropriate, (e.g. Nottingham Midland station → Nottingham railway station).

Changes

All titles should reflect the modes that currently serve a station, with redirects from previous and/or future titles as appropriate.

If a station is closed for conversion from one mode (e.g. heavy rail to light rail) to another or a new mode is being added, the article should remain at the old title during construction with a redirect from the new title. When new services start the article should be moved to the new title, leaving a redirect at the old title. For example Chorlton tram stop was a redirect to Chorlton-cum-Hardy railway station until Manchester Metrolink services began, at which point the article and redirect were swapped.

Where one mode ceases to serve a combined station, the article should be moved to the title reflecting the new situation only after the official closure date, retaining a redirect. The article should however retain information about the former service, as at Birmingham Snow Hill railway station (formerly Birmingham Snow Hill station). This does not apply to temporary closures for maintenance blockades and similar - in such cases the article should remain at the combined title.

Comments

Comments are welcome on the talk page.

Disambiguation

Shortcut

WP:UKSTATIONDAB

In cases where stations have ambiguous names, disambiguate them according to the disambiguation policy and guideline. Use natural disambiguation if available (e.g. Bristol Temple Meads railway station and Bristol Parkway railway station use common names to distinguish two stations in Bristol). Otherwise add a distinguishing term in parentheses.

Following an October–December 2017 RfC, disambiguation for UK railway stations should follow a consistent format. Several formats previously in use have been deprecated. Most importantly, mid-phrase disambiguation – i.e. Xxx (Location) railway station, and comma-separated disambiguation – Xxx railway station, Location – have been deprecated (mid-phrase parentheses may be used in some cases where it is demonstrably part of the WP:COMMONNAME).

UK railway stations requiring disambiguation should use standard parenthetical disambiguation: Xxx railway station (Location). The term in parentheses should follow this guide:

Country/Crown dependency (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, or Jersey), for cases where the name is only ambiguous with entries from other countries.
County/local community, for cases where the station name is ambiguous within the same country.
Railway/operator, date, etc., for cases where there are multiple stations of the same name in the same place, as may happen with historical stations.

Examples

Disambiguation	Title
None	Newport railway station, Halewood railway station
Natural disambiguation	Bristol Temple Meads railway station and Bristol Parkway railway station
Country	Adelaide railway station (Northern Ireland), Georgetown railway station (Scotland)
County/local community	Withington railway station (Gloucestershire), Withington railway station (Herefordshire)
Other	Banbridge railway station (BJR), Banbridge railway station (BLBR), Montrose railway station (Caledonian Railway)

Disambiguation pages

A disambiguation page should list all the ambiguous stations. "Xxx railway station" (or "Xxx station") should point to the disambiguation page, unless one is the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. For example:

Monument station disambiguates Monument Metro station, Monument tube station, and Monument station (MBTA).
Victoria station disambiguates the stations in London, Manchester, Sheffield and Southend, as well as the London coach station, a station on the Montreal Metro and a restaurant chain.