Talk:Lausanne railway station

Naming

I have created this page at "Lausanne station", rather than Lausanne railway station (which is a redirect), as it is a direct interchange with the Lausanne Metro. This is based on the system used in articles for UK rail/metro/light rail interchanges. Given Switzerland has no other metro systems, I suspect I'm not breaking any existing naming convention. If that's not true, comment here... --Peeky44 _{What's on your mind?} 22:08, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

I realise it's been a while since the article was moved from Lausanne station, but I've only recently noticed this as I've been fairly inactive on WP for a couple of years. The reason I created the article at Lausanne station rather than railway station is because, uniquely in Switzerland, it is a combined railway and métro station.

Both Wikipedia:Naming conventions (stations) (plus its associated talk page - which is more up-to-date) and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (UK stations), which I am more familiar with, advocate the dropping of 'railway' where two different system types share a station. I haven't been able to find any documentation about the naming of Swiss stations in particular, but given Lausanne (the place) is unique in having a métro, it might not shed much light. That said, if you know of any such guidance about the naming of Swiss stations, please let me know. Hence the nearby Lausanne-Flon station rather than Lausanne-Flon railway station - same rationale applies. Either way, it would be nice for the station names around Lausanne to be consistent.

I hope we can reach consensus on this - I don't want this to turn into another Talk:St Pancras railway station/Naming, though I suspect it will be less of an issue given the lower profile of Lausanne and this station. If there is no opposition, I will probably move it back (or request a move) by the mid-October, but I am willing to be swayed! --Peeky44 _{What's on your mind?} 07:23, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your message. I moved the article more than two years ago, and although I am aware of Wikipedia:Naming conventions (stations) and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (UK stations) to which you refer, I think I must have found out about the naming strategy you had applied only after I did the move. Quite frankly, I'm not sure I understand the rationale for that strategy, which seems to have originated at Wikipedia:WikiProject London/Naming conventions. A railway station serving both an above ground intercity line and a Metro line would still be a railway station, as both of those lines would still be railway lines. The three articles I have linked to above don't seem to provide any answer to this obvious point.

What I can say is that there are lots of articles in English Wikipedia about European continental railway stations that are named "... railway station", even though the station has Metro or other non-mainline platforms as well as mainline platforms. Examples include Genova Piazza Principe railway station and Milano Centrale railway station (Italy) and Wien Meidling railway station (Austria). I also note the following:

• The London policy applies strictly only to London, the UK policy applies strictly only to the UK, and the "Naming conventions (stations)" page has had a tag on it for quite some time saying that it is inactive for one reason or another.
• As you say, the only city in Switzerland that is affected by this issue is Lausanne. The article about the main station in that city has been called "Lausanne railway station" since I moved it in mid 2010.
• If you regard the Zurich S-Bahn as being the equivalent of a Metro (yes, I know it isn't, but most of the central part of it is underground), then I note that there are dozens of articles in Category:Railway stations in the canton of Zurich that are named "... railway station".
• The names of most other articles about railway stations in Switzerland end with "... railway station"; the only exceptions are (most of) the ones about the RhB stations.
• The names of articles about stations in France and Germany follow a different convention again - the French ones are all "Gare de ..." and (most of) the German ones are "... station".
• The s-rail boxes used on many of the articles about railway stations in Switzerland work most efficiently if all of the articles have "... railway station" in them.

In these circumstances, I would suggest that the conundrum be solved by moving the Lausanne-Flon station article to Lausanne-Flon railway station. Bahnfrend (talk) 08:05, 25 September 2012 (UTC)