The capital's first railway station, Atocha - extensively remodelled over the years - today is a complex consisting of two different stations: the new one, destined for rail traffic with terminals for high-speed and long-distance trains; the old one, housing the offices of RENFE and a shopping and leisure centre with a luxuriant tropical garden containing 7,000 plants from America, Asia and Australia, water lilies and ponds: a veritable jungle in the heart of the metropolis.

Among the approximately 8,000 Indian stations that dot one of the most extensive railway networks in the world, Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is probably the most beautiful and famous as well as the busiest in the country. Amidst spires, friezes, Corinthian columns, neoclassical sculptures, arches and ornaments, the imposing building where unstoppable life flows is one of the best examples of Victorian Gothic architecture, contaminated with Mughal elements.

The neo-classical style building, extensively decorated in the front on the Bosphorus by meticulous German and Italian stonemasons, was the symbol of the 'door' that opened onto the wonders of the Orient, making new journeys to the Continent possible thanks to modern technology. After decades of frenetic activity and a period of closure, today the structure is underused and there is an atmosphere of neglect and a nostalgia for a glorious past that is no more.

The building, once the main railway junction for the capital and all the Malaysian federal states, now replaced by the new KL Sentral central station, is an anthology of typological and construction elements between the Mughal-Moorish and colonial styles, built according to British railway specifications which envisaged - somewhat surreal and improbable for the latitude - the sizing of the iron roof to support the weight of a metre of snow.

New York's iconic railway station, often immortalised in films, the complex with around 500,000 visitors a day is the emblem of the most neuralgic and dynamic metropolis, a multicultural crossroads of commuters and tourists rushing for the train or lost among shops, restaurants and cafés as if in an 'urban living room'. The largest terminal in the world, it is characterised by majestic and elegant Beaux-Arts architecture, including ornaments, precious marbles, the famous four-faced clock and the starry vault of the lobby.

The station, still operating today as the terminal of three lines of the national railway company connecting the city with Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe, is an imposing colonial-style building with domes, arcades and capitals, somewhat out of keeping with the features of the African city.

The station on the Kol'cevaja circular line of the Moscow Metro is a grandiose building with an opulent light yellow Baroque-style ceiling, supported by 68 octagonal white marble columns with Ionic capitals, depicting - among mosaics and floral motifs - patriotic themes celebrating the historical battles for the country's independence from invaders.

Originally built in 1898, Kanazawa's main station and the busiest in the Hokuriku region owes its current image to a major renovation in 2005. The giant building is an effective synthesis of the two souls of Japan, the traditional and the futuristic: the large ornate wooden entrance door to the east, Tsuzumi-mon, which reinterprets in a contemporary key a torii, the typical door of Japanese shrines, interfaces with the mammoth yet light glass and steel volume that extends to cover the entire station, beneath which are squares and water gardens.

Overlooking the banks of the Meuse River, the Liège - Gare Guillemins railway station is the largest in Europe: a profane steel cathedral dominated by the widespread use of glass and glass-cement bricks that give the structure an imposing yet light character. The light, which filters in diffusely, is a structuring element of the design and responds to expressive reasons - thanks to the vibrant chiaroscuros created on the surfaces - and functional reasons, favouring the idea of a welcoming and easily accessible place, not at all intimidating to visitors.

Hungerburgbahn is the landing point of the funicular railway line connecting the Congress Center Station in the historic centre of Innsbruck and the two intermediate stations (Loewenhaus and Alpenzoo) - all designed by Zaha Hadid - with the Nordkette mountain range. In the midst of the breathtaking panorama of the Alps, the building stands out like an imposing sculpture with fluid geometries, with a concrete base on which the light roof floats. The work was conceived with innovative technologies, including the development of a new hydraulic tilting system for the wagons.

Balancing striking zoomorphic forms and innovative technologies, the work, reminiscent of a prehistoric bird about to soar, is one of the city's largest intermodal transportation hubs, designed to connect trains, 11 underground lines, the ferry terminal, the World Trade Centre complex and the 9/11 memorial plaza. The two large steel wings about 50 metres above ground converge into a translucent blade located on the roof - a contemporary reinterpretation of the Pantheon's Oculus - from which zenithal light filters in and reverberates off the immaculate marble surfaces, creating a vibrant, diaphanous atmosphere.