Island platform
[1] Island platforms are sometimes used between the opposite-direction tracks on twin-track route stations as they are cheaper and occupy less area than other arrangements.
Island platforms allow facilities such as shops, toilets and waiting rooms to be shared between both tracks rather than being duplicated or present only on one side.
An island platform makes it easier for disabled travellers to change services between tracks or access facilities.
If an island platform is not wide enough to cope with passenger numbers, typically as they increase, overcrowding can risk people being pushed onto the tracks.
Since the IRT Seventh Avenue Line and IND Eighth Avenue Line have adjacent express stations at 42nd Street, passengers can make their transfers from local to express trains there, leaving more space available for passengers utilizing intercity rail at Pennsylvania Station.
The Willets Point Boulevard station was renovated to accommodate the high volume of passengers coming to the 1939 World's Fair.
If this happened, the lines would need to be compatible with continental loading gauge, and this would mean it would be easy to change the line to a larger gauge, by moving the track away from the platform to allow the wider bodied continental rolling stock to pass freely while leaving the platform area untouched.
The Valley Line Southeast uses low-floor LRT technology, but uses island platforms on only one of the 12 stops, Mill Woods.
Almost all of the elevated stations in Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system use island platforms.
In Wellington, New Zealand, unused sides can be found at two stations on the Hutt Valley Line: Waterloo and Petone.
This platform is accessed by an underpass .
