[frosted-flakes]

That's what turning around a train means. The point is that a train at a terminal station is "occupying" a disproportionately long section of track, and as a result you need a multi-tracking and a ridiculous number of platforms to allow storage of trains to handle enough trains... while a through-running station can achieve the same capacity with just two tracks and 2-4 platforms.

[schoen]

Huh, I never thought of that as the reason for the small number of long-distance platforms in, for example, Berlin Hauptbahnhof (all through-running) compared to some other big-city stations that are terminal.