A central station usually designates the principal passenger railway station of cities which have multiple stations. The central station functions as the main transport hub for rail transport, normally with interchange with other modes of public transport. Certain services, such as intercity of high-speed routes make their only stop in the city at the central station, while commuter services may serve all stations in the city. A central station may be a terminal station, with all services ending at the station, or may permit through services.

Non English language names for central station include Централна гара (tsentralna gara) in Bulgarian, Hauptbahnhof (abbreviated Hbf or HB) in German, Stazione Centrale in Italian, Gare centrale in French, hlavní nádraží (abbreviated hl. n.) in Czech, Centraal Station (abbreviated formerly as CS and currently as Centraal) in Dutch, Główny in Polish, Főpályaudvar (abbreviated főpu.) in Hungarian, sentralstasjon in Norwegian, centralstation (abbreviated central or C) in Swedish, and hovedbanegård in Danish.

Railway stations in Britain using the suffix 'Central' often do not refer to a centrally located station and many of these cannot be said to be 'principal' stations, and are merely called Central to distinguish them from other stations called North, South, East or West, for reasons of prestige or in some cases refer to a station that was originally owned by the Great Central Railway often GCR stations in locations served by more than one station were called 'Central'.

One of the few "principal" stations in the UK that is called Central and truly is in the centre of the town or city it serves is Glasgow Central station, although at one time was served by four "principal" terminus stations, all equally within the city centre, only one was called 'Central'. Likewise, Cardiff Central is located in the city centre and is the mainline hub of South Wales' rail network which includes 19 other stations in Cardiff itself, one of which is another principal city centre station, Cardiff Queen Street.

• Acton Central railway station
• Belfast Central railway station
• Birkenhead Central railway station
• Burnley Central railway station
• Cardiff Central railway station
• Coatbridge Central railway station
• Dumbarton Central railway station
• Exeter Central railway station
• Finchley Central tube station
• Folkestone Central railway station
• Gainsborough Central railway station
• Glasgow Central railway station
• Greenock Central railway station
• Hackney Central railway station
• Hamilton Central railway station
• Helensburgh Central railway station
• Hendon Central tube station
• Hounslow Central tube station
• Hyde Central railway station
• Leicester Central railway station
• Lincoln Central railway station
• Liverpool Central railway station
• Manchester Central (Conference Centre)
• Milton Keynes Central railway station
• New Mills Central railway station
• Newcastle railway station (known locally as Newcastle Central Station)
• Central Station Metro station on the Tyne and Wear Metro
• Redcar Central railway station
• Rotherham Central railway station
• St Helens Central railway station
• Southend Central railway station
• Southampton Central railway station
• Telford Central railway station
• Walthamstow Central station
• Warrington Central railway station
• Wembley Central station
• Windsor and Eton Central railway station
• Wrexham Central railway station

There are five stations designated as "central stations" in the Netherlands.

• Amsterdam Centraal
• Den Haag Centraal
• Leiden Centraal
• Rotterdam Centraal
• Utrecht Centraal

There are only three stations as "central stations"

• Antwerpen-Centraal railway station
• Bruxelles-Central / Brussel-Centraal railway station
• Station Verviers-Central

In German-speaking countries, the general term for a central station is "Hauptbahnhof", literally meaning "Main Station" but also translated as "Central Station"

• Aachen Hauptbahnhof
• Arnstadt Hauptbahnhof
• Aschaffenburg Hauptbahnhof
• Augsburg Hauptbahnhof
• Bayreuth Hauptbahnhof
• Berchtesgaden Hauptbahnhof
• Berlin Hauptbahnhof
• Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof
• Bingen (Rhein) Hauptbahnhof
• Bochum Hauptbahnhof
• Bonn Hauptbahnhof
• Boppard Hauptbahnhof
• Bottrop Hauptbahnhof
• Brandenburg Hauptbahnhof
• Braunschweig Hauptbahnhof
• Bremen Hauptbahnhof
• Bremerhaven Hauptbahnhof
• Chemnitz Hauptbahnhof
• Cologne Hauptbahnhof
• Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof
• Dessau Hauptbahnhof
• Dortmund Hauptbahnhof
• Dresden Hauptbahnhof
• Duisburg Hauptbahnhof
• Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof
• Erfurt Hauptbahnhof
• Essen Hauptbahnhof
• Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof
• Freiburg Hauptbahnhof
• Fürth Hauptbahnhof
• Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof
• Gera Hauptbahnhof
• Hagen Hauptbahnhof
• Halle Hauptbahnhof
• Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
• Hanover Hauptbahnhof
• Ingolstadt Hauptbahnhof
• Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof
• Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof
• Kassel Hauptbahnhof
• Kiel Hauptbahnhof
• Koblenz Hauptbahnhof
• Krefeld Hauptbahnhof
• Leipzig Hauptbahnhof
• Lübeck Hauptbahnhof
• Ludwigshafen Hauptbahnhof
• Magdeburg Hauptbahnhof
• Mainz Hauptbahnhof
• Mannheim Hauptbahnhof
• Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof
• Mülheim Hauptbahnhof
• Munich Hauptbahnhof
• Münster Hauptbahnhof
• Neuss Hauptbahnhof
• Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof
• Oberhausen Hauptbahnhof
• Oldenburg Hauptbahnhof
• Osnabrück Hauptbahnhof
• Passau Hauptbahnhof
• Potsdam Hauptbahnhof
• Regensburg Hauptbahnhof
• Rostock Hauptbahnhof
• Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof
• Schwerin Hauptbahnhof
• Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof
• Trier Hauptbahnhof
• Ulm Hauptbahnhof
• Wiesbaden Hauptbahnhof
• Wilhelmshaven Hauptbahnhof
• Wolfsburg Hauptbahnhof
• Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof
• Würzburg Hauptbahnhof

All central stations in Austria:

• Graz Hauptbahnhof
• Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof
• Klagenfurt Hauptbahnhof
• Leoben Hauptbahnhof
• Linz Hauptbahnhof
• Salzburg Hauptbahnhof
• St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof
• Vienna Hauptbahnhof - the new central station for Vienna, currently under construction.
• Villach Hauptbahnhof
• Wels Hauptbahnhof
• Wiener Neustadt Hauptbahnhof
• Wörgl Hauptbahnhof

• Zürich Hauptbahnhof

• Gothenburg Central Station
• Malmö Central Station
• Stockholm Central Station
• Uppsala Central Station

There are only two stations:

• Copenhagen Central Station
• Århus Central Station

• Milan Central railway station, in Milan, Italy
• Napoli Centrale railway station
• Palermo Centrale railway station
• Stazione_di_
  • Bologna Centrale [1]
  • Caltanissetta Centrale [2]
  • Livorno Centrale [3]
  • Messina Centrale [4]
  • Pescara Centrale [5]
  • Pisa Centrale [6]
  • Reggio Calabria_Centrale [7]
  • La Spezia Centrale [8]
  • Tarvisio Centrale [9] - now closed
  • Trieste Centrale [10]
  • Gorizia Centrale [11]
  • Treviso Centrale
  • Prato Centrale
  • Torre Annunziata
  • Lamezia Terme Centrale
• Roma Termini railway station, the central station of Rome, Italy
• Torino Porta Nuova, the central station of Turin, Italy

• Helsinki Central railway station, in Helsinki, Finland
• Oslo Central Station, in Oslo, Norway.
• Trondheim Central Station, in Trondheim, Norway
• Warszawa Centralna station, in Warsaw, Poland

A union station is a central station that serves more than one railway company. This is most commonly used for naming of North American stations, where several private railway companies serve the same city at a common station. The term was also used in Europe prior to the nationalization of railway companies.

• Buffalo Central Terminal, in Buffalo, New York, United States
• Central Station (Chicago), in Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Central Station (Chicago terminal), in Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Grand Central Station (Chicago), in Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Central (CTA Purple Line), in Evanston, Illinois, United States
• Central Station (Memphis), in Memphis, Tennessee, United States
• Miami Central Station, in Miami, Florida, United States
• Grand Central Terminal, in New York City, United States
• Pennsylvania Station, also in New York City, United States^[1]
• 30th Street Station, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.^[2]

• Central (ETS), a light rail station in Edmonton, Canada
• Central Station (Montreal), in Montreal, Canada

• Central Station (Rio de Janeiro), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Estación Central railway station in Santiago, Chile

Central stations in Malaysia are called Sentral, which is the Malay spelling for the English word central.

• Central Station (MTR), on the MTR metro system in Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
• Kuala Lumpur Sentral railway station, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

• Chennai Central (MAS), in Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• Kanpur Central (CNB), in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
• Mumbai Central (BCT), in Mumbai, Maharastra
• Trivandrum Central (TVC), in Trivandrum, Kerala

• Be'er Sheva Central Railway Station, in Be'er Sheva
• Haifa Central Railway Station, in Haifa
• Jerusalem Central Railway Station (Under construction), In Jerusalem
• Tel Aviv Central Railway Station, Tel Aviv

• Central Station -- This is an interchange station in the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system, which links together the Template:HK-MTR lines, the Template:HK-MTR lines, the Template:HK-MTR lines and the Template:HK-MTR lines. The station is named after the Central District on Hong Kong Island, where it is located. Unlike the central stations in most other cities in the world, this station is not served by intercity trains.
• Hung Hom Station -- This is currently the only station in Hong Kong for border-crossing trains to cities in China. After the opening of the Kowloon Southern Link, Hung Hom Station will also become an interchange station of the Template:HK-MTR lines and the Template:HK-MTR lines in the MTR system. Practically speaking, this station is the de facto central station of Hong Kong.
• West Kowloon Station -- This is the proposed terminal station for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, a high-speed intercity railway that connects Hong Kong to cities in the Chinese province of Guangdong. It will also link together the Template:HK-MTR lines, the Template:HK-MTR lines and the Template:HK-MTR lines of the MTR system. Therefore, it will potentially become the new de facto central station of Hong Kong.

• Central railway station, Brisbane, in Brisbane, Australia
• Flinders Street Station, in Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne Central Station is not the main central railway station in Melbourne, being named after Melbourne Central shopping centre.