Station named among world's most beautiful

Canadian tourist Lennox Ruiz photographs the Dunedin Railway Station yesterday, after it was...
Canadian tourist Lennox Ruiz photographs the Dunedin Railway Station yesterday, after it was named one of the most beautiful stations in the world. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
The Dunedin Railway Station has been named one the most beautiful railway stations in the world.

The much-photographed station was one of only two in the southern hemisphere to be named in the 16-station list by a United States travel magazine.

Conde Nast Traveler compiled the list to mark the 100th birthday celebrations of New York's Grand Central Station.

The magazine has a monthly readership of 807,160 and also operates the CNTraveler.com website and an English edition.

The publicity from such praise was priceless, Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton said last night.

''This is good, positive publicity for our city. It is publicity we simply couldn't afford to buy.''

''I presume Conde Nast Traveler has a readership in the millions. It's an extremely influential travel brand ... For us to be included in a bucket list, if you like, of must-sees is great for Dunedin.

''Tourism Dunedin and other tourism operators often refer to the railway station as one of the, if not the, most photographed buildings in the country.

''Visitors to Dunedin are always blown away by the beauty and design of our railway station. It is a very distinguished and distinctive landmark.''

The station, which cost 340,000 pounds to build, opened in 1906 and, at one time, was one of the busiest stations in New Zealand, handling up to 100 trains a day.

It is now the base for the Taieri Gorge Railway tourist train and will again host iD Fashion Week next month.

In 2006, the station was nominated by DK Eyewitness Travel as one of ''the world's 200 must-see places''.

The other railway stations named by CNTraveler.com are Kings Cross Station, England; Maputo Station, Mozambique; Union Station Los Angeles, United States; Gare De Liege-Guillemins, Belgium; Sao Bento Station, Portugal; Sirkeci Station, Turkey; Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, India; Gare Du Nord, France; Groningen Station, Netherlands; Kanazawa Station, Japan; Rossio Station, Portugal; Central Station, Belgium; Kuala Lumpur Station, Malaysia; Haydarpasa Terminal, Turkey; Atocha Station, Spain.

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