World's Best Train Stations

I forgot to point out the sydney central is not underground(exept for 4 platforms) and does'nt have one big roof that covers all the platforms, but that is part of its style

sydney's central, is great, though not as impressive as some of the stations mentiond here,it certanatly has chararter (plese excuse spelling)and as you travel into it you see this massive expance of platforms as far as the eye can see,from the angle you can see out of a train window.
it does have a nice stone station enteance as well, and lots of tunnels to get between platforms. if i was to designeing a major terminal or interchange, i would modle it on Sydnye central. Sydney has other quite nice stations aswell, pennet hils, hornsby, North sydney, parramata, the ones in our city circle, and more. If only the system was run properly

A beautiful european station. It has been decaying in the way the old penn station was but is currently being renovated.

In the US, Philadelphia 30th Street is the hands-down winner. It has it all; huge capacity, splendid architecture, massive office space, and authenticity. To satisfy the bean-counters, the original office towers have been joined by a big new one over the north tracks which were previously open. Train tracks on two levels avoid bottlenecks, E-W and airport SEPTA upstairs; N-S SEPTA, Atlantic City and Amtrak downstairs. There seems to be plenty of spare capacity. The spacious concourse means passengers changing trains aren't pushing past each other to get around, as at Penn or other 1960s subway caricatures around the world (e.g. Birmingham New Street in England).

Another vote for Newcastle Central; except with the caveat that it is mostly a long-distance station (the vast majority of trains go to destinations anywhere from 100 to 300 miles away) with very few commuter services. So it probably isn't a good blueprint for New York Penn where Amtrak is only a small part of the traffic. Fabulous architecture, nonetheless.

I don't think other continents are going to provide much of an example, unless Japan has some material to work with. Australia, Latin America and Africa are for the most part too low in volume to be relevant and I'm not sure if New Yorkers really want China or India as a blueprint.

Central Station in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, is is a real gem. It is not a terminus station, so the shed covering the tracks and platforms is entered from the side. It is the last major station before Edinburgh on the Northeast Mainline running from London to Scotland. Because of the size of Newcastle, it is also not as large as Grand Central or Penn but it is fine nonetheless.

Another fabulous station is 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, PA; perhaps the finest along the whole of the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, DC. The same relationship between rail station and central post office that once existed in NYC is still evident here. Also, 30th St Station is a good model for how the Farley building could be turned into an elegant and functional station. Like Penn in NYC, it is not a terminus station and combines long distance and commuter services.

are there any train stations outside of Europe or New York that could be considered comprable to the new Penn Station? I thought that many of Tokyo's stations handled more passengers.