Johannesburg Park station

A year after the surveying of a settlement on the waste land at Randjeslaagte near the new Witwatersrand goldfields, later to be called Johannesburg, in 1887 the South African Republic (ZAR) government set aside a strip of land north of Noord Street for a railway line, effectively dividing the future city's CBD in two though at this time only land south of Noord Street had been survey as building plots. The building had been part of the Amsterdam Exhibition, built in 1895 in Rotterdam and designed by architect Jacob Klinkhammer. Its erection begun in 1896 and was 154m long and 17m wide consisting of offices and passenger facilities with a restaurant. There was a restaurant with oak printed Dutch proverbs, some of which were transferred to the coffee shop in the new 1932 station. The previous day, martial law had been declared after thousands of miners had gathered at Market Square and where the gathering had been broken up by the army and police. The Government would pay the Wanderers Club £500,000 in compensation and the Johannesburg Council £1,000,000 in the form of land at Plein Square, New Kazerne and a small amount of land in Braamfontein and offset £300,000 owed by the council. Wanderers would move to their new grounds at Kent Park, Illovo, on 22 October 1946 where the club remains to this day. The new station would be constructed in four stages between 1948 and 1965, designed by the architects Kennedy, Furner, Irvine-Smith & Joubert with civil engineering consultant firm A.S. Joffe. The first stage saw the new station moved northwards and the tracks dropped a further 4m and the station entrance was aligned with Joubert Street and completed in 1951. This stage also saw the construction of the Johan Rissik Bridge in 1952 slightly west of the station entrance, as well as other bridges over the tracks. By February 1954, the old station was lowered and new platforms and tracks constructed. The new part became the station for the main train lines, while the "older" station would house the suburban tracks. Later stages involved concrete covers over the platforms and the concourses built on top with the slabs over the suburban station completed in 1956 and main lines by 1961. When it officially opened in 1965, with ten suburban lines and six main lines. ==Crime==

On 24 July 1964, Frederick John Harris of the African Resistance Movement planted a bomb on a whites-only platform of the Station. The bomb later exploded, killing a 77-year-old woman and injuring 23 others. Harris, a school teacher, was convicted of murder, and hanged on 1 April 1965. It was revealed in 2018 that Park Station had become a hub for abduction of women and children who commute or work in the area, who then become victims of human trafficking. == In popular culture ==

• In the episode "Sugar Water" of the 1st season of the South African Netflix series Queen Sono, Park Station is bombed by the fictional terrorist group Watu Wema, killing 95 people and injuring almost 250 people. ==Gautrain station==

Park Station is also the site of the southern terminus of the Gautrain, a high-speed rail link to Pretoria and the OR Tambo airport. The Gautrain station is adjacent to the existing main-line station, beneath Smit and Wolmarans streets, but with separate access. The station is modern and secure, with tight security and visible policing. Services run at 10-minute intervals during peak time, and access to services is via a pre-paid contactless Gautrain card. The station is underground, being connected via 9 miles of tunnel to Marlboro station. The line is fully electrified and built to the international standard gauge, broader than the 'standard' Cape gauge. The station opened for operation in June 2012. ==Services==