# Caverna de andenes



## Cotomelon

Hello all,

I'm not sure how to translate "caverna de andenes".

The whole sententence is "La nueva estación de cercanías de Sol de Madrid cuenta con la caverna de andenes más grande del mundo".

"The new suburban station of Sol of Madrid has the biggest platform tube of the word".

Could it be "platform tube"? If I use platform as an adjective, then I can't use the plural, but "tube of platforms" doesn't sound great to me.

Can anyone shed some light?

Thanks,

Cotomelon


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## Sergio Campo

Una sugerencia: "station cavern". No es exacto literalmente pero creo que traduce bien el sentido. Si buscas en google encontrarás referencias a este término. Creo que "cavern of platforms" no suena bien y "tube" no me parece la palabra adecuada para traducir "caverna"


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## coolbrowne

Actually I don't think it's a suburban station. Its location is close to (en cercanía de) the "Puerta del Sol" in Madrid; the Spanish text is a bit too brief, hence somewhat misleading. If I may, "caverna de andenes" should not be translated literally. It's the open space where the platforms ("andenes") are located, in other words, the station itself:
The new (metro) station in the vicinity of the "Puerta del Sol" gate in Madrid boasts the *largest* underground/metro station open space *in* the word​Saludos/Saluti


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## Cotomelon

Hi coolbrowne,

in this case "cercanía" doesn't mean vicinity to the station. It is referred to the trains' route - the train that connect with the villages/towns near Madrid.

The platforms are underground and the "caverna" is the tunnel that hosts the platform and rails. For this reason I suggested tube.

I hope this help clarifying somehow.

I think that if some English native could confirm what Sergio Campo said, probably I'll go for that option.

Thank you for your attempt.

Kind regards.


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## projectguy

You really should follow Coolbrowne's advice on this one. I don't know of any native speaker who would refer to an underground station as a "cavern" except as a joke. You might disagree with his treatment of "cercania" but the rest sounds good.


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## coolbrowne

That was a valiant attempt but "station cavern" is actually a made up expression in an effort to closely reproduce the original:


Cotomelon said:


> I think that if some English native could confirm what Sergio Campo said...


The problem is that "station cavern" would sound very odd and wouldn't be easily recognized by English speakers as describing this "caverna de andenes" (I suspect the same applies to Italian,_ mutatis mutandis_, but I digress ). Likewise, even though an underground station is still conceptually a tunnel, the word brings to mind the much narrower and longer version, _which connects_ stations; again, that would be the case in other languages. The problem is that there is no specific term for that in English. On refers to it as the "station", which is frustrating because it also designates the facilities, the location and so on. However such is the burden of the translator. 

You are right, I misinterpreted "_de cercanías_"  but I believe there was also a misunderstanding about my use of "open space". To be clear, it did not mean to imply a surface station. Furthermore, its use, together with the expression "underground station", will make this clear to English-speaking ears. And, it will clearly convey the idea of "caverna de andenes" in the absence of a specific term.

Regards
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P.S.: Incidentally, every reference to "caverna de andenes" that I have found has that specific station for theme, as if the expression had been created to describe precisely that engineering marvel, pero, ¿Qué sé yo? 
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*AHA*: X-post with *projectguy*


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## Sergio Campo

Very interesting and thoughtful discussion. The term "station cavern" might be made up, but not by me, anyway. See http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/geoscientist/features/page5343.html where is actually used in a similar context. I don´t think it sounds that bad...


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## coolbrowne

That's an enlightening reference, thanks 


Sergio Campo said:


> ...The term "station cavern" might be made up, but not by me, anyway...


I admit that the geological angle of a subway/underground station never ocurred to me. However it obviously has its relevance, at least in the construction stage.

Saludos


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## Sergio Campo

Most welcome. To be honest, I had just a vague remembrance of having heard the expression, so I did some research (meaning I googled the thing) before posting in this thread. As a non-native speaker, I don´t have that inner feeling about english one has about his/her own language. There goes another reference I found online (an interesting read in itself): http://www.erha.org/pewst.htm.

Regards


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## projectguy

Sergio Campo said:


> Very interesting and thoughtful discussion. The term "station cavern" might be made up, but not by me, anyway. See http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/geoscientist/features/page5343.html where is actually used in a similar context. I don´t think it sounds that bad...


 
Yes, this is an interesting discussion and those are indeed "caverns" in those pictures! I expect, however, that by the time the platforms are operating and trains are running in and out, the stations will look nothing like "caverns", which, in the N.A. way of thinking, are large un-improved caves. There can be a cavern behind that pretty facade, but the station won't be called a cavern. Just an underground station or a subway station.

Thanks for the different perspectives!


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## Cotomelon

Thank you so much to you all for your posts. It has been a really interesting discussion and it has helped me a lot. Much, much appreciated!


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