Johannesburg Park Station is the central railway station in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, and the largest railway station in Africa.^[1] It is located between the Central Business District and Braamfontein, in the block bordered by Rissik, Wolmarans, Wanderers, and Noord Streets. Park Station lies on the main Witwatersrand railway line that runs East-West from Krugersdorp to Germiston. The first four stations to the east are Doornfontein, Ellis Park, Jeppe and George Goch Stations.

Park Station is the centre of the Witwatersrand Metrorail network, with daily commuter rail services running west to Carletonville, Randfontein and Soweto; east to Springs, Nigel and Daveyton; north to Pretoria and south to Vereeniging.^[2] Park Station is also the terminus of Shosholoza Meyl long-distance services to Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London, Bloemfontein via Kimberley, Komatipoort via Nelspruit and Musina via Polokwane.^[3]

The southern terminus of the Gautrain rapid-rail service is located underground, in a separate station adjacent to the existing main-line 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.^[4]: 6

By 1888, an early railway line from Boksburg to Braamfontein would pass a tin shed at a station spot that would be called Park, named after the Krugers Park just north of the stop.^[4]: 6 Krugers Park would later be known as Old Wanderers. By 1889/1890 the stop was now called Park Halt on the Boksburg/Braamfontein line.^[4]: 6 The line was run by the De Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappy (NZASM) and was known as the Rand Steam Tram which transported coal from the collieries at Boksburg to the yards at Braamfontein.^[5]: 153 It would later be extended westwards to Krugersdorp and eastwards from Boksburg to Springs.^[5]: 153

The NZASM was a railway monopoly granted by the South African Republic (ZAR) government for construction and management of railways in the Transvaal and was formed on 21 June 1887.^[5]: 151 The backers were Labouchere Oyens in the Netherlands and Robert Warschauer and Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft of Berlin, Germany.^[5]: 151 The NZASM planned to build a railway from Pretoria to the border of Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), the aim being to have an independent link to the Indian Ocean, bypassing British territory in the Cape and Natal. The project fell short of funding, and after money was loaned to the ZAR by the Cape government, they were able to obtain a further loan from Rothchilds, but with the condition the Cape rail authorities were allowed to continue the Cape line through the Orange Free State to Johannesburg and set the rate for a period of three years.^[5]: 153

The second train line to reach Johannesburg was therefore from Cape Town with the first train arriving on 15 September 1892.^[5]: 150 In 1893, Pretoria was finally connected to Johannesburg via a railway with the lines lowered from ground level closer to the station for public safety while to improve the connection to northern part of the town. A road bridge was constructed over the lines at King Georges Street and a pedestrian bridge built at the north end of Twist Street.^[4]: 7 This was soon followed by the ZAR's project to connect Pretoria to Delagoa Bay, with the first train arriving in Johannesburg from Lourenco Marques (Maputo) on 2 November 1894.^[5]: 153 The Colony of Natal would be connected to the goldfields on 2 January 1896 when the first train arrived in Johannesburg from Durban.^[5]: 152

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.^[9]

It was revealed in 2018 that Park Station has become a hub for abduction of women and children who commute or work in the area, who then become victims of human trafficking.^[10]

• 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.

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.^[11] Services run at 10-minute intervals during peak time, and access to services is via a pre-paid contactless Gautrain card.^[12] 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 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge, broader than the 'standard' 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) Cape gauge. The station opened for operation in June 2012.^[13]