An American-style 'union station' is a worst-case outcome

 An American-stye 'union station' is a worst-case outcome - a traditional terminal head station for multiple non-connecting railroad companies. Yet even after our commuter roads fell into public ownership, we kept the same operating paradigm, rather than exploring through-running. I anticipate part of which is a matter of station architecture--not design for thru-running, it's difficult to implement. But I suspect a greater part is institutional, that "The Purpose of Commuter Rail is Bringing Commuters to the CBD" and that was as much thought as went into it.