Small commuter focused layout?

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I used the Minories plan for one of my stations.
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It's about 8 feet long and a foot wide but it joins into a double track section of my layout and I use the big station as a fiddle yard for it. I also don't have enough suburban (commuter) trains in the same railway to run it properly -- the locos move from train to train and no longer match.
The operation is supposed to be train arrives, loco in stub track moves to back end and takes coaches out, ex-train loco moves to stub or directly to back of another train.
(There's an enlarged version with a couple of freight sidings).

that would look good with a Rapid Transit type layout, with Subways, Elevated lines, or what have you. Other than the P1k Subways though, HO subway cars get expensive (let alone difficult to find).

In the example, the staging tracks are "covered" by a locomotive terminal. Perhaps one could cleverly disguise the outermost staging track as a subway tunnel/station while the "lid" is on top.