"hacia Sevilla" o "a Sevilla"

"hacia Sevilla" o "a Sevilla"
 

El tren hacia Sevilla está en la segunda plataforma.
El tren a Sevilla está en la segunda plataforma.

Ambos traducen a "to Sevilla". Cual es preferido

Hacia Sevilla means towards Seville or in the direction of Seville.
A Sevilla means to Seville. Obviously the meanings are similar, and their use may be interchangable, but perhaps hacia implies local stops along the way.

el tren a Sevilla (Seville is its destination, or at least it has a stop there)
el tren hacia Sevilla (in the direction of Seville. I don't know any use of this in the real world. It sounds more like a very informal way to ask about the right platform)

@Bob: "Hacia" is not exactly the destination, but it rather implies the idea of moving from one place to another, also the way to the destination.

As Alec said, it's hard to hear "el tren hacia Sevilla"; you will rather hear things like:

- El tren que parte hacia Sevilla está en...
- El tren que va hacia Sevilla está en...
- El tren que sale hacia Sevilla está en...
...


And (at least in Mexico) you will hear as often as "a Sevilla", "para Sevilla". :)

The "hacia Sevilla" was from:
LearnWithOliver. com <support.spanish@learnwitholiver.com>
Sentence of the Day (Intermediate):
El tren hacia Sevilla está en la segunda plataforma.
The train to Seville is at the second platform.

It still sounds strange to me, but it may very well be a regional preference. :)

it's around. I checked the internet and lots of hacia comes up. Here's an example:
http://www.howtotraveltomachupicchu.com/node/41

A Sevilla use is clearly the better one. I think the meaning is close. Perhaps you can compare it to: trains to Chicago and Chicago bound trains.

Here, the use of "plataforma", ordinals and "hacia" gives away a completely foreign origin -and not much skilled source-.

"El tren a Sevilla parte del andén número dos" -at a terminal-

or

"El tren para Sevilla para en el andén número dos" -in intermediate stations-.

These are "da ways".

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
plataforma ---> a stage, open air, on a flat plot
plataforma ---> platform shoes
plataforma ---> space without seats in passenger cars, buses and streetcars (generally accesses)
plataforma ---> flat wagon (flatcar)
plataforma ---> flat surface built in a construction site to facilitate work (specific type of scaffold)
plataforma ---> political program (figurative use of the previous meaning)
plataforma ---> akin to operative system in computing
plataforma ---> In half the American continent, at a BUS terminal, the space where passengers await, get on or off the bus, and in many cases they handle or get back their baggages to be transported in the luggage or cargo compartment. This use may make some uneducated native speakers who are not familiar with trains to call "plataforma" what is only correctly named "andenes", and the distracted ones to tolerate its use.

andén ---> platform (in a rail station)

In train stations in Spain the PA may say, "Tren con destino [a] Sevilla, con salida a las 16:30 se encuentra en la vía 3, andén 4..." (with the "a", deleted in many times...)

And don't forget, "La lluvia en Sevilla es una maravilla". ;)