What is the importance of the train station in the novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret?

The train station is located in Paris, France, and is described as a large, beautiful building replete with shops that range from a bookseller to a toy stall to a café. It is in the train station that Georges Melies has his toy store, and it is in the train station that Hugo lives in an old apartment building where he keeps the automaton. There are 27 clocks made of brass in the train station which Hugo sets and keeps in good working order throughout the novel, accessible only by secret passages in the walls of the station.