What is the most dismal un-passenger friendly large railway station in UK

[Matt_pool]

I've not read all 11 pages, but anyone who doesn't answer London Euston is objectively wrong.

I've never liked Euston. I remember being there 3 or 4 years ago when you still had to pay for the toilets.

The floor of the gents were flooded, half the cubicles were out of order. What was I paying 30p for?

Once I bought a burger from Burger King there and I'm sure it was more expensive than a Burger King on a normal high street.

The main concourse, the outside in front of the concourse - just yuk! And then you go to the underground which is even more depressing with massive queues for the ticket machines.

It's never been a good place to start or end trip to London. Especially to end a trip, you just want to get the hell out of there!

 

[cactustwirly]

I still dislike new street. Same old horror at platform level and the snazzy new shopping centre doesn't even have a "Tap" type establishment to get a decent beer. A wasted opportunity.

I like all the others you mention.

Picc has its train shed, Crewe has all of its old railway charm, but has also been tidied up a lot from twenty years ago.

My personal observation:

I dislike Reading generally, but at least the station used to have a bit of Great Western charm. Now it looks like a spaceship. I'd have preferred them to have built some new platforms in a sympathetic style.

Completely disagree, I think New Street is very good.
Lots of places to get coffee, sit down, and generally a clean station.

Reading is a huge amount better post rebuild, it's very easy to change trains, and it's a nice clean station

 

[Ken H]

a lot of opinions depend if you like post WW2 architecture or not. Cant say I am a fan, so dislike New St, Stafford, Cov and Euston...
But the facilities at Cov are OK.

 

[Robertj21a]

I've never liked Euston. I remember being there 3 or 4 years ago when you still had to pay for the toilets.

The floor of the gents were flooded, half the cubicles were out of order. What was I paying 30p for?

Once I bought a burger from Burger King there and I'm sure it was more expensive than a Burger King on a normal high street.

The main concourse, the outside in front of the concourse - just yuk! And then you go to the underground which is even more depressing with massive queues for the ticket machines.

It's never been a good place to start or end trip to London. Especially to end a trip, you just want to get the hell out of there!

Not sure you can blame Euston for anything that Burger King do !

 

[LOL The Irony]

Once I bought a burger from Burger King there and I'm sure it was more expensive than a Burger King on a normal high street.

Like they are at other stations, airports and motorway services.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not sure you can blame Euston for anything that Burger King do !

I don't get the hate for Euston anyway. The main problem with it are the VT barrier staff and the "Euston scrum", both of which are operational choices[1] and nothing to do with the design of the station. It's airy, open, cool in summer and warm in winter, and has a Nando's outside, and doesn't stink of human waste (other than the bogs, which really do need improved ventilation). Not sure what's not to like.

[1] The "Euston scrum" only applied to VT services until Network Rail took over management of the PIS from VT. Before that the suburban platforms were not suppressed, and indeed were on a poster in the Tube concourse.

 

[DavidGrain]

I have known three New Street Stations. Thinking back as a boy, I don't actually remember any facilities at all. If you entered from Stephenson Street you went past the booking office windows and then it was one long footbridge with hoardings enclosing both sides with gaps for the stairs down to the platforms. Half way across there were a few steps down so the Midland platforms must have been at a lower level than the North Western platforms. At the far end there were steps down to the Station Street entrance, always regarded as the back entrance. There was a road separating the two halves of the station but that was not obvious from the footbridge. There was a bar but I have no recollection as to where that was or a refreshment room.

The 1960s station had a 'front' entrance on to Smallbrook Queensway but I only recall using that entrance when I was in a car either dropping people off or picking people up. If I was travelling anywhere I went into Birmingham by bus and used the entrance with the escalators down from the shopping centre above the station.

The latest rebuild I think is a vast improvement on the previous stations but, and this is the real problem, until you get to know your way around it is a complete puzzle.
Oh and the toilets in the 'Red Lounge' are still out of use and it must be at least two months now.

 

[cactustwirly]

I don't get the hate for Euston anyway. The main problem with it are the VT barrier staff and the "Euston scrum", both of which are operational choices[1] and nothing to do with the design of the station. It's airy, open, cool in summer and warm in winter, and has a Nando's outside, and doesn't stink of human waste (other than the bogs, which really do need improved ventilation). Not sure what's not to like.

[1] The "Euston scrum" only applied to VT services until Network Rail took over management of the PIS from VT. Before that the suburban platforms were not suppressed, and indeed were on a poster in the Tube concourse.

Being blunt, Euston is a complete ****hole, and probably the worst London Terminal. It's pig ugly, run down, dark, dingy, and there's no seating on the concourse

 

[AndrewE]

Being blunt, Euston is a complete ****hole, and probably the worst London Terminal. It's pig ugly, run down, dark, dingy, and there's no seating on the concourse

Oh yes there is! It's on the new mezzanine, like at Kings Cross and Waterloo.
And it's not ugly, dark or dingy either. The original flooring is nice too (some sort of exotic green marble.) It's a pity the concourse has been filled with retail crap, and I would rather the mezzanine hadn't been built, but the crowding is purely down to the just-in-time turn-rounds of the trains and the need to service them without passengers getting in the way. More rolling stock, drivers and the use of carriage sidings for servicing would be nice, but that was yesterday's railway. (As was the big open airy concourse at Euston!)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Some of the "retail crap" was removed last weekend, FWIW. Let's hope it stays gone.

 

[DavidGrain]

As someone who had used Euston for 45 years alternating between frequent and occasional depending on my work commitments, my only complaint is having to stand in a crowd watching the departure boards, then when the train is called being in a race to the platform, then all stop at the bottom of the ramp for a ticket inspection. Do the railways realise that if you have got a briefcase or worse two items that you are carrying how difficult to juggle these and hand your tickets (plural because you have to show your seat reservations as well as your travel ticket) then if you are in standard class on an 11 car Pendo, a long walk with minutes to spare.

On another thread on this forum someone mentioned the days when Inter-City claimed that there was always a train at the platform ready to board. We did not know how things would deteriorate.

 

[Bletchleyite]

On another thread on this forum someone mentioned the days when Inter-City claimed that there was always a train at the platform ready to board. We did not know have things would deteriorate.

We could get back there with the HS2 platforms even if HS2 itself is canned. The trouble is that when that was the case there were 2tph Northampton Line, 3tph Watford and about 5tph IC (2 Brum, 1 Liverpool, 1 Manchester and half a Scotland/Holyhead). Now I count 25 departures between 1700 and 1759 inclusive today. There just isn't the capacity to have it as it was.

 

[vlad]

I've not read all 11 pages, but anyone who doesn't answer London Euston is objectively wrong.

We're obviously not going to get on with each other.

 

[DavidGrain]

We could get back there with the HS2 platforms even if HS2 itself is canned. The trouble is that when that was the case there were 2tph Northampton Line, 3tph Watford and about 5tph IC (2 Brum, 1 Liverpool, 1 Manchester and half a Scotland/Holyhead). Now I count 25 departures between 1700 and 1759 inclusive today. There just isn't the capacity to have it as it was.

Yes I remember the trains were 'flighted' so that there was an Inter-City departure every 5 minutes from xx.40 to xx.10 the following hour and the other half hour was for fitted freight traffic to use the fast lines. Not advertised at Euston but most of the Birmingham trains continued to Liverpool or Manchester.

 

[Bletchleyite]

We're obviously not going to get on with each other.

I'm with you. Euston has its faults and has a very poor operational model, but as a station I really quite like it. It's an example of 1960s Brutalism done really quite well.

 

[FrodshamJnct]

MCO isn’t great. Overcrowding in the mornings when they decide everyone without season tickets need to go through the barriers. Awful staff in Pumpkin and a Costa that no one knows exists. At least the bogs are free!

 

[Matt_pool]

Like they are at other stations, airports and motorway services.

Yes, I should have known better!

 

[Bletchleyite]

MCO isn’t great. Overcrowding in the mornings when they decide everyone without season tickets need to go through the barriers. Awful staff in Pumpkin and a Costa that no one knows exists. At least the bogs are free!

The bogs used to be rough in the extreme there. You'd often see discarded needles, and certainly wouldn't feel safe to take up residence in the cubicle with your newspaper. (Mind you, speaking of needles, Hamburg Hbf is the only place where I've ever seen the whistle go, and then an obvious drug addict come running out of a train bog and jump onto the platform with a needle still hanging out of his arm - no UK station I can think of is quite as rough as many European ones can be).

OTOH the rather unique architecture (and it being the gateway to many a Uni-days adventure) gives me positive memories of the place.

 

[AndrewE]

We could get back there with the HS2 platforms even if HS2 itself is canned. The trouble is that when that was the case there were 2tph Northampton Line, 3tph Watford and about 5tph IC (2 Brum, 1 Liverpool, 1 Manchester and half a Scotland/Holyhead). Now I count 25 departures between 1700 and 1759 inclusive today. There just isn't the capacity to have it as it was.

It has also got a lot to do with the tight diagramming of the units: I suspect we are getting far more trips out of every Pendo than was ever imagined when they were procured. It's OK when things are going well, but a nightmare for everyone when something breaks down.
It's nice to have so many trains to everywhere (although not enough to Liverpool) but it would be a lot better if another dozen sets were available, plus the platforms or carriage sidings to house them during the longer turnrounds. This is probably why I am a convert to HS2.

 

[FrodshamJnct]

The bogs used to be rough in the extreme there. You'd often see discarded needles, and certainly wouldn't feel safe to take up residence in the cubicle with your newspaper.

OTOH the rather unique architecture (and it being the gateway to many a Uni-days adventure) gives me positive memories of the place.

Same. The immediate access to good uni-era boozers was a redeeming feature. Maybe I need to become an eternal student.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's nice to have so many trains to everywhere (although not enough to Liverpool) but it would be a lot better if another dozen sets were available, plus the platforms or carriage sidings to house them during the longer turnrounds. This is probably why I am a convert to HS2.

Yes, I'd agree. Even if HS2 is canned, there needs to be more stock of some kind, and more platforms. It's a crying shame funding wasn't found to make all the Pendolinos 11-car, too.

 

[LOL The Irony]

It's a crying shame funding wasn't found to make all the Pendolinos 11-car, too.

The 9 cars have their uses.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The 9 cars have their uses.

With SDO an 11-car would have the same uses.

 

[Ken H]

With SDO an 11-car would have the same uses.

are the 11 care pendos too long to fit into lime st?

 

[Bletchleyite]

are the 11 care pendos too long to fit into lime st?

No. Though there might be somewhere else they won't fit, e.g. some Euston platforms?

 

[DavidGrain]

With SDO an 11-car would have the same uses.

Don't Pendos have SDO. I have been on an 11 car Pendo to Edinburgh and it did not fit the platform at Haymarket.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Don't Pendos have SDO. I have been on an 11 car Pendo to Edinburgh and it did not fit the platform at Haymarket.

Yes, they do indeed.

 

[Statto]

are the 11 care pendos too long to fit into lime st?

No i was on an 11 car pendo to Liverpool last Friday, slotted in perfectly to the platform.

 

[yorksrob]

Completely disagree, I think New Street is very good.
Lots of places to get coffee, sit down, and generally a clean station.

Reading is a huge amount better post rebuild, it's very easy to change trains, and it's a nice clean station

No, I far prefer Euston. The concourse anyway.

You can dump the prettiest shopping mall you like on New Street, but it's still a hole in the ground.

 

[Mordac]

No, I far prefer Euston. The concourse anyway.

You can dump the prettiest shopping mall you like on New Street, but it's still a hole in the ground.

You can't seriously prefer Euston's platforms to New Street's???