edwin_m
Veteran Member
The walking route to Moor Street and other places would have been much longer if they had put a "paid" route across the "a" end of all platforms. The simple answer is to head for the "b" end exits if changing trains.
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Poor design of Railway Stations
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61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
The 60s/70s/80s trend of putting massive concrete office blocks/shopping centres/arenas/car parks on top of stations was definitely bad design. So many stations have been reduced to cramped, dingy, dark caverns filled with diesel fumes. 
Manchester Victoria is one of the worst for this, not helped by the various delays to electrification plans. The third pair of through platforms that were lost in the rebuild would be very useful right now with the mess that is the "new & improved!" timetable.
Manchester Victoria is one of the worst for this, not helped by the various delays to electrification plans. The third pair of through platforms that were lost in the rebuild would be very useful right now with the mess that is the "new & improved!" timetable.
Warwick
Member
The 60s/70s/80s trend of putting massive concrete office blocks/shopping centres/arenas/car parks on top of stations was definitely bad design. So many stations have been reduced to cramped, dingy, dark caverns filled with diesel fumes.
Manchester Victoria is one of the worst for this, not helped by the various delays to electrification plans. The third pair of through platforms that were lost in the rebuild would be very useful right now with the mess that is the "new & improved!" timetable.
Ah but it was the money. The air space above railway stations in cities is valuable stuff.
3141
Established Member
Micheldever: from the "main concourse" there, i.e. the ticket office (when open) you must either go back outside, or forward onto a disused platform, in order to get to a subway which will lead you out to New Road, unless you take the upward steps half-way along which bring you to the island platform that's in use. [Question: is this post to be taken 100% seriously?]
It's actually been opened up and there's automatic doors there now. They're just waiting to, both literally and metaphorically, open them
As I discovered to my cost last Friday (which meant I ended up on a XC Voyager to Coventry rather than a Pendolino
)Liverpool Central. Apart from the cramped layout of the Northern Line island platform, and lack of seating, one of the escalators is so far to one end of it that most passengers ignore it and crowd onto the other one. In addition, although there is a quick and easy connection from Northern to Wirral lines, the same is not true in the other direction: you have to take two escalators up to the concourse level and then one down again. The station has only recently had a cosmetic upgrade at great cost; it's a pity that the nettle wasn't grasped and a bit (admittedly a large bit!) more spent on a proper redesign.
Wembley Central is, I feel - apart from a lack of diesel fumes - the nadir of this style of design. The main bit of the station (for the LO/LU service on the dc lines) is (or was - they seem to have have redeveloped the shopping centre) tucked away in one corner of the shopping centre, the entrances to platforms 5 & 6 being between shops down the passageway (and only open for the Southern trains that use them)
Statto
Established Member
Mirfield West Yorkshire, is an odd layout, 3 platforms with P1 & P2 being an island platform, with P3 being a side platform, but the platforms location means you have to go out of the station & cross a road to get from the side platform to the island platforms.
3141
Established Member
And that's been the case for over a hundred years and maybe longer. The early tube stations were designed for other buildings to be constructed above them.
Moorfields. Where else would you go up in the air (along what can be a bottleneck of a single escalator) before heading underground ? Admittedly a result of the 1967 Shankland Plan and ludicrous plans for 'streets in the sky' in Liverpool, but I often feel that Moorfields would have been best accessed by retaining the Exchange concourse and installing entrances from it to the underground
Kite159
Veteran Member
Made worse as Mirfield is an interchange station, i.e. Wakefield to Dewsbury.
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Wimbledon is a poor design, if they built an interchange footbridge at the Waterloo end to allow passengers to interchange between the systems it will spread the load
tommy_train
Member
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Blackburn, now that the barriers are installed.
The main entrance leads to a corridor from which platforms are accessed by stairs; P1/2 on one staircase upwards, and P3 from another, at the other end of the corridor. Opposite each staircase is a lift. The ticket office is (or was) located on P1/2. The corridor then leads to the carpark. Therefore there are 2 entrances to the station.
Northern have recently installed barriers. And new TVM. The barriers are Infront of the lifts (a glass divide keeps the area separate) and by P1/2 stairs, with a divider allowing you to walk along to P3. The TVM is by P3, near the carpark entrance.
Therefore, if you enter from the carpark to catch a train from P3, you can buy a ticket at the tvm, then walk all the way along the corridor to the barrier, then all the way back again to go up P3 stairs.
I think the barriers should be added to the P3 end, at least.
If I get around to it, I will draw a picture to show you what I mean.
The main entrance leads to a corridor from which platforms are accessed by stairs; P1/2 on one staircase upwards, and P3 from another, at the other end of the corridor. Opposite each staircase is a lift. The ticket office is (or was) located on P1/2. The corridor then leads to the carpark. Therefore there are 2 entrances to the station.
Northern have recently installed barriers. And new TVM. The barriers are Infront of the lifts (a glass divide keeps the area separate) and by P1/2 stairs, with a divider allowing you to walk along to P3. The TVM is by P3, near the carpark entrance.
Therefore, if you enter from the carpark to catch a train from P3, you can buy a ticket at the tvm, then walk all the way along the corridor to the barrier, then all the way back again to go up P3 stairs.
I think the barriers should be added to the P3 end, at least.
If I get around to it, I will draw a picture to show you what I mean.
Statto
Established Member
The original plan was to build a new bus station which would have replaced the old Pier Head bus station around the former Exchange Station area, & link it to Moorfields via overhead walkways, however that went belly up due to lack of funding for the bus station, & because of this Moorfields is the only underground station with the ticket office above ground.
Statto
Established Member
Agreed, the main concourse is far too small to deal with those waiting for trains, & trains are announced minutes before they depart so you have the mad rush to then to get to the platforms & on the train before the train departs as the platforms are some distance away from the concourse.
MidnightFlyer
Veteran Member
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Platform 3 is the bay inset into the west end of the island of p1/2. Platform 4 is the standalone
Really should have moved the booking office back downatairs when they installed them, now that the bus station has moved I should imagine where it used to be is now vacant again. Rochdale has the same set up, but minus the multiple entrances.
edwin_m
Veteran Member
I don't believe the east bridge ever accessed the platforms - just carried a right of way across the station.
You can exit via platform 7 past the car park on the south side, and up to the tram bridge or down to Station Street on the north side. This is the route of the public right of way since it was diverted for demolition of the east bridge.
The footbridge is actually about one third of the way down the platforms from the west end where the main access is. I don't think the eastern ends of the platforms are any further away but with more trains using the station and the split of the former platform 4 a lot more trains now use that part of the station.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
The side platform at Shrewsbury, I forget the number.
a_c_skinner
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Metrocentre is good for the centre but difficult to get to the cycle path alongside it.
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
It's a bit awkward, but I wouldn't say it's a terrible design- just a lack of coherent design. Many unstaffed minor stations use public roads to cross between platforms and also have staggered platforms meaning the road needs to be crossed.
A bigger problem at MIR (besides the stepped access to the island platform) is the kink in the Up main line around the underused side of the island platform, which can catch standing passengers unaware!
PHILIPE
Veteran Member
Steddenm
Member
Sydenham for Belfast George Best airport. A footbridge takes you from the platforms over the dual carriageway and steps down to ground level. From there you have to walk alongside said dual carriageway to get into the airport.
It's no wonder passengers use the bus more than the train!
It's no wonder passengers use the bus more than the train!
Dr Hoo
Established Member
You will be pleased to see the new doorways, being installed this week.
Dr Hoo
Established Member
This has been much discussed before on other threads but New Street is actually pretty much as you desire it - atrium, barriers, etc. The point is that it had to be a compromise to give good pedestrian access in various directions to the trams, taxis, car drop-off, Moor Street, etc. in ways that the awful old design that forced nearly everybody upstairs to the Pallisades shopping centre prevented.
This has come at the expense of the 'A' end barrier lines being split into two groups. Once you get the hang of using the 'B' end if interchanging and NOT wanting to break your journey it isn't too difficult and is at least far better than the previous congested layout.
High Wycombe platform 1 (the rest of the station is OK!) Not only can you not simply cross the platform to platform 2, but the two-car train stop (and most of the trains using platform 1 are two-car I would think) is now down the far end of platform 1. If you alight from a London-bound train on platform 3, it's a very long walk!
I have to defend the much maligned Angel Road here, as it's current situation is due to a combination of the late 80s/early 90s upgrade of the section of the A406 North Circular Road that passes the station and the growth of Stansted Airport.
After a rebuild in the early 70s, Angel Road had a street level building on the South side of Angel Road viaduct, with a Ticket Office and a set of stairs down to each platform, with a half hourly service between Liverpool Street and Hertford East. The viaduct also featured a suspended "subway" of sorts so as to facilitate crossing Angel Road, which even then was a busy stretch of road.
During the upgrade work, access to the station was initially maintained by means of a temporary scaffolding tower and footbridge combo on the North side of Angel Road, though there were numerous weekend closures with services being diverted via Seven Sisters.
With the Stansted Express frequency having been increased to 4tph, plus 2 Cambridge trains an hour and 2 an hour originating at Stratford, the "local" service to Hertford East has suffered, with stops being removed so as not to delay the faster services...Angel Road and Northumberland Park being the two main "victims" of those cuts.
Happily, this is in the process of being rectified through the STAR project, with a third track being reinstated between Lea Bridge and Angel Road and Angel Road itself station being replaced by a new station slightly to the South (essentially opposite Tesco and Ikea) to be called "Meridian Water" after a new housing development. Initially this will be used for a shuttle service between Stratford and Meridian Water, but it's being built with passive provision for extension towards Cheshunt and reinstatement of the fourth track as well.
I found Barcelona Sants very confusing first time I used it, maybe it was just me? Random entrances and exits to platforms dotted around the place.
I’d agree with the above comments about Wembley Central but at least access has now been restored so that all platforms can now be joined from the booking hall.
I think that St Pancras Int’l needs to be urgently relooked at if platforms A & B are going to actually get their 48tph. They will not cope with the numbers and a single gateline. Also, there is no room for Eurostar to expand or for another operator (not that there needs to be one, but HS1 and Eurotunnel seem to be pushing for it bizarrely) to use the international facilities. The current Eurostar area is saturated if they have 3/4 departures within an hour (as they currently do throughout the week) and queues spill over, its very claustrophobic and disrupts the main station arcade.
Haussmann St Lazare isn’t user friendly at all and it takes a good 5 mins to reach street level from the platforms, 10 to reach St Lazare, 15 to reach the Normandy platforms, with poor signage, hardly any staffing points or help points and a lift system which is impossible. The station does seem to be a typical French ‘joined-up-cathedral’ type station, so very unlikely to change.
I must say that when thinking about this, I could think of a few stations in each country I’ve been too, but none in the Netherlands. I find the stations I’ve ever been to there have all been very spacious, good, easy at point of use layout, well signed and accessible.
I’d agree with the above comments about Wembley Central but at least access has now been restored so that all platforms can now be joined from the booking hall.
I think that St Pancras Int’l needs to be urgently relooked at if platforms A & B are going to actually get their 48tph. They will not cope with the numbers and a single gateline. Also, there is no room for Eurostar to expand or for another operator (not that there needs to be one, but HS1 and Eurotunnel seem to be pushing for it bizarrely) to use the international facilities. The current Eurostar area is saturated if they have 3/4 departures within an hour (as they currently do throughout the week) and queues spill over, its very claustrophobic and disrupts the main station arcade.
Haussmann St Lazare isn’t user friendly at all and it takes a good 5 mins to reach street level from the platforms, 10 to reach St Lazare, 15 to reach the Normandy platforms, with poor signage, hardly any staffing points or help points and a lift system which is impossible. The station does seem to be a typical French ‘joined-up-cathedral’ type station, so very unlikely to change.
I must say that when thinking about this, I could think of a few stations in each country I’ve been too, but none in the Netherlands. I find the stations I’ve ever been to there have all been very spacious, good, easy at point of use layout, well signed and accessible.
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