Blackpool North: The most unfriendly station in the country?

mmh · 29 Jun 2018

Crossover said:
Since the work has been done, the platforms are devoid of pretty much anything, including signage. I honestly can't recall seeing any seats on the platforms!

But you wouldn't bother putting seats on platforms at station with "closed" platforms. I don't think any of the platforms at Euston, which operates this sort of platform opened for each train when it's "ready" system on some platforms, have seats.

Before they were ticket barriered many of the London terminuses worked this way - each platform or platform pair would have a large manually operated gate which was opened just before departure.

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Deafdoggie · 29 Jun 2018

Euston does have some platform seats, which I have always considered curious. There is one on 15 at the very least, and I am fairly sure other odd ones too.

mmh · 29 Jun 2018

Deafdoggie said:
Euston does have some platform seats, which I have always considered curious. There is one on 15 at the very least, and I am fairly sure other odd ones too.

You're right - all of them it seems, which is a bit surprising! In the pictures of them on the national rail site they've even managed to catch someone using one on platform 1!

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stati...stations-made-easy/london-euston-station-plan

Dore & Totley · 29 Jun 2018

mmh said:
But you wouldn't bother putting seats on platforms at station with "closed" platforms. I don't think any of the platforms at Euston, which operates this sort of platform opened for each train when it's "ready" system on some platforms, have seats.

Before they were ticket barriered many of the London terminuses worked this way - each platform or platform pair would have a large manually operated gate which was opened just before departure.

I fondly remember the concertina doors at Waterloo on my frequent trips to the Isle of Wight and Liphook as a child. Once a very friendly worker let me open them and help check tickets

lincolnshire · 29 Jun 2018

When I visited Blackpool in the past and it was when the heating was on ( gents toilet rad was red hot ) and ventured on to the platform for some fresh air only to be told to get off as not allowed asked why its due to tanking trains and the hose pipes running across the platform. I do wonder how would the staff carry on at Kings Cross then? where they are lifting the plates and connecting the pipes on to the coaches as soon as the train as arrived, is this not a hazard then?
So since the platforms have been rebuilt this problem should have now gone , no more pipes across the platforms? not been back to see and not rushing back to place in rush either to see.
As raised yesterday I thought the same about fire breaking out, as the doors onto the platform was physically lock with a key by what I could see and not protected by the usual fire exit push bars that you usually get fitted to fire exits. The doors on the other entrance ( not used now) had an emergency green push to release the doors at the side of them but this was semi hidden by a large potted plant in front of it. It did make me wonder if this was there on purpose?
I do wonder who has carried out the fire risk assessment there and was they on site when it was a busy time or just midweek before the holiday season started?
Not rushing back there to see it now or when it gets finnished either.

Train Maniac · 20 Oct 2018

I know weve kinda moved on topic, but Fort William is another awkward station that i know of. A few years ago i got off a West Highland Line train and hanged around for a bit. Once i was done i walked to the end of the platform and the barrier was up (which i thought was a bit odd, considering the whole Jacobite thing) i simply slipped underneath it and wasnt questioned. I was meant to wait for 10 minutes to be picked up by my Dad and then i heard a horn. This was back when the Cally Sleeper 73's were brand new. Its safe to say i kinda panicked and made the bad decision to slip underneath the barrier again. The staff were mad at me to say the least! Personally speaking i disagree with 'closed' stations, they are public spaces after all.

Eric · 20 Oct 2018

I'm taking the wife to Blackpool next week to see her friend, if they hold me in the station i’ll ask to be let out onto the platforms

221129 · 20 Oct 2018

Eric said:
I'm taking the wife to Blackpool next week to see her friend, if they hold me in the station i’ll ask to be let out onto the platforms

And you'll be told no like everyone else.

221129 · 20 Oct 2018

Train Maniac said:
Personally speaking i disagree with 'closed' stations, they are public spaces after all.

No they aren't (small number of exception apply.) A railway station is private property and people can be banned from entering it.

tomuk · 20 Oct 2018

I was there on Wednesday afternoon and had to queue for my train from platform 3. The incoming service was 4 or 5 minutes late but we were held on the concourse until the disembarking passengers had made it to the concourse. We were then given the hurry up by the guard as we approached the unit which was at the far end of the platform and left the second everyone was on board. The turnaround would have been a lot quicker if we could have waited on the platform. There were more than enough staff to supervise the platforms rather than milling around the barriers and doors. What might be appropriate on a busy evening peak season isn't most of the time particularly on a quite Wednesday afternoon in October.

Bletchleyite · 20 Oct 2018

I don't really see why passengers have such an issue with this - at least unlike the "Euston scrum" it is possible to queue for a train in an orderly manner and take the seats in that order.

bramling · 20 Oct 2018

Bletchleyite said:
I don't really see why passengers have such an issue with this - at least unlike the "Euston scrum" it is possible to queue for a train in an orderly manner and take the seats in that order.

It doesn't work like that. In reality people are left forming a non-orderly queue in a congested holding area, with conflicting flows and not much space. Then when finally released the scrum still happens.

The objective at Blackpool North should be to make every effort to allow people to board the train as early as possible, and if not to allow people to wait on the platform with seating provided.

spongsdad · 20 Oct 2018

I solve the problem of unhelpful staff by visiting Blackpool (if I really have to) by car. After all, it's not as though Northern and disruptive RMT staff care whether I travel by train or not. They seem to want to make it as difficult as possible. I save my sympathy for the poor souls who have no alternative. I can't really accept that staff are so unhelpful by second nature. They obviously undertake a specific training course in awkwardness.

LowLevel · 20 Oct 2018

Eric said:
I'm taking the wife to Blackpool next week to see her friend, if they hold me in the station i’ll ask to be let out onto the platforms

Don't be under any illusion that being polite and assertive will get you anywhere. You will not get through. Staff or passenger alike - they're another breed. I have no reason to believe you'll be anymore successful than anyone else in the last 40 years.

People moan about Skegness being similar but I think it's a world apart - the staff at Skeg considering their issues with total pondlife and drug dealers haunting the place are generally fairly pleasant folk. I regularly do the barrier there myself as the guard and I've never turned anyone down to go and wave someone off on to the train or have a look at the signals, as long as we've got the hoses trailing everywhere out of the way.

spongsdad said:
I solve the problem of unhelpful staff by visiting Blackpool (if I really have to) by car. After all, it's not as though Northern and disruptive RMT staff care whether I travel by train or not. They seem to want to make it as difficult as possible. I save my sympathy for the poor souls who have no alternative. I can't really accept that staff are so unhelpful by second nature. They obviously undertake a specific training course in awkwardness.

Yeah, it's the third day of the induction generally. You get fitted with a chip that makes you hate *everyone* and have an insatiable desire to inconvenience them. I personally love setting fire to people's luggage and making their children cry.

Eric · 20 Oct 2018

LowLevel said:
Don't be under any illusion that being polite and assertive will get you anywhere. You will not get through. Staff or passenger alike - they're another breed. I have no reason to believe you'll be anymore successful than anyone else in the last 40 years.

People moan about Skegness being similar but I think it's a world apart - the staff at Skeg considering their issues with total pondlife and drug dealers haunting the place are generally fairly pleasant folk. I regularly do the barrier there myself as the guard and I've never turned anyone down to go and wave someone off on to the train or have a look at the signals, as long as we've got the hoses trailing everywhere out of the way.

Yeah, it's the third day of the induction generally. You get fitted with a chip that makes you hate *everyone* and have an insatiable desire to inconvenience them. I personally love setting fire to people's luggage and making their children cry.

Skegness is an interesting one because I genuinely didn’t know the procedure and was getting the train back after 6pm, so the ticket office was shut.

I opened the little wooden gate and walked right up to the end of the platform to see the signal box and signals before someone came running up the platform after me.

He wasn’t even station staff, he was the security guard from the independent shop in the train station.

I didn’t know I had done nothing wrong, where are the signs saying that you can’t go on the platform to look at the signals and signal box?

I’ll ask at Blackpool North station if I can have a look at the new layout and platforms when dropping off the wife, but suspect I’ll have to wait in that claustrophobic ticket office with everyone else.

bramling · 20 Oct 2018

Eric said:
I’ll ask at Blackpool North station if I can have a look at the new layout and platforms when dropping off the wife, but suspect I’ll have to wait in that claustrophobic ticket office with everyone else.

At Blackpool North if you go to the "customer services" (!) office in the waiting area and ask nicely they *may* let you onto the platforms to take photos. The odds of this being permitted increase if you're off-duty railway staff, and you've more chance at a quiet time like Sunday morning. Even if you get the permission, you can still expect to be hassled!

LowLevel · 20 Oct 2018

Eric said:
Skegness is an interesting one because I genuinely didn’t know the procedure and was getting the train back after 6pm, so the ticket office was shut.

I opened the little wooden gate and walked right up to the end of the platform to see the signal box and signals before someone came running up the platform after me.

He wasn’t even station staff, he was the security guard from the independent shop in the train station.

I didn’t know I had done nothing wrong, where are the signs saying that you can’t go on the platform to look at the signals and signal box?

I’ll ask at Blackpool North station if I can have a look at the new layout and platforms when dropping off the wife, but suspect I’ll have to wait in that claustrophobic ticket office with everyone else.

To be fair it's a system from another time when it used to be commonplace at terminals but it still works for loading holiday trains and dealing with the stock servicing at Skeg.

I do however believe that it's generally the case that if a gate is shut and you have to reach over to unbolt it as is the case at Skegness that it's not for passenger operation

The security guards were a short term and short notice deployment due to significant problems with anti social behaviour and overcrowding this summer so they might have reacted somewhat differently.

bramling · 20 Oct 2018

LowLevel said:
To be fair it's a system from another time when it used to be commonplace at terminals but it still works for loading holiday trains and dealing with the stock servicing at Skeg.

I do however believe that it's generally the case that if a gate is shut and you have to reach over to unbolt it as is the case at Skegness that it's not for passenger operation

The security guards were a short term and short notice deployment due to significant problems with anti social behaviour and overcrowding this summer so they might have reacted somewhat differently.

It doesn't work so badly at Skegness as generally I think I'm right in saying there will only ever be one imminent departure, plus the concourse area is reasonably spacious. Blackpool North just doesn't have the space to run the system, which is why it causes so many issues.

Personally I'm not keen on it at Skegness either, however I can understand why it's done there, and that it's probably the least-worst way of working the station. It doesn't offer a good passenger experience though.

superkev · 20 Oct 2018

Am I the only one horrified at last Mondays channel 5 Paddington program which showed the passengers being cattled like at Blackpool. i.e. being held behind the gates till the last minute then literally chased onto the train including many older people with "hurry hurry" etc
K

Bletchleyite · 20 Oct 2018

superkev said:
Am I the only one horrified at last Mondays channel 5 Paddington program which showed the passengers being cattled like at Blackpool. i.e. being held behind the gates till the last minute then literally chased onto the train including many older people with "hurry hurry" etc

The Euston scrum is sadly not unique to the station of that name.

LowLevel · 20 Oct 2018

bramling said:
It doesn't work so badly at Skegness as generally I think I'm right in saying there will only ever be one imminent departure, plus the concourse area is reasonably spacious. Blackpool North just doesn't have the space to run the system, which is why it causes so many issues.

Personally I'm not keen on it at Skegness either, however I can understand why it's done there, and that it's probably the least-worst way of working the station. It doesn't offer a good passenger experience though.

There are a hatful of reasons it works at Skegness and apart from the short turnaround trains it works pretty well. I usually open them up for boarding ASAP.

It also allows me to have my fights with the local idiots (to be fair most of them have come to know I don't mess around and go quietly) and not so local idiots on the station rather than the riskier environment on-board.

If the customer experience is something you value the Skeg line in holiday season is probably best avoided anyway. 2 or 3 hour waits for shortformed crush loaded trains that then pootle along at 50-60mph the long way round full of kids playing games on tablets without headphones, families dropping food, adults drinking, the odd fist fight and so on. It's not exactly the Orient Express. I once had a well spoken family get off at Skegness having decided to have a day at the seaside whose father declared they hadn't seen such degenerate behaviour since he left an Indian slum as a small boy 45 years previously.

I've been doing it a while now and every summer I survive unscratched is a bonus. Though some scummer once followed me up the platform screaming that they hoped I got hit by a bus because I wouldn't let them take their unfolded pushchair on a full train :lol:

bramling · 20 Oct 2018

LowLevel said:
There are a hatful of reasons it works at Skegness and apart from the short turnaround trains it works pretty well. I usually open them up for boarding ASAP.

It also allows me to have my fights with the local idiots (to be fair most of them have come to know I don't mess around and go quietly) and not so local idiots on the station rather than the riskier environment on-board.

If the customer experience is something you value the Skeg line in holiday season is probably best avoided anyway. 2 or 3 hour waits for shortformed crush loaded trains that then pootle along at 50-60mph the long way round full of kids playing games on tablets without headphones, families dropping food, adults drinking, the odd fist fight and so on. It's not exactly the Orient Express. I once had a well spoken family get off at Skegness having decided to have a day at the seaside whose father declared they hadn't seen such degenerate behaviour since he left an Indian slum as a small boy 45 years previously.

I've been doing it a while now and every summer I survive unscratched is a bonus. Though some scummer once followed me up the platform screaming that they hoped I got hit by a bus because I wouldn't let them take their unfolded pushchair on a full train

A really sad state of affairs all round.

Is there ever a time when it would be possible to have a pleasant journey to Skegness? Midweek in winter?

Deafdoggie · 20 Oct 2018

As far as I’m aware, the “problem” at Skegness is only in peak holiday time, and they have a proper queuing system, and get you on the train as soon as it’s ready.
Blackpool has no queuing system, no seats to wait on, and keep you waiting till the last possible minute, regardless of how long the train has been ready for.
If you do ask at Customer Services [sic] to go on the platforms they may (and only may) reluctantly say yes (or more accurately just not say no) but another staff member will still tell you off and make you get off the platforms, and say Customer Services shouldn’t have let you.
Why they are so precious about people being on their platforms I’ve no idea. But it’s always been the same. Privatisation saw no changes come to Blackpool, in BR days it was the same, except they used to check tickets on the platform entrances then. Those staff made Euston barrier staff seem positively welcoming and knowledgeable.

Bookd · 20 Oct 2018

Although I have never been there I have read all the numerous complaints about Blackpool North. Is the there anyone on the forum who actually works there and could defend themselves?

_toommm_ · 20 Oct 2018

Bookd said:
Although I have never been there I have read all the numerous complaints about Blackpool North. Is the there anyone on the forum who actually works there and could defend themselves?

Would anyone realistically admit to it

Elecman · 20 Oct 2018

_toommm_ said:
Would anyone realistically admit to it

Unlikely, even they are not that stupid lol

johnw · 21 Oct 2018

LowLevel said:
There are a hatful of reasons it works at Skegness and apart from the short turnaround trains it works pretty well. I usually open them up for boarding ASAP.

It also allows me to have my fights with the local idiots (to be fair most of them have come to know I don't mess around and go quietly) and not so local idiots on the station rather than the riskier environment on-board.

If the customer experience is something you value the Skeg line in holiday season is probably best avoided anyway. 2 or 3 hour waits for shortformed crush loaded trains that then pootle along at 50-60mph the long way round full of kids playing games on tablets without headphones, families dropping food, adults drinking, the odd fist fight and so on. It's not exactly the Orient Express. I once had a well spoken family get off at Skegness having decided to have a day at the seaside whose father declared they hadn't seen such degenerate behaviour since he left an Indian slum as a small boy 45 years previously.

I've been doing it a while now and every summer I survive unscratched is a bonus. Though some scummer once followed me up the platform screaming that they hoped I got hit by a bus because I wouldn't let them take their unfolded pushchair on a full train

You deserve a medal!!

This summer a mate and I used HS1 to have a day out in Kent. The train down was rammed, we had airline seats but there were families in the bays in front of us who played family games, looked out of the window. A pleasure to travel with.

On the way back to St Pancras, scum kids were given a large bag of Harrisbos each, the mouthy ‘mums’ were drinking and the ‘kids’ just screamed through the carriage. They did alight at Ebbsfleet

LowLevel · 21 Oct 2018

bramling said:
A really sad state of affairs all round.

Is there ever a time when it would be possible to have a pleasant journey to Skegness? Midweek in winter?

In all seriousness any day between now and March except Friday and Sunday for the Butlins weekenders is fine. Sunday is best avoided for the limited number of trains and Friday is when folk head over.

61653 HTAFC · 21 Oct 2018

I do wonder if TPE barrier staff at Huddersfield are graduates of the same charm school as the Blackpool North folks... presumably only the top students who graduate with honours get selected for Blackpool though.

jon0844 · 21 Oct 2018

Bookd said:
Although I have never been there I have read all the numerous complaints about Blackpool North. Is the there anyone on the forum who actually works there and could defend themselves?

If there is, they'd have to ask nicely to post here and then wait for a moderator to allow them on.

Seems only fair..

Blackpool North: The most unfriendly station in the country?

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