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

Bletchleyite · 11 Apr 2019

61653 HTAFC said:
I can understand that, for sure. I was warned about pickpocketing before going to Barcelona last autumn by about 8 different people, but at no point did I feel vulnerable to it or suffer it. I think a lot of cities have reputations they don't necessarily deserve among British folk.

While a bit OT, La Rambla definitely does deserve the reputation (as well as things like petty phone theft off tables in cafes, for instance, which almost never happens in the UK - last time I was there someone attempted it on one of the group), as does Amsterdam in places.

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Bletchleyite · 11 Apr 2019

387star said:
Lots of police with guns around to

Assuming you mean big guns rather than the standard pistol, that does not reassure me at all. What it does is highlight that there is a reason for the Police to be carrying those guns rather than the conventional small sidearm (France) or no gun at all (UK), and puts me right on edge.

cholsey-choose · 11 Apr 2019

Ken H said:
I am going to say Reading.
In winter its an inhospitable place
The bridge over the tracks is cold - I really feel for the the poor people who have to man the catering outlets up there. No attempt to make it even slightly weatherproof.
and the canopy sweeps up to cover the escalators so unless there is no wind, the platforms there are wet, as are the escalators.

Agree about Reading. There's also totally insufficient seating, so it's a cold place at night. Coming from London to Cholsey I know a few people, including me, who prefer to take the stopper from Paddington rather than save 20 minutes by changing at Reading. The toilets are very poorly signed too.

Still, it's incredibly busy but for the most part avoids a horrible crush of people.

Statto · 11 Apr 2019

Euston, the main concourse is too small, any disruption, ques can be well out of the doors, then there's the walk to/from the platforms, VT services anyway seem to be called few minutes before departure, so you have that scrum to the trains, also feels random the platform allocation, at stations like Manchester Piccadilly trains seem to have allocated platforms, but at Euston it's different, like Liverpool trains today, 08.07 goes from P3, 09.07 from P2, 10.07 from P7, 11.07 from P15, & it's a different platform allocation tomorrow.

ijmad · 11 Apr 2019

Requeststop said:
Surprised no one has mentioned Plymouth. The only good thing about it that trains leave there for Cornwall.

A round of applause for anyone who can say anything positive about the station.

Good christ yes. Doesn't the giant 1960s monster above it have concrete cancer now as well?

Highlandspring · 11 Apr 2019

My vote also goes to Plymouth, it’s an absolute dump and should be razed.

John Griffiths · 11 Apr 2019

DanTrain said:
Can I add the Northbound platform at Durham to that list. With the work they're currently doing, the rather small 'to the city' signs point to a barrier and it's far from clear where you're supposed to go to reach platform 1 (and the rest of the world!).

Now that there's a pub on the northbound platform there's no reason to leave!

Jonny · 11 Apr 2019

trebor79 said:
Illicit crossings between the platforms? I lived in Durham for 15 year and never heard of such a thing.

Late 2000s IIRC...; it was in Look North and it constituted both as trespass and failure to use (any part of, let alone the correct part of) the underpass. The Look North Newcastle TV report had a clip from on-train, forward-facing CCTV of the incident (which was towards the end of the 2000 to 2010 decade). It had to be seen to be believed.

sprunt · 11 Apr 2019

Bletchleyite said:
Assuming you mean big guns rather than the standard pistol, that does not reassure me at all. What it does is highlight that there is a reason for the Police to be carrying those guns rather than the conventional small sidearm (France) or no gun at all (UK), and puts me right on edge.

It's not unusual to see armed police wandering around London terminal stations - does that put you on edge? I wouldn't have thought that this (in both Paris and London) is anything more than a bit of security theatre around a major infrastructure location.

ijmad · 11 Apr 2019

Highlandspring said:
My vote also goes to Plymouth, it’s an absolute dump and should be razed.

Why stop at the station. Let's go for the whole city.

Bletchleyite · 11 Apr 2019

Statto said:
Euston, the main concourse is too small, any disruption, ques can be well out of the doors

I have never, ever seen queues out of the doors at Euston. It can get pretty packed, I agree, but not that packed. I use it at least once a week, often more, mostly at peak times.

also feels random the platform allocation, at stations like Manchester Piccadilly trains seem to have allocated platforms, but at Euston it's different, like Liverpool trains today, 08.07 goes from P3, 09.07 from P2, 10.07 from P7, 11.07 from P15, & it's a different platform allocation tomorrow.

Pre-VHF it was quite random, nowadays provided there is no disruption I find it very consistent.

Ken H · 11 Apr 2019

Bletchleyite said:
The problem with it (other than the platform level, which as you say is a bit scummy) is that it is in just about the most unpleasant area you could imagine, and as such has a massive low-level crime problem, so I never feel safe there. The facilities aren't terrible, but it's not somewhere I like to spend any length of time.

Try Brussels gare du Nord. Well scummy, dirty brutalist architecture, and a street full of brothels next door.

Bletchleyite · 11 Apr 2019

Ken H said:
Try Brussels gare du Nord. Well scummy, dirty brutalist architecture, and a street full of brothels next door.

All the Brussels city centre stations are nasty run-down dumps, but I think we were keeping it to stations served from the UK?

trebor79 · 11 Apr 2019

Ken H said:
Try Brussels gare du Nord. Well scummy, dirty brutalist architecture, and a street full of brothels next door.

Sounds great. I must visit sometime.

Bookd · 11 Apr 2019

Roger100 said:
Windsor and Eton Central. The train shed was fine but alas the tracks have been reduced to one and it stops outside the shed.

I would agree with that, although if going there I would usually use Riverside. Central as built for Queen Victoria is superb, but the trains are now relegated to the far end the rest is combination of a museum and a tourist shopping centre.

Matt_pool · 11 Apr 2019

Bletchleyite said:
Assuming you mean big guns rather than the standard pistol, that does not reassure me at all. What it does is highlight that there is a reason for the Police to be carrying those guns rather than the conventional small sidearm (France) or no gun at all (UK), and puts me right on edge.

I've seen soldiers with semi automatic rifles patrolling Antwerp Central and it actually made me feel at ease. It was just after a terrorist attack in Brussels though!

P.S. Antwerp Central is a lovely station.

coppercapped · 11 Apr 2019

cholsey-choose said:
Agree about Reading. There's also totally insufficient seating, so it's a cold place at night. Coming from London to Cholsey I know a few people, including me, who prefer to take the stopper from Paddington rather than save 20 minutes by changing at Reading. The toilets are very poorly signed too.

Still, it's incredibly busy but for the most part avoids a horrible crush of people.

Hmmm! Every platform has a waiting room, for the island platforms 8/9, 10/11, 12/13 and 14/15 there is one at each end. There is also a waiting room on platform 7 convenient for platforms 1 to 3 and 7. Only platforms 4 to 6 do not have a waiting room within easy reach, but the Pumpkin Café is not far away along Platform 7.

I've never yet ever failed to find a toilet - they are all at platform level and signs do exist. On platforms 8/9 and 10/11 the toilets are east of the overbridge and on platforms 12/13 and 14/15 they are west of the overbridge. For platforms 1 to 7 they are under the overbridge. Quite simple really!

Mutant Lemming · 12 Apr 2019

Statto said:
Euston, the main concourse is too small, any disruption, ques can be well out of the doors, then there's the walk to/from the platforms, VT services anyway seem to be called few minutes before departure, so you have that scrum to the trains, also feels random the platform allocation, at stations like Manchester Piccadilly trains seem to have allocated platforms, but at Euston it's different, like Liverpool trains today, 08.07 goes from P3, 09.07 from P2, 10.07 from P7, 11.07 from P15, & it's a different platform allocation tomorrow.

Euston concourse was fine before all the clutter of kiosks, retail outlets etc appeared.

Bletchleyite · 12 Apr 2019

Mutant Lemming said:
Euston concourse was fine before all the clutter of kiosks, retail outlets etc appeared.

It's better now than when it had them around the main supporting pillars. But it could do with not having the ones blocking the way through to the platform "tunnel".

frodshamfella · 12 Apr 2019

backontrack said:
When you walk out of the Strand exit it's like walking into a wind tunnel. The platforms remain swamped in dreary sepia as well.

Hasn't Cannon Street gone the same way ? You're now under office blocks ?

infobleep · 12 Apr 2019

MalaiseForever said:
Both Crewe and Chester, are, at most, a 20 minute walk from the town centres with good bus links.

So is Fleet station but that isn't a major one. I think it scores 6 in this criteria

infobleep · 12 Apr 2019

Bletchleyite said:
Is that "don't stand here" hatched boxes on the concourse? That is a bit different, and Euston could do with some of those, essentially there needs to be a clear path from the entrance doors on either side to the platforms, and often there isn't. (Turning off the departure screens in the platform "tunnel" solved people clogging that up, but the issue is now on the main concourse itself).

That great Waterloo refurbishment, done so they said, to increase concourse space, including putting a building between platforms 11 and 12. Thus making it harder for people to access the subway as a building is in the way.

Waterloo should get a mention as the subway is closed for a lot of the day and all weakened, including the times when it is apparently busy into Waterloo on Saturdays.

In fact I wonder if they are more busy periods at the weekend when the subway is closed compared to some of the hours when it is open during the week.

Bletchleyite · 12 Apr 2019

Whether the subway from Euston P8-11 to the Tube is open seems almost as random at times, though it mostly is on weekends.

cholsey-choose · 12 Apr 2019

coppercapped said:
Hmmm! Every platform has a waiting room, for the island platforms 8/9, 10/11, 12/13 and 14/15 there is one at each end. There is also a waiting room on platform 7 convenient for platforms 1 to 3 and 7. Only platforms 4 to 6 do not have a waiting room within easy reach, but the Pumpkin Café is not far away along Platform 7.

I've never yet ever failed to find a toilet - they are all at platform level and signs do exist. On platforms 8/9 and 10/11 the toilets are east of the overbridge and on platforms 12/13 and 14/15 they are west of the overbridge. For platforms 1 to 7 they are under the overbridge. Quite simple really!

The waiting rooms by the platforms I care about (10/11 for the London trains normally and 12/13 for the stopper to Didcot/Oxford) just have the little on-platform waiting rooms, which only have about 8 seats each. Never enough even when you have just a few people waiting to change to the stopper, and the rooms themselves are very small.

The toilets are easy to find when you know where they are, but when you are on the overbridge it's really not obvious where they are (are there any signs?). They even have an inconcruously posh/sexy "toilets located at platform level" voice announcement every few minutes, so I guess I'm not the only one.

Another annoying detail. The lifts down from the overbridge are signed 'exit/platform 7' or similar. But when you get in the lift, the button simply says 'platform 7'. The first time I got in there, I was looking for the exit, and thought I must have got in the wrong lift.

northken · 12 Apr 2019

Bristol Parkway. Claustrophobic canopies, claustrophobic overbridge, far too exposed to the elements, narrow platforms, few facilities (decent toilets to be fair), obscured information screens and pretty rubbish bus links.

alxndr · 12 Apr 2019

northken said:
Bristol Parkway... few facilities (decent toilets to be fair)

I wish there was something behind the ticket line though. Whenever I use it I tend to end up having a fair wait between trains and there's nothing platform side. Inevitably I also need the toilet which means getting through the ticket barriers and heading downstairs.

rdeez · 12 Apr 2019

ooo said:
I agree. Birmingham New Street is one of better places to change trains. The main thing I would like from it would be a away to know if the train is at the platform yet so I don't have to go down too early.

When did you last visit? The departure boards have shown "Boarding" when a train arrives for quite a while now.

DavidGrain said:
I agree that the route from New Street to Moor Street is not good. I use the way through the Bull Ring Shopping Centre but that is not sign posted and you have to know where to go up or down floors depending on which way you are going.

There's an alternative to the tunnel and going through the Bullring (or at least there was - not sure if the new Primark has blocked it off). There's a set of short steps to the left of the road tunnel taking you up to the Plaza outside the Bullring. From there you can walk across and down a ramp on the other side which takes you to the road on the other end of the tunnel.

Mutant Lemming · 13 Apr 2019

For the size of the place Sunderland has a pretty dismal station.

Bletchleyite · 13 Apr 2019

Mutant Lemming said:
For the size of the place Sunderland has a pretty dismal station.

It's mostly a poshed up tram stop these days. I don't mind platform level, it's got a bit of a German U-Bahn like quirk about it. The buildings are grim, but completely in keeping with the equally grim town centre. Overall not a nice place in major need for regeneration, unlike Newcastle which is lovely.

ChiefPlanner · 13 Apr 2019

Bletchleyite said:
While a bit OT, La Rambla definitely does deserve the reputation (as well as things like petty phone theft off tables in cafes, for instance, which almost never happens in the UK - last time I was there someone attempted it on one of the group), as does Amsterdam in places.

Barcelona - in all areas - including and especially the Metro has a formidable record of pickpocketing and luggage theft. I know - had luggage nicked in an instant when back was turned and attempted wallet theft less than 24 hours later. In the latter case - I had the satisfaction of smacking one of the robbers who legged it with no result. I do not recommend the city for this purpose alone - which is a great shame. Paris is especially bad for RER and Metro robberies (phones and wallets especially) and any time spent around the Gare du Nord or adjacent streets is a high risk strategy.

Never had any issues with Amsterdam or Berlin.

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

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