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What's a shame is the city link bus is not free, when it used to be free years ago.
Plus you would think the buses would be electric, when all they do are loops of the city centre.
How is the disabled access allowed to be closed from the car park for so long ? Plus no refurbishment planned until 2028 for such a well used station on the TFW network is baffling.
It does depend which exit you use when leaving Lime Street. There are four.
The best thing they could do is restart the free regular bus from the station to Frodsham Street / the main shopping area.
It's not worth a bus fare, unless it's raining . But it's a fairly dreary trudge through a comparatively unattractive – though not 'grotty' – part of the city, and the free bus was well used. As is its fare-charging successor, at least by those of us with free passes. (BTW, I wonder if Welsh pass-holders are given free rides since it is so near the border. Or maybe they are just shot with a crossbow.)
Actually the Chester station upgrade (new P8 for Merseyrail) features in Wolmar's piece in this week's Rail mag (942, p44).
It's one of a number of potential area upgrades and is regarded as the key to unlocking other improvements.
There's a good aerial picture of the station and surrounding area.
The piece also explains how complicated the governance situation is, both on the railway and in local government.
It's not worth a bus fare, unless it's raining . But it's a fairly dreary trudge through a comparatively unattractive – though not 'grotty' – part of the city, and the free bus was well used. As is its fare-charging successor, at least by those of us with free passes. (BTW, I wonder if Welsh pass-holders are given free rides since it is so near the border. Or maybe they are just shot with a crossbow.)
No, they don't take Welsh bus passes (although we can board an Arriva bus at the station as long as we clear off across the border on it).
I think punishment only applies after dark, and if you are inside the city walls.
So you are safe at the station or on a train* .
* the railway does cut through the far NW corner of the walls, also being next to the canal/locks, and so is the most scenic location in the city for railway photos.
The current satellite view on Google maps shows a 3-car TfW 175 in new livery passing that location. Google Maps
No, they don't take Welsh bus passes (although we can board an Arriva bus at the station as long as we clear off across the border on it).
I think punishment only applies after dark .
Prior to the pandemic, TFW announced it would be spending £200 million on station improvement. Chester is a designated hub station, so you'd think some of that money would go towards giving it a refresh.
Fellow hub Swansea had £7.5 million spent, albeit a large portion of that came from GWR and NR to increase the size of platform 4 to accommodate longer IC trains our of Paddington. The rest of the work just involved tarting up a waiting room or two, new CIS's and rebranding ATW to the TFW.
So notwithstanding the pandemic I wouldn't expect anything ambitious.
Prior to the pandemic, TFW announced it would be spending £200 million on station improvement. Chester is a designated hub station, so you'd think some of that money would go towards giving it a refresh.
Fellow hub Swansea had £7.5 million spent, albeit a large portion of that came from GWR and NR to increase the size of platform 4 to accommodate longer IC trains our of Paddington. The rest of the work just involved tarting up a waiting room or two, new CIS's and rebranding ATW to the TFW.
So notwithstanding the pandemic I wouldn't expect anything ambitious.
Derby is another remote station, also absorbed by the city's expansion; the closed GN station (Friargate) was a little closer to the centre.
So Chester station is not that unusual in being about a mile from its city centre (Chester Cross).
Fifty years ago, Derby's shopping centre was largely to the north of East Street, and Friargate station was only a few minutes walk from Debenhams (then called Ranby's) and a only a couple of minutes further from other large stores; now, the main shopping centre - presently called DERBION - is south of East Street, and Debenhams was on it's south side. Consequently, it takes at least 50% longer to walk from the relocated Debenhams (which is to reopen as Fraser's in the new year) to the site of Friargate station as it does to Midland.
The walk between Derby Midland and DERBION will eventually be through part of the old railway village and then through an urban village called Castleward; the west side of the walk through the new development is more or less complete, and work is due to start on the other side shortly. It is a pleasant tree lined walk already with a square in which to relax part way along, and it should be really nice when complete; there are some shops, but it is mainly residential. Distance wise, I guess the walk from the station to the start of the city centre is of a similar length to Chester's City Road (but to be honest, I haven't walked that since I lived in the city in the 1950s and 1960s)
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
My first introduction to Chester station was in 1954
I can't remember if the entrance area was altered at the time of the main alterations or not, but it took place during the late 1950s; the ticket office (on the right going in) was given a glass front and at one time it had ticket machines which I never saw anywhere else. The tickets were on reels in a machine, and the staff just tore them off; I can't remember how they were dated - they were to "floppy" to have gone in the usual dating machines. There was a train enquiry office on the left which also had a glass front.
The gate line was located between the foyer and the main circulating area and comprised two booths for the ticket inspectors and a full height metal expanding gate between them; one ticket inspector checked those going in, another those coming out (I think you went in on the right - the same side as the ticket office).
The WHSmith book stall was directly opposite the barrier line; the stairs to the main footbridge were behind it, parallel to the station building.
There were three footbridges; the main central one also had lifts, and one of these was located to the right of the WHSmith. There was a signal box on the bridge, and it controlled the crossovers between the through and platform lines. There was a footbridge at the west end of the station, and this extended across the freight lines to Hoole (where there was another ticket office); there was another footbridge at the east end, but I think this only connected what was then platform 5 (what I'll call the down main) with platform 10 (the up main).
The platforms were numbered 1 - 14.
When you went through the barrier and turned left and kept walking, that was platform 2 and was used mainly by trains going along the GWR to Paddington or Barmouth; at the end of the station building (the one on the cover of the the Williams-Shapps plan) was platform 1. This was quite short, and generally used by trains to Mold, Denbigh, and Ruthin - I've heard it referred to as "the Mold wing"
If you walked forward from the barrier to the platform immediately in front, that was platform 4; this was generally used by trains along the North Wales coast which had started at Crewe, Manchester, or London. Turn left along platform 4, and on the left was terminal platform 3; this was generally used by trains such as between Paddington and Birkenhead, and after the introduction of DMUs it was often used by the Woodside stoppers (some also used platform 13).
if you turned right when he reached platform 4, there was a scissor crossing and the rest of the platform was numbered 5; this often acted as an extension of platform 4, but some North Wales stoppers also started from it. There were three more bays at the eastern end of the station; local trains to Liverpool Lime Street via Runcorn often used 6, and 7 and 8 were typically full of parcel vans.
Over the central bridge, the stairs faced westwards; if you veered to the left, that was platform 9, and the eastern extension of it was numbered 10 and was the main departure platform for trains from North Wales to London, Crewe, or Manchester. I can only ever remember platform 9 being used as an extension of 10, and never in its own use.
At the east end of platform 10 were two more bays, numbered 11 and 12; these were used for local trains going eastwards, such as stoppers to Manchester Exchange via Warrington Bank Quay.
The final platform was a long through one reached by turning right at the bottom of the stairs, numbered 13 at the east end and 14 at the west; at one tome it had been split by a scissor and the supporting steelwork for the overall roof showed clearly where it had been. It was used by a mixture of trains; for example, there was a North Wales - Birkenhead train which left Chester at about 8.15am and it reversed in 14, and some trains using the GWR route used it if they were too long for 2 or 3. I can never remember seeing 13 used in it's own right.
At that time, all of the platforms were covered by train sheds - there weren't any canopies.
There were some GWR auto trains to places like Llangollen, and a service to Whitchurch from the eastern end; these finished round about the time I first visited Chester General, and I don't know which platforms they used.
When I first visited Chester station, it was completely covered - there weren't any canopies; the LMR removed or altered overall roofs at a number of stations at about the same time - Carlisle and Preston come to mind - and installed rather bland canopies in their place. At Chester, the central roof which covered platforms 4 and 5 and the two through roads was removed completely, and those over 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 cut back drastically. From memory, the roof over the island platform (platforms 9-13) wasn't touched, but of course it got severely damaged some years later, was removed, and on my last visit a few years ago there was just open sky were it once was.
The parcels office was on the front of the station - to the right when looking at the station front, opposite what was called the Queen's Hotel (no idea what it's called now); there was a buffet on platform 2, and another on the island platform
Early recollections are that Chester station was very smokey when I first new it, but the removal of the overall roofs made it much cleaner; however, the work was being undertaken at about the same time as diesels were being introduced - I have some photos of DMUs in the station when the work was going on, and I'm not sure whether they were taken in 1959 or 1960. But whereas the more or less identical canopies seemed "acceptable" at Carlisle and Preston, they never seemed to me to blend in at Chester, and greater care should have been taken to produce something which complimented Francis Thompson's superb frontage.
So I guess you can say it's been grotty for at least 60 years!
Re-glazing the remaining roof in the 2000s made a big difference in terms of keeping the station and concourse dry.
I used the lift yesterday and was impressed how they had engineered that into the old footbridge arches on the island, and built a heated waiting room around it.
Less impressive was the large bucket strategically placed to catch the water coming from the newly-glazed roof!
I had forgotten abut the old Hoole entrance and footbridge.
The old goods area east of the station has been developed into housing, and Google Maps tells me the access road is Thomas Brassey Close.
Thomas Brassey was a famous son of Chester and a prolific railway builder in the UK and world-wide.
There is a plaque to him in the concourse area of the station (and in the cathedral).
The far south eastern shed, which I presume was the terminus of the original Chester & Crewe line, now without track and part of the car park access route, has been finely restored to its 1840s condition, as "The Carriage Shed".
There are lots of good features about Chester station, but the overall impression given is less than the sum of the parts.
The Queen's Hotel is now "The Queen at Chester" (Best Western), and is on the London-Oxford-Bath/Stratford-Chester-York-Edinburgh coach tourist trail.
That's another market the railway does its best to ignore.
Fifty years ago, Derby's shopping centre was largely to the north of East Street, and Friargate station was only a few minutes walk from Debenhams (then called Ranby's) and a only a couple of minutes further from other large stores; now, the main shopping centre - presently called DERBION - is south of East Street, and Debenhams was on it's south side. Consequently, it takes at least 50% longer to walk from the relocated Debenhams (which is to reopen as Fraser's in the new year) to the site of Friargate station as it does to Midland.
The walk between Derby Midland and DERBION will eventually be through part of the old railway village and then through an urban village called Castleward; the west side of the walk through the new development is more or less complete, and work is due to start on the other side shortly. It is a pleasant tree lined walk already with a square in which to relax part way along, and it should be really nice when complete; there are some shops, but it is mainly residential. Distance wise, I guess the walk from the station to the start of the city centre is of a similar length to Chester's City Road (but to be honest, I haven't walked that since I lived in the city in the 1950s and 1960s)
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
My first introduction to Chester station was in 1954
I can't remember if the entrance area was altered at the time of the main alterations or not, but it took place during the late 1950s; the ticket office (on the right going in) was given a glass front and at one time it had ticket machines which I never saw anywhere else. The tickets were on reels in a machine, and the staff just tore them off; I can't remember how they were dated - they were to "floppy" to have gone in the usual dating machines. There was a train enquiry office on the left which also had a glass front.
The gate line was located between the foyer and the main circulating area and comprised two booths for the ticket inspectors and a full height metal expanding gate between them; one ticket inspector checked those going in, another those coming out (I think you went in on the right - the same side as the ticket office).
The WHSmith book stall was directly opposite the barrier line; the stairs to the main footbridge were behind it, parallel to the station building.
There were three footbridges; the main central one also had lifts, and one of these was located to the right of the WHSmith. There was a signal box on the bridge, and it controlled the crossovers between the through and platform lines. There was a footbridge at the west end of the station, and this extended across the freight lines to Hoole (where there was another ticket office); there was another footbridge at the east end, but I think this only connected what was then platform 5 (what I'll call the down main) with platform 10 (the up main).
The platforms were numbered 1 - 14.
When you went through the barrier and turned left and kept walking, that was platform 2 and was used mainly by trains going along the GWR to Paddington or Barmouth; at the end of the station building (the one on the cover of the the Williams-Shapps plan) was platform 1. This was quite short, and generally used by trains to Mold, Denbigh, and Ruthin - I've heard it referred to as "the Mold wing"
If you walked forward from the barrier to the platform immediately in front, that was platform 4; this was generally used by trains along the North Wales coast which had started at Crewe, Manchester, or London. Turn left along platform 4, and on the left was terminal platform 3; this was generally used by trains such as between Paddington and Birkenhead, and after the introduction of DMUs it was often used by the Woodside stoppers (some also used platform 13).
if you turned right when he reached platform 4, there was a scissor crossing and the rest of the platform was numbered 5; this often acted as an extension of platform 4, but some North Wales stoppers also started from it. There were three more bays at the eastern end of the station; local trains to Liverpool Lime Street via Runcorn often used 6, and 7 and 8 were typically full of parcel vans.
Over the central bridge, the stairs faced westwards; if you veered to the left, that was platform 9, and the eastern extension of it was numbered 10 and was the main departure platform for trains from North Wales to London, Crewe, or Manchester. I can only ever remember platform 9 being used as an extension of 10, and never in its own use.
At the east end of platform 10 were two more bays, numbered 11 and 12; these were used for local trains going eastwards, such as stoppers to Manchester Exchange via Warrington Bank Quay.
The final platform was a long through one reached by turning right at the bottom of the stairs, numbered 13 at the east end and 14 at the west; at one tome it had been split by a scissor and the supporting steelwork for the overall roof showed clearly where it had been. It was used by a mixture of trains; for example, there was a North Wales - Birkenhead train which left Chester at about 8.15am and it reversed in 14, and some trains using the GWR route used it if they were too long for 2 or 3. I can never remember seeing 13 used in it's own right.
At that time, all of the platforms were covered by train sheds - there weren't any canopies.
There were some GWR auto trains to places like Llangollen, and a service to Whitchurch from the eastern end; these finished round about the time I first visited Chester General, and I don't know which platforms they used.
When I first visited Chester station, it was completely covered - there weren't any canopies; the LMR removed or altered overall roofs at a number of stations at about the same time - Carlisle and Preston come to mind - and installed rather bland canopies in their place. At Chester, the central roof which covered platforms 4 and 5 and the two through roads was removed completely, and those over 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 cut back drastically. From memory, the roof over the island platform (platforms 9-13) wasn't touched, but of course it got severely damaged some years later, was removed, and on my last visit a few years ago there was just open sky were it once was.
The parcels office was on the front of the station - to the right when looking at the station front, opposite what was called the Queen's Hotel (no idea what it's called now); there was a buffet on platform 2, and another on the island platform
Early recollections are that Chester station was very smokey when I first new it, but the removal of the overall roofs made it much cleaner; however, the work was being undertaken at about the same time as diesels were being introduced - I have some photos of DMUs in the station when the work was going on, and I'm not sure whether they were taken in 1959 or 1960. But whereas the more or less identical canopies seemed "acceptable" at Carlisle and Preston, they never seemed to me to blend in at Chester, and greater care should have been taken to produce something which complimented Francis Thompson's superb frontage.
So I guess you can say it's been grotty for at least 60 years!
Thank you for the time to write this. It is always interesting to hear about first hand historic experiences and how this relates to today.
For what it's worth I quite like Chester's somewhat ramshackle nature. I think I am probably nostalgic for the days before the bus bandits arrived on the scene and it reminds me of that.
If Chester got rid of the masses of pidgeons and their nests plus their excrement all over the station, plus cleaned the station.
Sorted out the poor flooring and awful tiles that are like an ice rink when it rains.
Then there's the awful green cladding and fake copper cladding gets removed and the reinstatement of disabled access from the disabled parking car park.
Also the terrible toilets and constantly breaking down lifts I could then agree with you about WBQ and Wigan NW stations.
PS it's only 7 years until TFW are putting any refurbishment money into Chester station.....
If Chester got rid of the masses of pidgeons and their nests plus their excrement all over the station, plus cleaned the station.
Sorted out the poor flooring and awful tiles that are like an ice rink when it rains.
Then there's the awful green cladding and fake copper cladding gets removed and the reinstatement of disabled access from the disabled parking car park.
Also the terrible toilets and constantly breaking down lifts I could then agree with you about WBQ and Wigan NW stations.
PS it's only 7 years until TFW are putting any refurbishment money into Chester station.....
One issue with Warrington Bank Quay is that if the buffet is shut there is nothing else in the vicinity. At least Wigan town centre offers plenty of pies!
One issue with Warrington Bank Quay is that if the buffet is shut there is nothing else in the vicinity. At least Wigan town centre offers plenty of pies!
One issue with Warrington Bank Quay is that if the buffet is shut there is nothing else in the vicinity. At least Wigan town centre offers plenty of pies!
Absolutely, Wigan Central and the recently reopened Swan & Railway are ideal when catching trains at either of the Wigan stations.
WBQ is not a great place to kill some time between trains, I presume the Patten Arms opposite the station is still devoid of atmosphere and decent beer…?
It does depend which exit you use when leaving Lime Street. There are four.
The best thing they could do is restart the free regular bus from the station to Frodsham Street / the main shopping area.
Absolutely, Wigan Central and the recently reopened Swan & Railway are ideal when catching trains at either of the Wigan stations.
WBQ is not a great place to kill some time between trains, I presume the Patten Arms opposite the station is still devoid of atmosphere and decent beer…?
Chester is a popular city for visitors, yet it's station leaves a lot to be desired. I passed through last Saturday, and it really is a grubby place. Its such a shame as the building is pretty grand.
seems to have lost its overall roof sometime in the 50's I think. replaced with brutal canopies. the 60s new entrance has always been horrid. The new bus station (what was wrong with the old one) and the huge bridge over the site havent improved it.
Recently P1 at Chester was closed due to the supports crumbling under the platform edge, network rail have fitted temp supports to now prop it up.
Now P2 is having the same treatment and the platform staff say the remaining platforms are all in the same poor condition.
How do network rail let the platforms get into such poor condition at a well used station??
Ha its not just the platforms, the whole station is a mess that's crying out for investment. Poor facilities, decaying stonework, poor refurbishment of certain areas, poor information provision etc. Its not a very good advert for the city.
Ha its not just the platforms, the whole station is a mess that's crying out for investment. Poor facilities, decaying stonework, poor refurbishment of certain areas, poor information provision etc. Its not a very good advert for the city.
Recently P1 at Chester was closed due to the supports crumbling under the platform edge, network rail have fitted temp supports to now prop it up.
Now P2 is having the same treatment and the platform staff say the remaining platforms are all in the same poor condition.
How do network rail let the platforms get into such poor condition at a well used station??
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