Trivia: Worst Bus Station

[TheGrandWazoo]

Even a fancy bus station can feel unsafe. It doesn't matter whether it is brand new and is brightly lit. What if there are not many people there or there are some people behaving in an anti-social manner? Better to wait for a bus on the street.

You can say that about a railway station though.

 

[radamfi]

You can say that about a railway station though.

You can't have a train service without a rail station, so that problem is unavoidable, but it is not compulsory to have a bus station.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You can say that about a railway station though.

Or the street. It often feels safer to be "inside" something. I'd rather wait in a railway station in a rough area than on the street.

 

[Typhoon]

Even a fancy bus station can feel unsafe. It doesn't matter whether it is brand new and is brightly lit. What if there are not many people there or there are some people behaving in an anti-social manner? Better to wait for a bus on the street.

I don't dispute what you have written but my point is that a run down, litter-strewn, uncaredfor bus station appears unsafe so people will shy away from using it. I made and make no comment about 'fancy' bus stations.

Or the street. It often feels safer to be "inside" something. I'd rather wait in a railway station in a rough area than on the street.

When I received #210 I thought about suggesting a thread 'Streets where you feel unsafe waiting for a bus' but feel the list would be extremely long so will not follow this through (moderators might want to close such a thread quickly because of the risk of being overwhelmed).

You can say that about a railway station though.

Particularly so - and the results much more serious. I live in third-rail country, main station has a narrow (and steep) underpass from one of the platforms. I always got off at the station before. There has been at least one fatality recently. It is usually much easier to walk away from a bus station.

 

[pitdiver]

Not exactly a "Bus Station" but what about the original Milton Keynes Coachway. That without doubt the worst place ever to wait for a coach. I can give that opinion as I was the manager there when it closed down and moved to the temporary site at Campbell Park. Then onto the new one back at jct 14.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not exactly a "Bus Station" but what about the original Milton Keynes Coachway. That without doubt the worst place ever to wait for a coach. I can give that opinion as I was the manager there when it closed down and moved to the temporary site at Campbell Park. Then onto the new one back at jct 14.

Yes, that was a right dump. The new one is rather nice but is already suffering from the typical British "build something nice and then don't maintain it properly", with the rust, bubbling paint and muck setting in nicely.

 

[duncombec]

I don't dispute what you have written but my point is that a run down, litter-strewn, uncared for bus station appears unsafe so people will shy away from using it. I made and make no comment about 'fancy' bus stations.

The new one is rather nice but is already suffering from the typical British "build something nice and then don't maintain it properly", with the rust, bubbling paint and muck setting in nicely.

Even leaving bus stations as a specific thing aside temporarily, I think it is generally well-accepted that degradation encourages degradation. Bus station, train station, library, shopping centre, house, underpass... if it is poorly kept, few people feel that they have to do anything to improve it. If, by contrast, it looks smart, people are generally much more willing to treat it with respect. If there are 15 graffiti tags already, adding yours isn't going to make much difference. It yours is the only one, it's easy to put it into some database somewhere to be used against you in future (it does happen, just because it doesn't get shouted about).

 

[vlad]

Hanley.

People have said some good things about it in recent weeks on this forum - but I'm sceptical how many of those people have ever used it.

The layout is cramped - if your bus isn't delayed on the way in or way out by having to queue then that's only a bonus.
The building is a wind tunnel.
It's frequented by undesirables.
It's not particularly handy for anywhere apart from the Victoria Hall.

On the plus side, however, if you use the toilet you're pretty much guaranteed to meet junkies who are willing to sell you illicit substances....

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Hanley.

People have said some good things about it in recent weeks on this forum - but I'm sceptical how many of those people have ever used it.

The layout is cramped - if your bus isn't delayed on the way in or way out by having to queue then that's only a bonus.
The building is a wind tunnel.
It's frequented by undesirables.
It's not particularly handy for anywhere apart from the Victoria Hall.

On the plus side, however, if you use the toilet you're pretty much guaranteed to meet junkies who are willing to sell you illicit substances....

I was there just a few weeks ago. Granted, I didn't use the toilets, and it wasn't particularly windy. However, I didn't see any more undesirables than elsewhere in the town and it seemed pretty decent; certainly a quantum leap ahead of what it replaced.

As for it not being particularly handy....the point was that it was built to then release the old site for a major and much needed redevelopment of the city centre. The developers plans were then shelved so the council have now bought the site in order to redevelop it and that will shift the whole emphasis of the area so the bus station will be in the right place!

 

[Eyersey468]

From a drivers point of view Hull Interchange isn't well designed. A saw tooth arrangement works in a small station like Beverley where there are only half a dozen stands, but where there are 38 stands the whole lot quickly grinds to a halt when buses are backing off stand.

 

[Zamracene749]

To further the discussion about bus stations abroad, I give you the frankly dreadful SNP Most in Bratislava It isn't exactly dangerous, but it's a god awful place to wait for a bus. The other bus/coach station in Bratislava is the absolute opposite- the stands are open but the waiting area is modern and well equipped.

 

[Cambus731]

I'll give another vote for Aylesbury. It is pretty grim and it is confusing for visitors to the town.
I'm sorry to say that Perth bus station is pretty grim now that the travel centre is closed. I'm not sure if that is temporary or permanent.
Colne bus station is just a few shelters and is of course only used by buses going in one direction through the town..
To call the selection of bus stops in Colchester a bus station does rather stretch credibility.

I think the biggest missed opportunity was in Chelmsford.
When one considers the footprint of the old Eastern National bus station and depot, Chelmsford could have had a great state of the art bus/rail interchange. Instead the city has been lumbered with a woefully inadequate bus station with no waiting room and the toilet facilities are so inadequate it may as well not be there. And the space for the buses seems to have been inspired by the previous bus station in Cambridge with the buses having to negotiate their way round a horseshoe arrangement which is far too cramped for modern buses.

 

[pitdiver]

Further to the point about Milton Keynes Coachway beginning to look a bit grim. What about the fact within 8 months of it opening the glass roof exploded. Hence the metal roof that is now in place. My wife advised me that this was due to the fact that it wasn't installed properly. ( She used to work making stained glass windows)

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

To further the discussion about bus stations abroad, I give you the frankly dreadful SNP Most in Bratislava View attachment 85983 It isn't exactly dangerous, but it's a god awful place to wait for a bus. The other bus/coach station in Bratislava is the absolute opposite- the stands are open but the waiting area is modern and well equipped.

Sadly I don't have photos to hand but remember travelling to Budapest a few years ago for a romantic weekend for my better half's 40th. Got the bus from the lovely new Airport which fed into the Metro at Kőbánya-Kispest; a bus station underneath a fairly new shopping centre. A dark hole of a place and then had to go across platforms to reach a footbridge that carried you over the main road to the station. Hardly the gateway to the historic and beautiful city we were expecting!!!

 

[vlad]

However, I didn't see any more undesirables than elsewhere in the town...

That's definitely damning with faint praise!

 

[Statto]

St Helens bus station whilst not the worst bus station, but it's not he best bus station, it was rebuilt from the basic bus station in the 90s, but feels cramped, so much so that buses layover on the main streets, on Bickerstaffe Street or Corporation Street, passenger waiting area at the stands themselves is quite narrow, so queues can build up past the next stand, toilets are those circular portaloos, i rarely use them claustrophobic feel, plus you feel paranoid the door is going to get stuck when your inside & can't get out.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

That's definitely damning with faint praise!

That may be the case but I don't know if it's a criticism of the bus station

Also, it's a damn sight better than anything else in "ceremonial" Staffordshire, though it's admittedly a very low bar. The other local bus station, Longton, is relatively modern and yet is cold and windswept and very Eastern Bloc; Streetview really doesn't do it justice. A fitting follow-up to its predecessor.

 

[317 forever]

Trafford Centre bus station is awful in every way, it was built what around 20 years ago when the Trafford shopping mall opened but it does have a roof on the passenger area but nothing in the way of windows, ecc sdo feels like a wind tunnel, feels cold even in the middle of July, there's not even a travel shop so you hope the info is up to date.

The walk between the bus station and shopping centre isn't very inviting either. It's a pity too that the recent Metrolink extension doesn't go very near the bus station either.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I remember Durham from about '85 onwards, plu Bimbi's as well! Often it would be after returning from a day somewhere far away on the train and therefore often dark, the really dull atmosphere gave it character in my eyes. Then the refurbs happened in an effort to make it brighter and more airy and it became a pretty soulless place to me, especially when pretty much all the adjoining shops were shuttered up save for the newsagent.

That's what makes Durham a strange one for me, normally what they had done to it would be an improvement but I much preferred the way it used to be.

I see that Durham bus station is now closed for demolition, to be replaced by a building on the same footprint but with improved visibility for drivers and pedestrians at the exit.

I believe it was built c.1975 but I always remember it being a cold and desolate place. It got a very light refurb in 1993 and was then then refurbed again in the mid 2000s when they enclosed the passenger concourse. Still, it hadn't changed that much with the unwelcoming tunnel to walk through.

Some illustrations of it now and what it will become are in this article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-56067581 The 1970 date in the article is wrong as there are numerous photos of United buses in NBC livery in the original bus station

 

[Citistar]

I don't believe anybody has yet mentioned it in this thread - Cribbs Causeway shopping centre near Bristol. It is an appalling facility. Eight bus stops around a horseshoe, each of which has a cheap, industrial looking steel bus shelter able to accommodate no more than half a dozen people (even without social distancing). Stops A and H are a long walk from the main centre building in the rain, yet H is home to some of the less frequent buses travelling furthest afield. Buses from stops A-D will come closer to the centre as they are leaving, resulting in people being able to see the bus they've just missed coming towards them as they leave the place.

The site is exposed on a raised area at the same level as the adjoining car park, which means any shelters are effectively useless against wind and rain. Inside the centre is a huge rack for bus information which is filled with anything but. I haven't visited for several years, but last time i did the signage was woefully out of date and referenced services which had long since stopped operating.

It is the sort of facility which is designed by somebody with no interest in passenger comfort nor safety. The centre take no interest in keeping information up to date and aside from departure time displays at stops, nor do the local authority. It's a textbook example of how not to do it, and the site owners have clearly learned from this by putting their much anticipated new coach park as far away from the centre as it is physically possible to do so. Again, this is an fully exposed walk to the centre as well. Unsurprisingly, it now spends far more time being used as a "young driver" test track than a coach station. Viva consumerism!

 

[Darandio]

I see that Durham bus station is now closed for demolition, to be replaced by a building on the same footprint but with improved visibility for drivers and pedestrians at the exit.

I believe it was built c.1975 but I always remember it being a cold and desolate place. It got a very light refurb in 1993 and was then then refurbed again in the mid 2000s when they enclosed the passenger concourse. Still, it hadn't changed that much with the unwelcoming tunnel to walk through.

Some illustrations of it now and what it will become are in this article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-56067581 The 1970 date in the article is wrong as there are numerous photos of United buses in NBC livery in the original bus station

Oh wow, I didn't realise that was going ahead. I might be in a minority but i'll miss the old place.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I don't believe anybody has yet mentioned it in this thread - Cribbs Causeway shopping centre near Bristol. It is an appalling facility. Eight bus stops around a horseshoe, each of which has a cheap, industrial looking steel bus shelter able to accommodate no more than half a dozen people (even without social distancing). Stops A and H are a long walk from the main centre building in the rain, yet H is home to some of the less frequent buses travelling furthest afield. Buses from stops A-D will come closer to the centre as they are leaving, resulting in people being able to see the bus they've just missed coming towards them as they leave the place.

The site is exposed on a raised area at the same level as the adjoining car park, which means any shelters are effectively useless against wind and rain. Inside the centre is a huge rack for bus information which is filled with anything but. I haven't visited for several years, but last time i did the signage was woefully out of date and referenced services which had long since stopped operating.

It is the sort of facility which is designed by somebody with no interest in passenger comfort nor safety. The centre take no interest in keeping information up to date and aside from departure time displays at stops, nor do the local authority. It's a textbook example of how not to do it, and the site owners have clearly learned from this by putting their much anticipated new coach park as far away from the centre as it is physically possible to do so. Again, this is an fully exposed walk to the centre as well. Unsurprisingly, it now spends far more time being used as a "young driver" test track than a coach station. Viva consumerism!

Been a while since I was there (not done much shopping of late ) but when I was there in November 2019, there WAS a fullish set of First timetables in the rack. I think the signage was a bit out of date (think the X7 was still referenced) but not that bad.

However, it is a bleak place to wait and, as you say, is cheap and nasty with no interest in making it any better from the Shopping Centre owners. I would say that Bristol (aside from the city bus station) is not blessed with great places in which to interchange.

 

[peterblue]

A pity as Bristol's bus station is relatively decent but, lacking, as few services terminate there. Possibly a good subject for another trivia thread is bus stations with the fewest (percentage) of buses stopping!

 

[Kremlin Stooge]

A pity as Bristol's bus station is relatively decent but, lacking, as few services terminate there. Possibly a good subject for another trivia thread is bus stations with the fewest (percentage) of buses stopping!

Pretty well all the services that enter Bristol’s bus station terminate there, with the exception of the A1 airport services - currently suspended.

There’s always been a kind of Chinese wall between ‘city’ and ‘country’ services, such that the city services don’t use the bus station. Some of the cross-city services would have to do quite a wriggle to get in and out of the bus station, thinking particularly of Temple Meads-bound 1s, 2s and 8s.

Edit: just seen the post about Cribbs Causeway and fully agree with the sentiments. A bleak and windswept place!

 

[DunsBus]

Edinburgh's pre-2000 bus station. Well out of date by time that it closed - toilets which you only used if you were desperate, subways which stunk of pee and poo (and which you avoided using at all costs), and three stances covered over by an office block. Not a good advert for Scotland's capital city.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Pretty well all the services that enter Bristol’s bus station terminate there, with the exception of the A1 airport services - currently suspended.

There’s always been a kind of Chinese wall between ‘city’ and ‘country’ services, such that the city services don’t use the bus station. Some of the cross-city services would have to do quite a wriggle to get in and out of the bus station, thinking particularly of Temple Meads-bound 1s, 2s and 8s.

That's the same in most large towns and cities - relatively few if any local services bus stations. Most of the interurban ones do in Bristol except the T1 to Thornbury.

 

[Meole]

Interesting that Shrewsbury proposes to demolish its bus station and increase park and ride rather than have a multitude of buses coming in from numerous destinations in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Guildford Bus Station is very grot, looks like is stuck in a 1987 time warp, dark bricks very dirty perpex and non existant rubbish collection particularly used condoms and Needles - all a bit of a worry with young children, & very dark and unwelcoming

Another vote for Guildford - a dark, decrepit gate to Hell which reeks of cigarette smoke and, as you say, is absolutely filthy! The outdoor stands aren't so bad (could do with a bit of TLC), but the indoor ones are beyond grim and really are a truly unpleasant place to wait.