My most depressing station is ...

[Liam]

Birmingham New Street. Not because it is now a bad station, but because I know how much better it was before the barbarians buried it.

But it's a little bit less cold and draughty than it used to be. Looks to me like most of the £250 million Network Rail had was spent on the retail and gourmet side of things - I can only think of two places where you can actually get a cup of tea!

[LNER4479]

České Dráhy (Czech Railways) do a good line in bus shelter stations ...

 

Incidentally, if you do ever venture out to this place, don't forget to visit the nearby ossuary (bone chapel)

 

Yes - this really is a station. The platforms are those slightly less weedy bits between the rails.

 

Great fun actually, riding around on these sorts of trains/lines, if that sort of thing floats your boat.

[Pete the Elaner]

Personally, I love Euston. Recent retail developments have not helped one bit, but I love the big circulating area with its marble floor and high ceiling. The old Euston, though long demolished before I was born, sounded like a depressing place. And as for the Doric Arch -pig ugly monstrosity! Why try to make a railway station look like a Greek temple? Who are you trying to kid?

I was waiting for someone to slam Euston but they obviously do not use it. I agree with you though.

 

As someone who travels in London regularly, I find Euston is the nicest of the London terminii.

 

Why?

 

The train shed is kept separate. This is not so nice but you only usually go there to walk straight onto a train anyway. This leaves the concourse, bright, clean & dry.

The destination boards are well laid out & you can hear announcements clearly. The platforms are well laid out.

Compare these features with Paddington where you have a 5 minutes walk to get to 12/13, or King's X where the suburban platforms are around the corner.

At Euston, the Underground exit deposits you right on the concourse in front of the destination screens.

If you have to wait for your train, there is a nice pub just on the edge of the station & 2 even better ones within 5 minutes walk.

Edited July 26, 2017 by Pete the Elaner

[sparks]

Bristol Parkway. Desolate since day one!

Edited July 26, 2017 by sparks

[Liam]

I was waiting for someone to slam Euston but they obviously do not use it. I agree with you though.

 

As someone who travels in London regularly, I find Euston is the nicest London terminii.

 

Why?

 

The train shed is kept separate. This is not so nice but you only usually go there to walk straight onto a train anyway. This leaves the concourse, bright, clean & dry.

The destination boards are well laid out & you can hear announcements clearly. The platforms are well laid out.

Compare these features with Paddington where you have a 5 minutes walk to get to 12/13, or King's X where the suburban platforms are around the corner.

At Euston, the Underground exit deposits you right on the concourse in front of the destination screens.

If you have to wait for your train, there is a nice pub just on the edge of the station & 2 even better ones within 5 minutes walk.

I don't know if it's still there but next to the Virgin First Class lounge I recall seeing this pub, called either the Oliver Cromwell or The Shakespeare. Either way, they're both names of 'Britannias'!

[Pete the Elaner]

I don't know if it's still there but next to the Virgin First Class lounge I recall seeing this pub, called either the Oliver Cromwell or The Shakespeare. Either way, they're both names of 'Britannias'!

I don't remember that.

The 3 I have in mind are:

The Doric Arch (formerly the Head of Steam) which is by the bus station at platform 1 end. They usually have 5-6 beers availabe & the place is full of railway memorabilia, including a large scale Evening Star.

The Euston Tap, which is inside one of the columns on the entrance to the bus station This usually has about 25 beers available. Inside the other column is the Cider Tap. I must try that one day

If you head straight out of the side entrance by platform 18 & cross the road, you will soon get to the Bree Louise, which has 15+ beers available.

[Welly]

České Dráhy (Czech Railways) do a good line in bus shelter stations ...

 

CIMG2654.JPG

 

The station sign is nearly as big as the bus shelter!

[chris p bacon]

Compare these features with Paddington where you have a 5 minutes walk to get to 12/13, or King's X where the suburban platforms are around the corner.

 

The Suburban is right next to the area in front of the destination boards.

[31A]

Motherwell.

[Pete the Elaner]

The Suburban is right next to the area in front of the destination boards.

Its recent rebuild has improved it a lot. The new concourse was a taxi point. The suburban platforms were previously accessible through a poky walkway.

The station is still staggered in comparison with Euston, Liverpool St, Waterloo, Marylebone & Fenchurch St.

[John M Upton]

King's Cross has improved a lot since the new bit on the side was built and they lost the pokey shed that was on the front which smelt of mouldy wee....

[eastwestdivide]

Tilbury Riverside in the 70s was depressing - huge station, mostly deserted, with an occasional 4-car EMU, and a large concourse half filled with dodgy market traders selling jeans and cassettes to a few Russian sailors off a cargo boat.

Wakefield Kirkgate until a few years back was just horrible, looked like it was about to fall down - they've tidied it up a bit recently.

And abroad? The three main Brussels stations (South, Central and North) are a bit grim at platform level, Central being subterranean and poky, and the other two all concrete and grubby.

[Liam]

King's Cross has improved a lot since the new bit on the side was built and they lost the pokey shed that was on the front which smelt of mouldy wee....

Well thanks for putting that image in my mind, some people have just had their breakfast.

 

Gillingham Dorset is right next to a pasty factory, so in the early mornings makes you feel hungry!

[eastwestdivide]

Well thanks for putting that image in my mind, some people have just had their breakfast. ...

What, breakfast at 1030am, what a life of leisure. Some people have just had their elevenses!

It was true though.

[GordonC]

I think some of the former holiday destination stations such as Llandudno or Rhyl where you can see how big and important the stations used to be and they're left just as a shadow of their former glory

[luckymucklebackit]

I would like to nominate Coatbridge Central, it truly is the most disgraceful excuse for a railway station in the UK.  It once was a really nice station, with a street level building housing the ticket office and parcels office, with a subway to the two platforms, each platform had waiting rooms and other facilities for staff.  It was clearly a candidate for closure in the 1970s when the sparse service of long distance services from England to Perth/Aberdeen/Inverness were re-routed away form the Motherwell to Stirling line and the street level building was sold off to become a pub (now closed) and the platform buildings raised to the ground.

Access is now via a badly surfaced ramp to the northbound platform, with access to the southbound platforms via the remnants of the subway, this being a urine stinking horror full of broken bottles and god knows what else.  The platform surfaces are a disgrace and the surrounds are returning to nature.  This ironically when the station has its best ever service of trains between Cumbernauld and Motherwell, with many going to Glasgow and beyond.

 

Jim

[eastwestdivide]

I would like to nominate Coatbridge Central, it truly is the most disgraceful excuse for a railway station in the UK.  It once was a really nice station, with a street level building housing the ticket office and parcels office, with a subway to the two platforms, each platform had waiting rooms and other facilities for staff.  It was clearly a candidate for closure in the 1970s when the sparse service of long distance services from England to Perth/Aberdeen/Inverness were re-routed away form the Motherwell to Stirling line and the street level building was sold off to become a pub (now closed) and the platform buildings raised to the ground.

Access is now via a badly surfaced ramp to the northbound platform, with access to the southbound platforms via the remnants of the subway, this being a urine stinking horror full of broken bottles and god knows what else.  The platform surfaces are a disgrace and the surrounds are returning to nature.  This ironically when the station has its best ever service of trains between Cumbernauld and Motherwell, with many going to Glasgow and beyond.

 

Jim

Descriptions from National Rail's Stations Made Easy at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations-and-destinations/stations-made-easy/coatbridge-central-station-plan

Platform Number: 1

Please be aware that the platform is uneven in places.

There is no staff assistance on the platform.

There are no train announcements.

There are no display boards on this platform.

Boarding ramps are not available – please contact the station operator for assistance.

 

Main Entrance

This is an entrance and exit.

There is no safe crossing.

There are no entry doors.

The approach to the entrance may cause difficulty for some users.

The pavement slopes upwards towards the entrance and the camber could cause difficulty for some customers.

Wheelchair users may need assistance using the entrance.

Wheelchair users may need assistance because of the slope and the camber.

[csiedmo]

České Dráhy (Czech Railways) do a good line in bus shelter stations ...

 

CIMG2654.JPG

Incidentally, if you do ever venture out to this place, don't forget to visit the nearby ossuary (bone chapel)

 

CIMG2677.JPG

Yes - this really is a station. The platforms are those slightly less weedy bits between the rails.

 

Great fun actually, riding around on these sorts of trains/lines, if that sort of thing floats your boat.

 

I was there in 2007 but I don't recall it being particularly green back then.

[waggy]

Skegness faded glory everywhere you look, Lowestoft and Yarmouth also fall into the category but not quite as bad....yet!

 

I'd like to add Cleethorpes to the list

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Still with a seaside theme, Blackpool North with its renowned customer service.....  

[rodent279]

I was waiting for someone to slam Euston but they obviously do not use it. I agree with you though.

 

As someone who travels in London regularly, I find Euston is the nicest of the London terminii.

 

Why?

 

The train shed is kept separate. This is not so nice but you only usually go there to walk straight onto a train anyway. This leaves the concourse, bright, clean & dry.

The destination boards are well laid out & you can hear announcements clearly. The platforms are well laid out.

Compare these features with Paddington where you have a 5 minutes walk to get to 12/13, or King's X where the suburban platforms are around the corner.

At Euston, the Underground exit deposits you right on the concourse in front of the destination screens.

If you have to wait for your train, there is a nice pub just on the edge of the station & 2 even better ones within 5 minutes walk.

There is actually a pressure group devoted to rescuing the remaining stones of the Doric Arch from Bow Creek (or whichever sewage infested bit of the Thames they were dumped in) and incorporating it in the "new" Euston, if/when it gets rebuilt.

 

Why?

 

Can we not produce a modern piece of architecture that is more fitting, instead of trying to pretend a railway station is a cathedral or mediaeval castle?

Edited July 26, 2017 by rodent279

[roundhouse]

České Dráhy (Czech Railways) do a good line in bus shelter stations ...

 

CIMG2654.JPG

Incidentally, if you do ever venture out to this place, don't forget to visit the nearby ossuary (bone chapel)

 

CIMG2677.JPG

Yes - this really is a station. The platforms are those slightly less weedy bits between the rails.

 

Great fun actually, riding around on these sorts of trains/lines, if that sort of thing floats your boat.

. I will raise you one.. Just passed through this station.

[melmoth]

 

Wakefield Kirkgate until a few years back was just horrible, looked like it was about to fall down - they've tidied it up a bit recently.

 

 

One of the most memorable parts of a Rail Rover tour of Northern England in 1989 was the 15 minutes waiting at Kirkgate in a torrential downpour. Grim beyond belief.

[Joseph_Pestell]

The station sign is nearly as big as the bus shelter!

 

With a wind from the wrong direction, that shelter is likely to be blown over.

[Pacific231G]

The station I most unfairly dislike is Fort William, not because there's anything terribly wrong with it apart from being terminally dull, but because the old terminus was such a loss. 

 

 

I feel much the same about the CP metre gauge terminus in Nice.

 

 

It's a perfectly decent modern station but to get to it from the nearest tram stop I had to cross a hideous car park and a somewhat dangerous road with no pedestrian crossing.

 

What makes it worse is that the car park was on the site of the once magnificent Sud France terminus reduced when I was last in Nice is 2008 to little more than a derelict facade

 

 

The first time I visited Nice I arrived from Grenoble using the CP from Digne for the latter part of the journey. Though a bit run down, the neo-classic Sud France terminus was still impressive.   

In about 1991 the CP moved about 300 metres down the line to a new terminus on the former site of the loco sheds. This was apparently to make way for a grand development project of the site that never happened. Much the same happened at Fort William though there it was to make way for a new bypass that did hapen.

 

The irony in Nice is that the old terminus is right next to a tram stop and the metre gauge line does carry fairly heavy commuter traffic.

 

The station building remained derelict for over twenty years but has now been restored as a library with the train shed, designed by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame, being re-assembled as a food market.