My most depressing station is ...

[D854_Tiger]

New Street was once a station......never an aesthetic experience or a place to linger.it is now a"shopping experience"....a confusing muddle unaware of its identity.Too much glitz and inattention to infrastructure..i.e. platform space still miserably inadequate and uncongenial. Architects and developers should be forced to spend a week entombed there in order that the disaster is not repeated John Lewis or Pendolino anyone ?

 

The truly astonishing thing is that whilst virtually everyone in the world (and Birmingham) agrees with you, they managed to find the one architect on the planet that didn't and gave him the job of designing the reopened version of Snow Hill.

 

You couldn't make it up, first line in the specification for Snow Hill should have said, "Nothing like New St" and, even though it clearly didn't, you might have thought .......

 

Moor Street is nice though but it says it all that nowadays we hand out awards for the bright idea of not knocking old things down.

[GeoffAlan]

Good news! Middlesbrough station is having a lot of 'improvement' money spent on it to make a more pleasant user experience. Next time I go, I expect to be even more depressed given it won't be much better and I'll wonder where the money went!

[D854_Tiger]

Good news! Middlesbrough station is having a lot of 'improvement' money spent on it to make a more pleasant user experience. Next time I go, I expect to be even more depressed given it won't be much better and I'll wonder where the money went!

 

The first time I ever visited Middlesbrough station, I had arrived there from Sunderland so it seemed like quite a nice place.

[rodent279]

The first time I ever visited Middlesbrough station, I had arrived there from Sunderland so it seemed like quite a nice place.

To be fair, if you've arrived at virtually anywhere from Sunderland, it will seem like quite a nice place.

Except, perhaps, Warsaw Centralna....

[wombatofludham]

The truly astonishing thing is that whilst virtually everyone in the world (and Birmingham) agrees with you, they managed to find the one architect on the planet that didn't and gave him the job of designing the reopened version of Snow Hill.

 

You couldn't make it up, first line in the specification for Snow Hill should have said, "Nothing like New St" and, even though it clearly didn't, you might have thought .......

 

Moor Street is nice though but it says it all that nowadays we hand out awards for the bright idea of not knocking old things down.

 

Actually it was a last minute decision by Birmingham City Council that they needed a replacement multi-storey on top of the station that led to the present Snow Hill.  Thing is though, what would you rather have?  The station re-opened or left closed?  The only way Snow Hill could be justified was by integrating it into a commercial office development, and then with the City council adding a car park on the station using the air rights.  The fact the station is back, and performing a vital role in the city and region's transport needs is more important, it took some very clever work by BR and the West Midlands passenger Transport Executive to get it past the DfT in London, and the Jewellery Line only got built by flogging off the former PTE bus company and when costs started to rise, very nearly got canned.

 

There's a lot of sniping goes on about new stations and services but if you knew what gymnastics transport planners and the guys at Regional Railways (as was) outside the gold plated London scene had to go through in the 80s and 90s to get things done you might have a different view.  For example, the DfT didn't want to fund the Cross City electrification because they couldn't see why a "rural branch line" should have priority over routes like the Chiltern line.  They didn't realise it was the busiest non-London commuter service at the time.  If it wasn't for the suicide of the then MP for Lichfield, chances are it would still be diesel worked now. They also wanted WMPTE to accept Class 14x units to replace the Class 116 fleet, and it was only the combined efforts of the PTA and the PTE officers that headed off that horror - and why the "heritage" DMUs hung on for so long in the West Midlands.  It was literally a battle of wills between Summer Lane and Marsham St at times for any investment.

[Clearwater]

New Street was once a station......never an aesthetic experience or a place to linger.it is now a"shopping experience"....a confusing muddle unaware of its identity.Too much glitz and inattention to infrastructure..i.e. platform space still miserably inadequate and uncongenial. Architects and developers should be forced to spend a week entombed there in order that the disaster is not repeated John Lewis or Pendolino anyone ?

I don't like the new version. Being very familiar with the post 60s version of the station, its a bit disconcerting to walk up from the platforms, which still feel the same, and be somewhere completely different to what it used to be. No doubt if I still used it daily, I'd get used to it but travelling there once in a blue moon, I find it a bit disorientating...

 

David

[PatB]

Not railway so OT, but a station; Swansea bus station before rebuilding, a dark dystopian concrete warren/wind tunnel smelling of p*ss and chips, was the most depressing place of any sort that I have ever been to, ever, anywhere; seriously, ever. And I've been to Merthyr on a Sunday! Bus stations can show a clean pair of heels to any railway dereliction for depressiveness, but this was World Class Awful, and actually made me proud of Cardiff's...

 

Pilning comes up a lot here, but I rather like it for it's ghosts and memories.

Clearly you've been spared the horrors of Digbeth (Brum), Bristol (20p to enter the most disgusting toilets in the South West) and Leeds.

 

I think they've all been rebuilt now but when I was using them regularly c1990 they were all terrible. Ironically, the best bus station I used (Newcastle Gallowgate) was the first to get the bulldozer AFAIK.

[Pete the Elaner]

Theres a way nicer real ale/craft pub just outside the station. Last went whilst i was waiting to catch 46233 back to Birmingham.

I assume you mean the Doric Arch (formerly Head of Steam)?

There are 3 more excellent pubs just a little further outside Euston.

 

At the front of the bus station are what looks like the remains of an arch. 1 of these contains Euston Tap, which has about 25 beers on tap. The other is Cider Tap, which unsurprisingly serves Ciders. I still need to try that one. Neither are very big though.

If you leave the side entrance from platform 18 & continue walking straight, you will get to the Bree Louise in about a minute. They always have 15+ beers available, some from hand pumps, some served from barrels.

 

6233 went to Birmingham? (Sorry, I can't bring myself to prefix it with a 4). I thought Duchesses were banned from New St when in service? Seems strange that it has been cleared in preservation.

[Pete the Elaner]

Some seating in the "great hall" would help, as would signage to the upstairs waiting area Gwiver mentioned.

 

Earlier announcement of platforms to reduce the "rugby scrum" Other terminals (Liverpool Lime St) allow you you to wait on the platform even if the train is not ready / present (though smaller numbers of people involved).

 

You can get to the platforms to wait for LM & Overground trains. It is only Virgin & possibly also Caledonian which open the platforms once the train is ready. I expect this is to keep passengers away from the train shed & in the brighter, cleaner, warmer concourse. It ca also be argued that it is a better practice regarding H&S - in the event of a fire you are less likely to be trapped.

 

There is seating around the edge of the hall. More elsewhere would be an obstruction to the number of people making their way from Underground to platforms.

 

Signage to the upstairs area? Seriously? The lower ceiling is unmissable as you walk under it from the front entrance or emerge under it from the Underground.

It invokes memories of the 60s Batman where everything in the Batcave was labelled, no matter how obvious.

[Guy Rixon]

New Street was once a station......never an aesthetic experience or a place to linger.it is now a"shopping experience"....a confusing muddle unaware of its identity.Too much glitz and inattention to infrastructure..i.e. platform space still miserably inadequate and uncongenial. Architects and developers should be forced to spend a week entombed there in order that the disaster is not repeated John Lewis or Pendolino anyone ?

 

 

I'm too young to have known New Street before it was buried, but this looks somewhat aesthetic: 

 

[Bernard Lamb]

You can get to the platforms to wait for LM & Overground trains.

I tend to by pass the main concourse coming from the Underground and go directly to the suburban platforms. There is a time table board but to view this requires a delicate side step from left to right and back again across the main pedestrian flow. Works fine except for when they do not display times and/or the train you want comes in on the other platforms. A not infrequent occurrence. As for the facilities, I never use them. Far better to cross the road and use those at The Friends Meeting House. No religious adherence inherent or implied, just a satisfied customer.

Bernard

[Clearwater]

I assume you mean the Doric Arch (formerly Head of Steam)?

There are 3 more excellent pubs just a little further outside Euston.

 

At the front of the bus station are what looks like the remains of an arch. 1 of these contains Euston Tap, which has about 25 beers on tap. The other is Cider Tap, which unsurprisingly serves Ciders. I still need to try that one. Neither are very big though.

If you leave the side entrance from platform 18 & continue walking straight, you will get to the Bree Louise in about a minute. They always have 15+ beers available, some from hand pumps, some served from barrels.

 

6233 went to Birmingham? (Sorry, I can't bring myself to prefix it with a 4). I thought Duchesses were banned from New St when in service? Seems strange that it has been cleared in preservation.

No - I went to the Euston Tap. Trip was an excursion called the Midlander in either 2014 or 2015 and ran non-stop from New Street to Euston and then back in the late afternoon. Whilst not scenic, an enjoyable jaunt behind a fab loco on a route I've travelled frequently. My wife did think it odd that I caught a train to Birmingham only to catch a train back to London to in turn catch a train back to Birmingham before my fourth trip in under 24h along the same route back to London. A mate and I had a pleasurable sup in the Euston Tap before he came to watch the train leave. He'd not seen a mainline steam engine before and was quite impressed by it, more so when (4)6233 opened up to get the train started.

 

As I'd understood it, pre electrification, the tunnel clearance was too tight for the Duchesses into New Street. A slight irony that increasing clearance helped the locos being displaced by electrification. Prosaically, there may not have been the demand for an 8P loco albeit the GWR used their 8Ps on the competing service.

 

Whilst I'm too young to have really seen mainline steam, I do like to try and ride behind the right motive power on broadly the right route. Leaving Euston behind a Duchess falls into that category as did Shap behind the same loco

 

David

 

PS - as an aside, I always found Euston an exciting station as a youngster trainspotting. All the different electrics buzzing everywhere, the older classes on the ECS services, the trip past Willesden with the desperate rush to get the numbers noted whilst travelling at speed. I recall being disappointed by Clapham Junction by the emu domination...