Worst station improvements/modernisations 1950s to today

[Richard E]

On 1/28/2019 at 1:21 PM, rockershovel said:

Peterborough Station has always been pretty grim, from my recollections spanning the late 70s to early 90s and again recently.

 

The drop-off and turning bay is just a thoroughly defective layout - a turning area where most cars can’t turn? They COULD have done all sorts of things to make use of the now-infilled Platform 1, but no...

Except they have not filled in the old platform 1 bay, it has been cut off on the southern end by the platform extension though.

[rockershovel]

Re Liverpool Street refurbishment......

No, I was far too far down the food chain to meet anyone important! I just did trivial things like main survey control for the escalator shaft, and dimensional surveys for the roof panels. 

Its a lot of the reason I gave up trying to earn a living in this country, and took myself off to places where I could earn a worthwhile return on my skills and a bit of respect. 

[Reorte]

On 1/28/2019 at 7:07 PM, Oldddudders said:

 

Well said. And that sums it up - staff are there for a shift, customers for a few mins before the train takes them away. Draughty and damp locations were not what railway servants needed.

And thus the world gradually becomes an ever more dull, uninspiring, depressing place to live in. But hey, it's functional, and that's all that matters to anyone now it seems. Draughty and damp isn't good of course (although IMO get's over-exaggerated these days), but more and more of life now seems to involve spending time in completely unlikable locations, and that's no good either. Removing the bad from the past is good, throwing the baby out with the bathwater isn't.

[wombatofludham]

15 hours ago, Reorte said:

And thus the world gradually becomes an ever more dull, uninspiring, depressing place to live in. But hey, it's functional, and that's all that matters to anyone now it seems. Draughty and damp isn't good of course (although IMO get's over-exaggerated these days), but more and more of life now seems to involve spending time in completely unlikable locations, and that's no good either. Removing the bad from the past is good, throwing the baby out with the bathwater isn't.

To which I reply, Canley, Stourbridge Town, and Lea Hall, amongst others.  All "dull, uninspiring" standardised stations but transformed into unique, staff and customer friendly stations by the use of public art and attention to detail.  Not to everyone's taste I know, there is a group of people who think absolutely everything built before the 1930s should be pickled in aspic but modern replacement stations don't have to be dull or uninspiring, and in any case, if the travelling public are happy and staff enjoy their new workplaces they are the two most important clients in all of this.  Enthusiasts and nostalgists I'm afraid come very low down in the stakeholder list

[Reorte]

8 hours ago, wombatofludham said:

To which I reply, Canley, Stourbridge Town, and Lea Hall, amongst others.  All "dull, uninspiring" standardised stations but transformed into unique, staff and customer friendly stations by the use of public art and attention to detail.  Not to everyone's taste I know, there is a group of people who think absolutely everything built before the 1930s should be pickled in aspic but modern replacement stations don't have to be dull or uninspiring, and in any case, if the travelling public are happy and staff enjoy their new workplaces they are the two most important clients in all of this.  Enthusiasts and nostalgists I'm afraid come very low down in the stakeholder list

Yes, sometimes they do a good job with new, I'm not denying that, but it's often the exception rather than the rule. And I find your final dismissal as "enthusiasts and nostalgists" pretty contemptible. Different people have different perceptions of what makes the world a pleasant place to be in or not. For a lot of people what they happen to find appealing in terms of style and architecture happens to be those pre 1930s buildings, they find they add to the place, and later styles frequently (note frequently, not always) don't. And there are a great number of people whose sense of aesthetics happen to run that way, as much as appear to wish otherwise. And the aesthetics of your day to day surroundings are a significant contribution to your quality of life and mental health even though it's often a fairly subconcious effect.

 

I'm certainly not dismissing everything new or automatically defending everything old (although there aren't many surviving old buildings that would improve the place by being demolished, and the ones that would generally only looks so because of neglect). With a bit of thought even the most unpromising-sounding structure can work. On paper I should hate everything about the Kylesku Bridge yet it works perfectly, at least from photos, and is on my list of things I'd very much like to see in reality. And that's certainly not based on enthusiasm for concrete road bridges or nostalgia.

 

Are the travelling public happy and the staff enjoying their new workplaces, or could they be happier? "Happy" certainly doesn't seem to describe most of the travelling public on the railways, although a lot would complain if a train was 5 seconds late once a year.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Reorte

[Nearholmer]

London Underground has a long history, right up to date, of building new, and refurbishing and upgrading, stations in a much better way than almost anywhere in n the “national network”.

 

Discuss.

[Ravenser]

On 25/01/2019 at 20:59, Mike Storey said:

 

The ratio of England new stations to Scotland or Wales is about 2 to 1, since the mid-1990's. If you include light railways (probably more relevant given the new Metro's in Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and the DLR and Tramlink in London), it is more like 7 to 1.

 

I would expect more of someone who purports to be a railway enthusiast.

 

There was a long period from the late 90s when mainline re-openings largely dried up in England - but continued in Scotland and Wales, though it seems in the last few years there's been a recovery

 

But the listing you reference is counting things that aren't re-openings in my book - eg St Pancras rebuilding . As phil-b259 notes, re-openings of lines and stations seemed to grind to a halt in the mid/late 90s  while they continued merrily in Scotland and Wales.

 

The pattern changes from 2013 since when there's been much more activity , and much more in England .

 

But to count 1990s light rail openings is to distort - Tramlink has not seen any extensions since 2000 from memory, and most of the DLR, Supertram and Metrolink date from the 1990s . Only now are we seeing a second wave of extensions

 

And with about 55 million in England playing 9 million in Wales /Scotland a 2:1 ratio in favour of England suggests that England is not doing very well 

 

There seems to be a pattern which may be politically related - a drying up of English reopenings from the late 90s , which do not resume until 2013-4 . On the assumption reopenings take 2-4 years as a project  those dates are suggestive

 

The phenomenon is real , and while I may have taken my eye off the ball in the last couple of years the put-down seems excessive 

 

[martin_wynne]

Not an improvement or modernisation but my vote goes to Smethwick Galton Bridge (new station 1995) as the most depressing place to alight from a train. There is a strong temptation to turn round and get back on.

 

Martin.

[melmerby]

5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

London Underground has a long history, right up to date, of building new, and refurbishing and upgrading, stations in a much better way than almost anywhere in n the “national network”.

 

Discuss.

Baker Street (original Met platforms) I like.

It harks back to it's 1863 originality but still being up to date and light & airy in feel.

[AndrewC]

My vote for worst "improvement" goes to London Bridge. The track changes instead of improving things just generate nightly issues with congestion as trains inbound to CST and CHX are invariably delayed outside of LBG causing a knock on effect. On the Southeastern / Thameslink side the narrow platforms are unsuitable for the number of people using the station. The concept of keeping people off the platform and in the concourse until the last minute works for a terminus where a train can sit for 10-20 minutes but not for a through commuter station where people are politely vying hand to hand combat for an all too rare seat. 

[RedgateModels]

On 23/01/2019 at 19:19, Dave47549 said:

 

The British knacked Escalator museum, aka Birmingham New Street.

 

That looks way nicer than when I was at Cov Poly in the '80s. It was grim back then ....

[The Stationmaster]

5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

London Underground has a long history, right up to date, of building new, and refurbishing and upgrading, stations in a much better way than almost anywhere in n the “national network”.

 

Discuss.

They've done a tremendous looking job at Paddington H&C - apart from the fact that they have effectively moved the station further from the mainline station thus making access more difficult for interchange passengers and increasing the time required to get between the two.  And you now have to go out into the bad weather compared with being under cover all the way in the past - not an improvement in that respect.

[The Johnster]

If parts of stations can qualify, I'd like to nominate the long footbridge that once connected Gloucester's Central and Eastgate stations.  This was what grim would describe as a bit depressing, a wooden framed planked covered effort with alleged windows beneath several inches of soot on the outside (it crossed the Midland's loco yard) and crud probably best not identified on the inside.  It was gloomy, barely lit, smelly, damp, and had several changes of direction and level, so that for most of your transit of it you could not see either end.

 

There were always approaching footsteps that never got there and receding ones that never went away, and threatening moving shadows suggestive of murderers just out of sight, and the sound of running steps and heavy breathing; the general atmosphere of rising panic added to by the blowing of whistles from the platforms at each end.  Filthy 25 watt bulbs fizzed, flickered, and failed, and it was never, I mean never, anything other than the sort of cold you associate with an evil and eldritch presence.  It was, in fact, little short of nightmarish; i'm as up for it as anyone when it comes to traditional railway atmosphere and filth but this was taking things too far!

 

I was on Central Station making my way to Horton Road shed when it blew down in a gale shortly after being closed; nobody misses it and I recall feeling rather pleased at the time...

[24grange]

Exmouth - Lovely old station http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9oTslXzpqec/SPmBoojfwuI/AAAAAAAADUc/sUa_MzNlWlw/s400/Exem2.jpg

demolished to make way for this https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=54C19C3292FBA7B56D861ED1A33E5D241D785089&thid=OIP.B8c7nkdR6xm7qQBXrbLmigEsDh&mediaurl=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.geograph.org.uk%2Fgeophotos%2F03%2F30%2F08%2F3300840_a60a296b.jpg&exph=480&expw=640&q=exmouth+Railway+station&selectedindex=13&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=1,6

 

It was demolished to make way for a relief road from the docks, so that lorries didn't have to drive through the town centre. 6 months after the relief road opened, the docks closed - no more lorries!