Trivia: Bleakest Terminal Stations

[A S Leib]

No it's not, it's a city centre terminus.

As is the toiletless St. James metro station. Moorgate as well.

 

[yorksrob]

As is the toiletless St. James metro station. Moorgate as well.

Other stations with unacceptable facilities don't make having unacceptable facilities acceptable.

 

[A S Leib]

Agreed. That was mostly meant to show that 'suburban station' and 'city centre terminus' aren't mutually exclusive (LNER services, limited and increasing, aside).

 

[CastlebarKeith]

Newhaven Harbour was locally famous for desolation.
A force 12 hurricane hit it once, and damage was assessed at £10

 

[Lockwood]

As I've said elsewhere here, I tend to work on the assumption that a train and a station will not have toilets/open toilets. If they are present and open, that's a happy bonus.

This is probably from the majority of my journeys involving local small stations and the tube.

 

[Falcon1200]

London Euston is an interesting choice, I agree it’s awful - I guess the outside waiting area with cheap looking, but expensive food outlets is pretty grim though!

I had never found Euston that bad, even departure screengate didn't bother me. However, passing through the station today;

Longest queue I have ever seen for the Ladies
Half the hand dryers in the gents out of order
Both up escalators from the Underground to the outside entrance to the station out of use

The place is a shambles and whoever is responsible for it should hang their head in shame.

Give me Springburn any day

Maybe you haven't walked from the station to the Network Rail offices! As I once directed someone, once you have managed the stairs (no lift or escalator here) it's through the urine-stinking underpass, then past the wasteland and the burnt out pub. One of my colleagues experienced a flasher there once!

 

[MichaelTrains]

I don't count RADAR only toilets as adequate facilities.

Bradford FS should have full toilet facilities, given its importance.

Correct for station of its importance and size.

The toilets are currently closed in the Interchange again. I checked earlier today and they were still out of action.

Very depressing experience.

 

[godfreycomplex]

Maybe you haven't walked from the station to the Network Rail offices!

Oh I have, many times. It’s a shame about the flasher (and the used needle dodging) but the rest you quickly get used to

 

[modernrail]

Agreed. That was mostly meant to show that 'suburban station' and 'city centre terminus' aren't mutually exclusive (LNER services, limited and increasing, aside).

There are loads of suburban stations with toilets, loads.

Bradford FS however is not a suburban station. For it to be would require the dictionary to be rewritten. Whilst it might have been moved back a bit - it was quite definitely not moved to a suburb of Bradford.

So it is an anomaly. In my recollection serves me right… you don’t have to go far to see how much of one. Doesn’t Shipley have toilets? Shipley is, famously, not a city.

 

[nanstallon]

I've always felt that Bradford gets short changed. Leeds' poor relation. A shame because I quite like the place.

 

[Ashley Hill]

It’s already been mentioned but Blackpool South. For many years we had our holidays in Blackpool and always went to the North station. Wanting an excuse to scratch the line I booked a hotel near to South. When Mrs Hill alighted she was less than impressed as was I. Thankfully it was only a short walk to the hotel as there was no taxis or any thing else at the station really.

 

[GoneSouth]

Newhaven Harbour was locally famous for desolation.
A force 12 hurricane hit it once, and damage was assessed at £10

I’d say if a force 12 hit Bradford Forster Square it would most likely make £100k of improvements

 

[Kingston Dan]

Drumgelloch and Bathgate were pretty grim before they were connected up.

 

[MichaelTrains]

I’d say if a force 12 hit Bradford Forster Square it would most likely make £100k of improvements

Even with the new platform, the station is a mess.

No toilets, working lift, adequate cover or waiting room facilities (when the ticket office shuts early evening).

 

[alansheppard77]

As the title suggests which are the bleakest stations on the network where services terminate:

Can be one or more of the following criteria:
Remoteness
Cold, windswept, no facilities
Or feeling of having to look over your shoulder due to potential anti-social behaviour!

Bidston, Colne, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Chathill…

Heysham Harbour

 

[mikeg]

Heysham was not pleasant last time I visited it. Unless you're catching the ferry (which I wasn't), I wouldn't recommend it. Also the anecdotes my brother tells me of an unsavoury chap who does a lot of illegal bass fishing in the vicinity. On the subject of harbour stations, a former uni friend referred to Fishguard as 'officially the most boring and depressing town in Wales', something which I always remember, though I'm not sure since I've never been to Fishguard, never mind Fishguard harbour station.

@Llandudno 's suggestion of Blaneau Ffestiniog I don't get, wonderful hilly terrain like something else nearby last time I went there (Admittedly in 2010 as part of a Ffestiniog Round Robin). I'd go with Sunderland, the terminus for Grand Cancel services (based on it being a dingy pit and the third critereon), or Battersby, the terminus for a couple of Northern services, the latter of which seems to serve nowhere in particular, thus meeting the first and second criteria.

Oh and an honourable mention to Crewe on the third criterion too. It's the only station I've felt personally unsafe waiting for a bus outside .

 

[yorksrob]

Correct for station of its importance and size.

The toilets are currently closed in the Interchange again. I checked earlier today and they were still out of action.

Very depressing experience.

Yes, the interchange concourse always seems empty and forlorn. Oh for a magnificent Victorian train shed !

 

[Falcon1200]

Oh I have, many times.

My commiserations! Fortunately, having retired, I no longer need to make that journey, or indeed use Springburn station, which I hope never to have to visit again.

 

[cheekybifta]

@Llandudno 's suggestion of Blaneau Ffestiniog I don't get, wonderful hilly terrain like something else nearby last time I went there (Admittedly in 2010 as part of a Ffestiniog Round Robin). I'd go with Sunderland, the terminus for Grand Cancel services (based on it being a dingy pit and the third critereon), or Battersby, the terminus for a couple of Northern services, the latter of which seems to serve nowhere in particular, thus meeting the first and second criteria.

I love getting the train to Blaenau Ffestiniog but it could certainly be described as bleak at times depending on the weather.

On a damp, slightly rainy Sunday morning with low cloud, fresh off the 11:30ish arrival, I couldn't argue with anyone calling it bleak - but provided the rain isn't too intense I think a misty Blaenau has a lovely charm to it.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

But Blaenau Ffestiniog is not the easiest place to interchange between NR and the Ffestiniog Railway - particularly if you don't have tickets for both and need to repurchase. And connections can be quite tight.

 

[DarloRich]

FWIW Milton Keynes Central is one of the most unfriendly stations I have ever visited but it's not a terminus.

eh? You cant get out much if you think that. The next station down is much worse! MK has warm waiting rooms, facilities, shops, visible staff, easy access to all platforms, easy to read screens, clear announcements and a good train service. It even has a Greggs!

it is a bit 1980's lego style but is decent enough.

 

[MichaelTrains]

Yes, the interchange concourse always seems empty and forlorn. Oh for a magnificent Victorian train shed !

The mess the council have made to our city and the transport systems are reprehensible.

Lets knockdown 18 platforms and replace them with 7 (soon to be eight).

The Interchange is already at capacity which causes regular delays because there isn't the platform space for services. Especially with the Grand Centrals and Northern’s latest act which seems to be dump anything not going onward to Halifax in platform one.

 

[harz99]

Bleakest terminal station surely has to be Ardrossan Harbour...

 

[Tetchytyke]

The mess the council have made to our city and the transport systems are reprehensible.

Lets knockdown 18 platforms and replace them with 7 (soon to be eight).

Nothing to do with the council. Everything to do with the fact that Bradford didn’t need two enormous stations for the amount of traffic they received and BR didn’t want to pay to maintain them.

Forster Square had two trains an hour in the 70s and 80s, one to Keighley and one to Ilkley, at one point it was even down to one train an hour. And it only had those because Bradford council, and then WYPTE, paid for them. I honestly don’t know how the old station managed to survive until 1992, I can only assume nobody wanted to pay to rebuild it, but it was a scary place to catch a train at night in the late 80s.

I’d hardly say Interchange railway station- which predates the Interchange- is at capacity either. Two trains pass each other at the station, the only time you’ll ever see all four platforms occupied is when the Grand Central train and the Huddersfield stopper are both laying over.

I think more Bradfordians need to accept the simple truth that the city is a rather down-at-heel suburb of Leeds and the facilities it has reflect that status. And I say that as someone who grew up in Shipley.

Heysham was not pleasant last time I visited it. Unless you're catching the ferry (which I wasn't), I wouldn't recommend it.

The station only exists to serve the ferry terminal. It has no other purpose. The ferry terminal is nicely done out. It’s better than any other station on the network that has one train a day.

The wider area is as you’d expect from a predominantly freight ferry port next to a nuclear power station. I normally walk 10 minutes up to the village to catch the express bus into Lancaster as it’s cheaper and more convenient for Lancaster and I’ve never had an issue with the locals.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Bleakest terminal station surely has to be Ardrossan Harbour...

Indeed. See post #49.

 

[MikeFromLFE]

Barton upon Humber. Who goes there exactly?

It's handy for the bus over the bridge to Hull.
The town is OK in a 'north Lincolnshire' sort of way.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The terminus section of Birmingham Moor Street isn't bleak in itself, indeed it's quite nice... but the through platforms are a bit grim, and the surroundings once you leave the station (busy roads and brutalist architecture) are miserable.

 

[duffield]

The terminus section of Birmingham Moor Street isn't bleak in itself, indeed it's quite nice... but the through platforms are a bit grim, and the surroundings once you leave the station (busy roads and brutalist architecture) are miserable.

I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky the historic terminal wasn't demolished at some point just leaving the through platforms. Or indeed that the entire station and line was not erased with all services re-routed to New Street.

 

[frodshamfella]

I went to Great Yarmouth Station once , that was pretty cold in the Winter. I always find Crewe chilly too.

 

[John Luxton]

Heysham was not pleasant last time I visited it. Unless you're catching the ferry (which I wasn't), I wouldn't recommend it. Also the anecdotes my brother tells me of an unsavoury chap who does a lot of illegal bass fishing in the vicinity. On the subject of harbour stations, a former uni friend referred to Fishguard as 'officially the most boring and depressing town in Wales', something which I always remember, though I'm not sure since I've never been to Fishguard, never mind Fishguard harbour station.

The Station at Heysham originated with the Midland Railway and was an integrated port facility to enable a change between rail and sea. The station and ferry terminal are basically one entity as the waiting area and refreshment facilities are for those using either means of transport. I don't find it particularly unpleasant. I tend to travel there by car and sail across, thus only use the car park, but Heysham isn't bad.

As for Fishguard the problem is the Harbour is a long way from Fishguard itself and is really in Goodwick. Fishguard itself is not a bad place itself picturesque little harbour in the old town. Just it is a long walk from the station!