European Train Stations you have felt most uneasy visiting

[ABB125]

Finnish or Estonian is even more effective.

That may be so, but unfortunately I speak neither! (Not that my Swedish is brilliant either...)

 

[Starmill]

Another vote for Brussels Midi, very sketchy in my opinion and Hansaring one stop away from Koln HBF made me clutch onto my belongings extra tight!

It's funny isn't it, because Hansaring looks very threatening. But walk literally a couple of minutes away to the Eigelsteinorbourg and you'd swear you were in a different city.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Dec 2025 ==

Finnish or Estonian is even more effective.

It's amusing when the beggars open with a "do you speak English?" and you can simply go straight for "Euh? - non." or appropriate local alternative. Sadly my English accent is a killer.

 

[185143]

Been through Hamburg Hbf a few times. It's a very hectic place putting it lightly! Only once been approached by someone homeless and that was on one of the platforms outside one of the shops, straight away asked if I could get him food and didn't once ask me for cash. Though I couldn't have given him any cash as I didn't have any, I was more than happy to buy him some food. Wished each other well and off we both went in separate directions.

I am usually pretty good at looking like I know where I'm going, wether I do or not though.

The only time I've been to Frankfurt Hbf was on the Zurich-Amsterdam night train at around 3AM. I wouldn't particularly have fancied leaving the train as there seemed to be a lot of unsavoury characters about. A couple of homeless guys got on the train and came down looking for empty bottles to returning get cash that way (a common sight sadly, in Germany in particular, in my experience). But none of them were the slightest bit of trouble and seemed to be people who had genuinely just fallen on hard times.

 

[railfan99]

Indeed. Can concur. Visiting the area a couple of weeks ago actually reassured me that Britain is not the worst place to travel by rail, although the Belgian conductors were very enthusiastic about their jobs.

I waited hours for a bus at Liepaja station in early December 2008, but that was depressing rather than intimidating...

So yeah, I'd have to vote for Liepaja. Nowhere in my travels have I yet been uncomfortable with my actual surroundings.

Brussels Midi in September 2025 had platforms that needed about six runs of a steam cleaner to partly remove all the grime. No one approached me in any threatening way but the whole station seemed poorly signposted and somewhat sketchy.

I agree Frankfurt Hbf has shady characters outside but they didn't bother me or my wife in 2022. Just walk with a purpose.

Also in September 2025, I was dropped off at Liepaja station at about 0430 hours to wait for the sole daily train that departed IIRC just after 0500. But no one bothered me, even though for the first 20 minutes there was only one other man waiting. Eventually the conductor turned up, and then the driver, neither of whom were communicative. Presumably neither spoke English.

Not in Europe, but in 1980 when at university, my brother (now decreased) and I spent quite a few hours at Marree, South Australia, probably one of the more desolate places in Australia. We waited for the mixed train on the old narrow gauge railway to Alice Springs. There was little to do, but we survived. Facilities at the station were minimal but being a transhipment station from the standard gauge line from Stirling North (near Port Augusta), it was staffed.

 

[Class800]

Praha-Holesovice. And if we still count as Europe, Leeds!

 

[duesselmartin]

Some unease I felt at Dublin Heuston,

As Germany comes up a lot, Düsseldorf is not the worst, but the human exitement issue is a big issue on its northern entrance.

In Italy, Cuneo was felt dodgy. More irregular migrants than passengers in that station.

 

[Rab Smith]

Some unease I felt at Dublin Heuston,

Been through Dublin many times and never had a problem at Heuston but have had aggressive beggars challenging me at Connoly Station.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Some unease I felt at Dublin Heuston,

As Germany comes up a lot, Düsseldorf is not the worst, but the human exitement issue is a big issue on its northern entrance.

In Italy, Cuneo was felt dodgy. More irregular migrants than passengers in that station.

Dublin can be surprisingly sketchy off the main drags. I stayed in the Premier Inn near Tara St. Station on the south side of the Liffey in '24, and had to run the gauntlet of drug-pushers and street-walkers to reach it. Sadly there was also a large encampment of homeless nearby as well. At 04.00 somebody smashed a large plate-glass window at the front of the hotel setting off the fire-alarms - we had to assemble outside in the freezing cold. Still I managed to catch my early train without difficulty...

 

[scragend]

Paris Nord is the only one where I've had someone argue with me after I declined to give him money. In a lot of places they will come up to you and ask for money, but if you politely decline they'll just walk off and head for the next person.

At Gare du Nord once I'd come off the Eurostar and stepped out of the front of the station where I was confronted by a man.

"You give me money?"
"No"
"Why not?"

I think I said something like "Because I don't want to" and started to walk away but he got quite aggressive. I know one encounter doesn't mean it's always like that but since then I have felt uneasy when coming out of the front of Gare du Nord.

I agree with other posters about Brussels. I got pestered there earlier this year by a man who seemed intent on telling me his life story. No doubt he was working up to asking me for money (which I didn't have anyway, I don't tend to carry cash) but at least he was never aggressive.

 

[MarcVD]

With regard to the difference between airports and railway stations, am I right in thinking that airports often own the land for a considerable distance around the terminal building, whereas a the railway usually owns little but the station building? Therefore the airport on its own can take action to move undesirables well away, whereas the railway can only move them a few yards.

Or simply because railway stations are usually found in or near city centres, with lots of activities around them, while airports are usually located far away and in the middle of nowhere (you know, space for runways, parkings, and all that). Homeless people usually live from the leftovers they can find and they have far much chances to find any in a place vibrant with economic activity than in the middle of the fields. For what I have been able to see so far, you do not find much homeless people in those SNCF sugar beet stations either.

Also, those people have no access to any kind of public toilets, so where do you expect them to go ?

 

[Rab Smith]

Or simply because railway stations are usually found in or near city centres, with lots of activities around them, while airports are usually located far away and in the middle of nowhere (you know, space for runways, parkings, and all that). Homeless people usually live from the leftovers they can find and they have far much chances to find any in a place vibrant with economic activity than in the middle of the fields. For what I have been able to see so far, you do not find much homeless people in those SNCF sugar beet stations either.

Also, those people have no access to any kind of public toilets, so where do you expect them to go ?

It really is quite tragic to see the condition some people are in who hang around outside the Stations. It's a wretched life and I genuinely feel sorry for them.

Saying that, if you were to help everyone who asked you for money, you'd soon be joining them. I like to have at least one good deed when out and about which usually involves buying someone a sandwich, coffee or a soft drink but never cash as I don't usually carry any.

The ones I can't stand though are the obvious criminals who use Stations as a hunting ground for the unwary and naive. That's the sort of deviants I would love to see the Police crack down on.

 

[izvor]

In Romania the stray dogs can be far worse than humans. In most towns they are pretty docile, at least during the day, but Bucharest's dogs were (and probably still are) a big problem. Waiting at one suburban station early one morning there were no humans but a few dogs. At first they were just inquisitive, but when the numbers increased and the growling started I decided to beat a retreat and walk into the city centre. A passing car driver shouted "caine!" (dogs) out of the window and sure enough I saw a pack ahead, so gave them a wide berth.

Outside Sinaia station once I got surrounded by an aggressive pack and bitten by one, cue a quick trip to the chemist for ointment, and a full anti-rabies course as soon as I got back to the UK.

Normally dogs there will back off if they see you pick up a stone - even a pretend one - but there isn't always time.

 

[Polarbear]

I’ve rarely had any serious issues whilst travelling around Europe. Perhaps that stems from appearing to know what I’m doing/where I’m going.

Agree with other posters about Brussels Midi & a couple of the German nomninees. I do recall running a gauntlet of rather questionable characters at Düsseldorf Hbf once, having arrived late evening.

Think one of the worst stations I’ve come across for sheer dereliction would be Kobanya Kispest in the Budapest suburbs. A dreadful station that honestly would pass for one long closed in many other countries!

 

[styles]

Only ever really at night. I was travelling with someone once where we had an overnight wait of a few hours at Barcelona. The station closed for a few hours and so we were hanging around and it wasn't a particularly enjoyable experience even though we were right next to it with staff still inside etc for security. I've not really enjoyed some of the bigger SNCF stations late at night either.

I think a lot of this is just consequence of them being in dense cities and being less familiar with the area. I wouldn't particularly mind it in London but I know London a lot better than Barcelona or Paris, from having lived there for years.

During the day I don't think I've ever felt uneasy. But then if you've been to stations in New York or the Golden Triangle in India, maybe it's just because you realise even the worst European stations are relatively safe.

 

[Whisky Papa]

I can't say I've ever felt particularly worried, but our European rail journeys have usually been concluded by early evening - we generally used our FIP coupons as local rover tickets, returning to base in a city that we'd flown to. Exceptions for Eurostar to Belgium and Paris, and yes, the area around Gure Du Nord was certainly a little unsettling in the evening. In Brussels, we did walk from Midi to the Cantillon gueze brewery and back with no problem in an afternoon, although this was some 15 years ago.

We avoided hotels around the main station in Luxembourg City from comments on review sites, and likewise Nice I recall. The walk from the station in Pisa back to our b&b was a little unnerving to British eyes, but we were never approached by the large numbers of young men hanging out in the Piazza Victor Emanuele II; they were simply socialising on a warm spring evening. The bars were something of a magnet for hawkers though, one of whom required 'No!' in at least a dozen languages to take the hint!

On the Luxembourg trip we went over the border to Trier on the Saturday and found a squad of riot police waiting at the station - no idea why and never saw anything untoward in the (wonderful) city centre.

 

[MikeFromLFE]

@styles mentions New York - we visited in the year after the Twin Towers thing. We were going from Penn Station to Chicago and I was short of cash, so I left my wife sitting on a bench outside Penn Station while I looked for a cash machine. When I got back my wife was holding court with a large group of down-and-outs of the sort i would have given an extremely wide berth to.
She had been talking to them and introduced me to them and we had a very polite & civilised, even educated, discussion about the State of the Union. They didn't ask for any money, but I gave the guy who appeared to be the top dog $10 (I think it was 10) and he tried half-heartedly to give it me back.
It goes to show you can't always judge a book by its cover (but maybe the lack of a language barrier helped).

 

[Benjwri]

One I don’t think has come up yet, Zurich. We had the misfortune of having to wait for a train on the platform by the road (P3) and there was a group sat on the platform drinking who kept coming up to us and shouting at us, gave the feeling they were after our bags. Mind this was late morning, by no means a time you’d expect this kind of behaviour.

 

[W-on-Sea]

I've been to many of the places mentioned here, but generally haven't been over-intimidated in any of them (and I think I would be prefer to be delayed at Brussels-Midi than at the Gare du Nord in Paris, all things considered), but maybe that is what growing up in a fairly rough bit of London does to you. I think the most potentially menacing stations I've encountered are some of the more decaying ones on the suburban and extra-urban railways around Naples. But, while the Naples region is a law (or lawlessness) unto itself, I have to remind myself that just because an urban location in Italy is covered liberally and messily with graffiti, this has no correlation with how safe or otherwise it may be, as may not necessarily be the case elsewhere.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I was told Naples was a basket case before I visited. But upon arriving I didn’t see anything truly wrong. There was a particular Metro station in Brussels, however, that felt dodgy even during the day.

 

[duesselmartin]

on a postive note, a homeless person asked me Christmas last year in King's X if I could buy him some food which I did. The next day I met him again and he greeted without asking for more. Unusual for sure but it shows you cannot put them all into one basket.

 

[styles]

@styles mentions New York - we visited in the year after the Twin Towers thing. We were going from Penn Station to Chicago and I was short of cash, so I left my wife sitting on a bench outside Penn Station while I looked for a cash machine. When I got back my wife was holding court with a large group of down-and-outs of the sort i would have given an extremely wide berth to.
She had been talking to them and introduced me to them and we had a very polite & civilised, even educated, discussion about the State of the Union. They didn't ask for any money, but I gave the guy who appeared to be the top dog $10 (I think it was 10) and he tried half-heartedly to give it me back.
It goes to show you can't always judge a book by its cover (but maybe the lack of a language barrier helped).

Yes I would just reiterate that I was talking about night time specifically.

Like I say, I haven't had a problem in a western country during the day ever.

 

[BBF3]

Another vote for Frankfurt am Main Hbf. The whole area around it is horrible. As others have mentioned, it doesn't help that Frankfurt is also contender for Germany's least likeable city. Transient population mostly driven there by money.

Also concur on the Steindamm area near Hamburg Hbf. Really sleazy. I ended up staying in hotels there a few times but eventually vowed that paying more and being further away from the Hauptbahnhof was a price worth paying.

I think I'm pretty streetwise and I've been told I look intimidating (I'm really not), so I can't say I've had too much bother, or maybe I've just got a high threshold. Thinking about it, I've actually been stopped by the police myself a couple of times, although that seems to have trailed off now I'm older, thankfully.

It's interesting that Bruxelles Midi has been mentioned so much on this thread. I remember my first visit in 1999 when the whole station felt sketchy. Nowadays I feel the station itself is okay. Even though I pass through there regularly, though, I never have any reason to step outside and from what I'm reading I don't think I'll bother. The area around Bruxelles Nord is slso pretty unpleasant. Stayed in a (perfectly nice) hotel nearby a few years ago and just did my usual confident stroll from the station, but I would not have liked to have been a single woman walking around there.

Curious that Zürich HB has also been mentioned. Always seems markedly pleasant to me! The on train announcements about pickpockets make me think that Swiss ideas about crime hotspots are very different to the rest of Europe.

Interesting how British stations have changed, as anyone who remembers Kings Cross in the 80s and 90s will confirm. I think of all the London termini that one still has a bit of that vibe outside, but it's nothing like it was.

 

[sk688]

howth Junction & donaghmede can feel rough at the best of times
broombridge pre Luas works was a bombsite


charleroi Metró stations along with most of the main brussels stations except centraal felt v rough

 

[alex397]

Like I say, I haven't had a problem in a western country during the day ever.

I generally haven’t either, even in places considered ‘no go zones’ by overdramatic ‘journalists’.

Though I have had issues in Paris, with people grabbing hold of me to try and mug me or something in broad daylight. What I find confusing is why they didn’t just fully go for it and just take my stuff, because all I did was push them back and shouted at them, and they stopped. Wierd - perhaps just trying to intimidate me for fun? That’s happened both times I’ve been to Paris.
I also had a walk around a park near Leipzig Hbf and a gang of undesirables surrounded me, laughing and talking in Arabic. I tried asking them what this was about, but they didn’t say anything back in English - I’m also not sure what this was about either, so I just turned around and got out of the park.

Those are the only two places in my travels across many European countries that i’ve had anything genuinely concerning - I’m still not sure what those incidents were really about. All I can say is they certainly weren’t being friendly, and I think most of the time you can tell when people are friendly regardless of what language they speak.

The other things I’ve found concerning, but might not actually be anything sinister, is at Görlitzer Bahnhof on the Berlin U-Bahn and a station on the Paris Metro. An obvious gang, or group, all communicating with each other, but all standing at each corner of the corridors or stairways of the stations. Seemingly on the lookout for someone or something. It’s interesting that it seemed exactly the same at both stations.
Does anyone know what this behaviour is all about? It seemed very dodgy but I didn’t want to assume.

Interesting how British stations have changed, as anyone who remembers Kings Cross in the 80s and 90s will confirm. I think of all the London termini that one still has a bit of that vibe outside, but it's nothing like it was.

I do find it interesting that all British stations I’ve encountered, don’t really have issues outside the station. Not to the extent I’ve seen on the continent. By ‘issues’ I mean minor anti-social behaviour, drunkenness or aggressive begging.

And yet I generally find British towns have worse anti-social behaviour in other areas, such as town centres, compared to the continent. Generally speaking of course.

 

[tynesider]

Has anyone ever changed trains at Marchienne-au-Pont, near Charleroi?

I've only ever passed through but been thankful that was the case!

 

[The exile]

Has anyone ever changed trains at Marchienne-au-Pont, near Charleroi?

I've only ever passed through but been thankful that was the case!

Yes - but it was about 20 years ago. Don’t remember anything particularly concerning.

 

[mtmikethom]

Brussels North gets my vote, very intimidating on the evenings

 

[Beebman]

I don't like Brussels North either but it's better now than it used to be in the 90s when walking to and from the station involved passing a number of 'shops' with 'ladies' on display in the windows

 

[gazthomas]

Marseille Saint-Charles, particularly just outside. I didn't feel safe in the daytime let alone at night

 

[RailWonderer]

The other things I’ve found concerning, but might not actually be anything sinister, is at Görlitzer Bahnhof on the Berlin U-Bahn and a station on the Paris Metro. An obvious gang, or group, all communicating with each other, but all standing at each corner of the corridors or stairways of the stations. Seemingly on the lookout for someone or something. It’s interesting that it seemed exactly the same at both stations.
Does anyone know what this behaviour is all about? It seemed very dodgy but I didn’t want to assume.

Probably organised pickpocketing - someone distracts you or harasses you and another takes your things. This is rife in Paris and Barcelona, and probably some other spots in Western Europe.

I do find it interesting that all British stations I’ve encountered, don’t really have issues outside the station. Not to the extent I’ve seen on the continent. By ‘issues’ I mean minor anti-social behaviour, drunkenness or aggressive begging.

And yet I generally find British towns have worse anti-social behaviour in other areas, such as town centres, compared to the continent. Generally speaking of course.

*Ahem* Euston. Full of drunks and bums at all times of day and I've seen ASB there as well. I've been approached several times by beggars when going to Cafe Nero, taking cash out, and crossing to the M&S. Euston is my least favourite station in London and possibly the whole UK for its sliminess and general dirtiness outside the station.

Though I agree the UK is better than other Western European stations mentioned here for cleanliness around stations, my guess is due to very high land values attracting investment and gentrification around stations that other parts of Europe don't have.