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Trivia: UK bus stations not fit for purpose

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SSmith2009

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Leicester Haymarket is a bit tight on passenger space and has limited parking but are a big improvement on what was there before and are probably the best you could do with the space available. Both of the Leicester bus stations are pretty packed on stand usage but that is a deliberate choice by the council and I think there are only a couple of routes that don't go into one of the two bus stations which was never the case before.
Haymarket gets very cramped at times but it also doesn't help when you've several services with similar departures fighting to get onto the same stand first.

Only the 17, 22/22A/22E, 81, Hop! and PR1/PR2/PR3 use on-street stops now, the 17 did move into Haymarket for a short while but was moved back to Humberstone Gate as the extra time needed to run down and back affected timekeeping on the route.
 
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Tom Gallacher

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Although not technically a "bus station" the terminus for 4/5 services in Midland St, Glasgow has to rank as one of the worst experiences you could ever have just to get a bus. It was located directly under the railway lines coming out of Central Station and constantly filled with buses sitting with their engines on and no escape route for the fumes. Fortunately I only ever used it on a couple of occasions as a youngster but the memory of the smoke and fumes will remain forever.
 

WibbleWobble

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Poole would be a lot worse if it wasn’t for Morebus maintaining it well with modern clean signage, advertising, timetables etc.

I can imagine it being a bit feral after dark though
Thing is with Poole is that there were aspirations to replace it as part of a redevelopment of that part of town (link is to a Bournemouth Echo story from 2019 with architect's renderings). The whole area would have been turned into a pedestrian piazza with the only permitted traffic being buses via a link road. The shopping centre frontage would have been rebuilt.

One idea was to move the bus depot elsewhere in town, with the bus station going in there - possibly with the railway station moving too. The other idea was a redevelopment of the existing station. Even the coach park was included in the redevelopment site. It did rely on getting a sizable amount from the government as part of a town improvements fund, but the funding was never awarded. Had it been, we'd have been looking at completion next year.

There was also a plan to demolish the building immediately opposite the bus station (not the Lighthouse but the one across the side road), again something that never materialised.
 

Morgsie

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I was going to mention Poole Bus Station but it has been discussed though I would like to add that is a walk to the train station and I think there was a proposal over 20 years ago now to relocate the bus statipon next to the train station.

Hanley Bus Station in Stoke-On-Trent I will mention as when the new one was built it has fwer stands than the previous one and more recently there was a crash which was reported in the local press. Then you have the young people issues aswell.
 

JD2168

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Manor Top Interchange in Sheffield, 4 stands for barely 2 buses an hour, the most frequent services don’t serve it as it’s in the wrong place.

Barnsley Interchange - not enough layover stands with too many services sharing a stand timed to run at the same time which causes buses to stop on the wrong stand or run round to find a spot. Also in the summer the building becomes like a furnace

Worksop - pretty useless, even further from the train station than the previous stands at the bus depot, very few layover stands & the waiting area seems tiny.

Doncaster Frenchgate Interchange - the entrance/exit area is a pinch point for buses as ones going from a to b platform the turn is a bit tight for the space available & they have go into the other lane for those exiting plus it often gets blocked by cars going along Trafford Way

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Piccadilly Gardens is much maligned - and rightly so! But the mess of on-street stops along a busy road in Sheffield that laughably calls itself Arundel Gate "Interchange" surely deserves a mention for being almost as bad.

The ones going towards the Moor area would not have existed if Sheffield Council not closed off Leopold Street & Pinstone Street shoving buses into unsuitable stopping areas.
 

Russel

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Piccadilly gardens is a difficult one, is it one bus station, two bus stations, or 1 bus stations and one large set of roadside stops.
While I have absolutely no clue how you could integrate them in the city centre, the current layout is inconvenient at times.

Piccadilly Gardens as a whole is an awful area, the bus station for the reasons you highlight, the tram stop is far too small and the Gardens themselves for not exactly being the sort of place you'd want to spend any longer than needed, at least the Berlin Wall is slowly being removed.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Keswick Bus Station. No shelters...in the Lake District! Due to the "surge" timetabling, it can get very very busy with buses and passengers. Really needs to expand, but I doubt Booths would allow that....

I'd also say Carlisle Bus Station. It's absolutely disgusting and too small for the number of departures...buses regularly using the incorrect atands
Keswick's lack of shelter is the main issue and with the timetabling to enable interchange, it is more important that it should be provided. I wonder if Booths object because it would block the line of sight to the store entrance?

Carlisle bus station used to be larger; that Earls Lane shopping precinct was where the bus station exit and more stands were. Commercial considerations ruled but, to be honest and given what happened elsewhere at that time with Stagecoach, we were lucky to get any sort of bus station provided.

******************
I might also nominate...virtually every Welsh bus station as being crap. Aside from Wrexham, Bridgend and Swansea (and perhaps Cardiff though the downsizing and relocation was a step back), most are either basic and/or terrible.

Newport is particularly awful being split into two halves. The "country side" (i.e. the Stagecoach routes mainly) being is cold, exposed despite the canopy, with feral pigeons, feral kids, and drunks. The bonus that opaque windows on the structure (other than the doors) on the stand mean that if your bus is on the wrong stand, you can't see it.
 

mangad

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Keswick Bus Station. No shelters...in the Lake District! Due to the "surge" timetabling, it can get very very busy with buses and passengers. Really needs to expand, but I doubt Booths would allow that....
Lack of shelters is daft but you can always hide from the rain under the Booths canopy.

The station itself definitely suffers from buses all arriving at the same time. I think they have changed the timetable now but I was there one morning a few years ago when a 77 and a 77A were both trying to use the same bus stop. And then a 78 came in to use it too.

It's not uncommon for two X5s to turn up, one going in each direction, and they both have a wait at Keswick in their timetable. And all that whilst a 555 is hanging around. Then ten minutes later, everything is gone and there's loads of room.
 

cav1975

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I would nominate Chatham. It is less than ten years old. It was built with an information office but that has closed and been leased out to some sort of land agent. It lacks much weather protection, particularly from the wind. The toilets appear to be temporary and aren't open when they are most needed. Information is abysmal, each bus stand was equipped with a departure screen which updated itself with timetabled departures without even a hint of accommodating real time information - these have nw failed and been switched off.
All in all an unwelcoming and bleak place to catch a bus.
 

markymark2000

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Following on from the Bus Station Designs in the UK thread, are there any more examples of UK bus stations not fit for purpose. Whether that be too big or too small, or just rubbish in general. I'm curious. (I'm particularly interested in those too big)
Does this thread extend to bus stations that are poor due to how they are managed (Ie Stansted where I've made my arguments in the Flixbus thread, Chester where the stand allocations are a mess and buses which go the exact same way, run from different stands, or Hanley/Bradford where the exact same route from leave from 3/4 different stands depending on the specific trip that you get on).


As a general thing though, I think I could probably put almost all bus stations I've ever been to, into this thread for some reason or another. Even ones that I think are some of the better ones, have their faults for being too small, not suitable for the vehicles that are using them, being a general dump.

I will give some special mentions though to bus stations that stand out for how poor they are.
I'll start with the new Porth interchange. Highway crash barriers everywhere in your face. Feels like they were sponsored by the World Bollard Association or something with how many barriers/bollards are there. The bus station can't accommodate any wheel forward buses, and so numerous times I have witnessed Mercedes sprinters having to load in the middle of the bus apron because of how unsuitable the bus station is. Who'd have thought that a bus station that is built in the modern times would need to accommodate modern buses (Photo in the spoiler below from the "Councillor Ros Davis & Councillor Sarah Hickman for Porth" facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RosandSara...i641MVfbPgffDRNHHDtaEU7zqE9tw4UqDJQg58EGXn99l)
488499274_657016156951729_5295696956872048324_n.jpg

Oxford Gloucester Green. Very undersized for what it needs to be, the roads to get to it are awful too for buses. At the bus station there is little shelter, it's very run down, and to say it's a bit of a dump would be an understatement. The place feels like it hasn't been cleaned in years, and I've never felt so unsafe in a bus station.

Trafford Centre Bus Station. It's so far from the shopping centre, you feel like you are walking basically to Eccles to get to it. Then you get there and there is normally little information, there's no shelter, very few seats. It's more of a bolt on afterthought rather than being there to support sustainable transport. It's very functional

Harrogate Bus Station. Far too small for the passenger numbers using the bus station. If there's more than 3 people queuing for a bus, the queue is already too big and affecting the flow of passenger movements to other stands.

Cardiff Bus Station. Would it even be a 'bus stations not fit for purpose thread if Cardiff wasn't mentioned? A bus station that would normally tick most of the boxes, but it's not fit for purpose as it can't open on any larger event days, and buses can take 20 minutes to get out of the bus station at night because the taxis block the exits. (see the full thread on it https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/cardiff-bus-coach-station.136208)
 

satisnek

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A lack of facilities (lavatories) information and just shelters for protection is a problem in many towns, some places have adequate bus stations with facilities, whilst others are not pleasant to use at all, Kidderminster fits the latter, and Bridgnorth is a joke
You beat me to it! Kidderminster 'bus station' is just a bus turning area with some shelters around the perimeter. During the hours of darkness it's lit by 4 or 5 tall lamp standards, half of which don't work (going back a couple or 3 years - has anything changed?). The shelters themselves are unlit. I think there was a toilet block there for a bit but since then I've always wondered where drivers go for their PNBs?
I'll be honest, I'd assumed this whole thread was inspired by a recent reference elsewhere to Guildford Bus Station, tacked onto the side of a shopping centre, all concrete and cobwebs, more popular with pigeons than passengers, though the birds have to contend with spikes along their most popular perches.

There's not enough room to queue, which is a particular problem as many of the Stagecoach services only start loading at departure time.

Fortunately, the council have plans to replace it with something less squalid nearby.
I can remember when the Friary bus station was brand new - back then it was light years ahead of the Farnham Road and Onslow Street bus stations it replaced which, although with two different layouts, were not dissimilar to Kidderminster above.

But just as a 1930s bus station would have been decrepit in 1980, so a 1980 bus station is decrepit today. Time marches on...

The project will deliver:

  • 477 highly sustainable new homes, including 47 affordable homes in the town centre
  • 2.2 acres of public realm featuring a wellness garden and a new town square
  • a newly refurbished bus station
  • the pedestrianisation of North Street between Leapale Road and Commercial Road
  • the planting of 115 new trees, boosting local biodiversity
  • new medical centre premises available to serve the community's needs
Because there's no demand for shops in this day and age... :rolleyes:
 

Statto

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These are a weird ones.

Bury Interchange whilst it's fine with enough stands for the routes that stop there, a lot of the routes like 471 pass through the Interchange, it just feels very dated compared with the modern ones like Stockport & Bolton.

Add in Leigh for same reason as Bury, & exiting Leigh on to King Street can be a pain at times.
 

WibbleWobble

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Add in Leigh for same reason as Bury, & exiting Leigh on to King Street can be a pain at times.
Both are supposedly due for redevelopment in the next few years. In the case of Leigh, the disused pub on the corner has been bought by Transport for Greater Manchester to be included in the project site.
 

Bletchleyite

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Lack of shelters is daft but you can always hide from the rain under the Booths canopy.

The station itself definitely suffers from buses all arriving at the same time. I think they have changed the timetable now but I was there one morning a few years ago when a 77 and a 77A were both trying to use the same bus stop. And then a 78 came in to use it too.

It's not uncommon for two X5s to turn up, one going in each direction, and they both have a wait at Keswick in their timetable. And all that whilst a 555 is hanging around. Then ten minutes later, everything is gone and there's loads of room.

That's called good timetabling to promote interchange, which on a timetable like the Lakes is quite common.

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Another one - Hereford Country Bus Station. A fairly bleak set of stops that doesn't add anything over the railway station frontage. It could be sold off for development and a couple of stops put outside the front of Wetherspoons for passing services without any disadvantage.
 

Dwarfer1979

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Fairly certain that it's the existing site that is being refurbished, and becoming slightly smaller into the bargain. According to https://www.guildford.gov.uk/article/27349/Find-out-about-North-Street-Regeneration
The original proposal was to move the bus station to a site further away from the shops on the other side of the very busy ring road, there was quite a lot of push back to that and it was several years ago when that came up so a different solution may be being opted for.

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Haymarket gets very cramped at times but it also doesn't help when you've several services with similar departures fighting to get onto the same stand first.

Only the 17, 22/22A/22E, 81, Hop! and PR1/PR2/PR3 use on-street stops now, the 17 did move into Haymarket for a short while but was moved back to Humberstone Gate as the extra time needed to run down and back affected timekeeping on the route.
The HOP! sort of does, its main stop is outside the northern exit of Haymarket Bus Station though it doesn't appear to have a stand number in the Haymarket series so clearly the city council agree with you. The 22's were due to go into Haymarket but the fact that dual-door buses are used in the morning peak (to provide capacity for school flows before heading onto the Uni contract) caused an issue and the 81 also had an issue over stand clashes and as it shares a corridor with the 22 keeping them together makes sense.
 
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pokemonsuper9

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These are a weird ones.

Bury Interchange whilst it's fine with enough stands for the routes that stop there, a lot of the routes like 471 pass through the Interchange, it just feels very dated compared with the modern ones like Stockport & Bolton.

Add in Leigh for same reason as Bury, & exiting Leigh on to King Street can be a pain at times.
Bury no longer having it's second exit probably doesn't help, routes like the 467, 468 and 471 could use that exit and not have to do a full lap.
 

duncombec

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I would nominate Chatham. It is less than ten years old. It was built with an information office but that has closed and been leased out to some sort of land agent. It lacks much weather protection, particularly from the wind. The toilets appear to be temporary and aren't open when they are most needed. Information is abysmal, each bus stand was equipped with a departure screen which updated itself with timetabled departures without even a hint of accommodating real time information - these have nw failed and been switched off.
All in all an unwelcoming and bleak place to catch a bus.
Ahhh... I did wonder if this would come up, and very nearly nominated it myself! But then I remembered its predecessor. (Deep breath...)

The "old" bus station in the Pentagon was, if you believe the locals, a paragon of virtue. It was enclosed (by virtue of ringing the upper level of the shopping centre), so provided easy access to the shops "without getting wet". And that's about the only thing it has going for it. It was fine if you were in the "open" end, facing The Brook, where there was daylight and fresh(er) air. My bus departed from the stygian gloom of the opposite end, where daylight never penetrated, and the air was thick with diesel fumes and pigeon droppings. Oh, and my bus had the misfortune to run from next to the door to the public toilets. Which, when closed, generally revolved around the entrance being used as the toilet. 40 minutes on a winter Sunday with the odious air of stale urine, and sometimes visions of... "that was a large dog"... have clearly rendered me immune to "wet dog syndrome". As for easy access to the shops... one wonders how those complaining about the replacement ever managed the length of the high street...

The "new" Waterfront bus station is indeed not without it's own problems. The Information office is now the sales agent for the flats being built next to the bus station. The toilets used to be inside, but were moved outside after a number of, I believe the word is "dirty protests", so very not temporary. Earlier in the winter they were closed for a period after vandalism, and have now been fitted with blue lights to dissuade a certain sort of use (although not exactly prevalent, they are the only "non-secure" facilities in town). I accept it can be windy, but wind blows up the length of the bus station more often than it comes across, so there is more protection than it feels like.

The information screens are, I believe, in the process of being replaced, a previous attempt having failed to live up to expectations. They were timetable only, as there was no "old-style" real-time facility in the Medway Towns. They do tend to work when they feel like it, so it's very much "pot luck" - and not all of them at the same time! However, to describe information as abysmal is unfair - there are paper departure lists in the centre of each "platform" A & B, and at the stops in areas C and D. It's not as though there is no information at all. Often empty at the moment owing to lack of product from operators, but there is a leaflet rack just inside the door to the shopping centre, which is filled up usually weekly if there are things to put in it.

It is a very long way from perfect, but "unwelcoming and bleak" is a bit of an overstatement - certainly better than its predecessor! (Google Streetview visited on a sunny day in August 2024, should anyone wish to check)
 

py_megapixel

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The ones going towards the Moor area would not have existed if Sheffield Council not closed off Leopold Street & Pinstone Street shoving buses into unsuitable stopping areas.
There were still southbound stops on Arundel Gate when Leopold St and Pinstone St were open to buses. Arundel Gate is actually quite a good place for a bus corridor - it's close to city centre attractions without requiring buses to drive through the pedestrian streets, and it's a wide road that should be easy to provide good facilities on.

The problem is that when those streets were pedestrianised and Arundel Gate took on their traffic, they went for the sticking-plaster solution of just squeezing in a couple of extra stops. They could have redesigned Arundel Gate as a really high-quality bus street, and they didn't t. It's only in the past year or so that stop 123 has even got a shelter!

Also the northern end, with the stops under the overhangs of adjoining buildings and the nasty steps down to the underpass, is just a really grim place to wait.

By the way, for anyone reading this who isn't familiar with Sheffield: there aren't actually 123 stops on Arundel Gate, but a few years ago they wanted to add two new stops between 9 and 13. So they of course numbered them 123 and 124.

The numbering of stops is generally a bit silly:
  • northbound stops are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11
  • southbound stops are numbered 12, 9, 123, 124, 13
 
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IanMac

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My twopennyworth:

Maidstone: in the wrong location and much underused.

Swindon (new): too long end-to-end; poor signposting of services/stands. And I was surprised to see a couple of stands located down a side road. When I visited, half the stands were paralysed for about 10 minutes by a "police incident" on a bus.

Chelmsley Wood: has had a bad press recently because of misuse by very antisocial people. And poor design means that some routes have to leave in the wrong direction and then do a double run to point the right way. Enthusiasts must like the depot allocation codes shown on departure displays.

Chester: a good standard though rather off-centre.

Mansfield: cramped public waiting area.

Huddersfield: excellent.

Peterborough: escalators often out of order. No Smoking signs are posted outside the bay entrance doors (ie where all the smokers congregate).

Sheffield: Pond Street now virtually out of use, replaced by the amateurish (but more central) Arundel Gate.

Derby: cramped despite its size.
 

Gwr12345

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It's not as bad as some of the others, but I nominate Durham.
New bus station, only having opened in the past 2 years, but seems to be constantly under construction, toilets out of use, getting dirty, can feel cramped, not enough seating. By the looks of it the new bus station at Bishop Auckland is shaping up to be much nicer (although how long for is anyone's guess)
 

Minnietheminx

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The bus station itself is rubbish, but the Booths next to it, like Windermere station, gives it excellent facilities.

If the taxi bit could be removed it could be turned into a sawtooth, which might be better?
To be fair, the Booths site was previously... the bus station.

Personally, I'd nominate Workington. The previous layout was bad, given the frequency of buses queuing to get into the stands for the 30/300, X4/X5 and 50/51 services. The most recent change is a marginal improvement at best, because whoever decided which services were to use which of the new stands had obviously never seen a bus. If they had, they would have noticed that a minibus needs less room to reverse than a full-size single or double-decker. And would have put the 50/51 stand at the back, rather than the front.
 
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duncombec

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My twopennyworth:

Maidstone: in the wrong location and much underused.
Interesting in both comments...

I understand from those older than I am that the current bus station was never intended as the bus station, but a bus-only road under the shopping centre additional to facilities elsewhere. It is very much at one end of the shopping facilities, but does fall directly underneath the main shopping centre (and the public toilets in said centre are directly next to a bus station access point). Sainsbury's was also built next to it for similar reasons. Most (but not all) services stop elsewhere in the town centre, closer to the other facilities (e.g. Queens Monument at the bottom of Week Street).

"Much underused" surprises me - a number of services do not serve the bus station because it is considered too cramped, especially northbound. It's not uncommon to need to keep an eye on the bay, and indeed last time I used it, the bus pulled forward into the next bay and reversed back, being unable to line up with the kerb having overtaken the vehicle in the bay behind.

Shrunken facilities seem to be Maidstone's specialty: park & ride from 4 sites to 0, bus station too small (and previous examples closed), Queens Monument stops reduced and one can't be used for size purposes... of course, this has nothing to do with the Borough Council's repeatedly stated desire for a bus-free High Street...
 

Tetchytyke

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It's not as bad as some of the others, but I nominate Durham.
New bus station, only having opened in the past 2 years, but seems to be constantly under construction, toilets out of use, getting dirty, can feel cramped, not enough seating.
Durham has always been a challenging bus station because it is on such a small footprint and there's nowhere to extend it.

The new bus station is 1000% better than the old one. There is actually room to queue now.
 

Gwr12345

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Durham has always been a challenging bus station because it is on such a small footprint and there's nowhere to extend it.

The new bus station is 1000% better than the old one. There is actually room to queue now.
You see I never used the old one, but I will admit that it's better than the awful period of temporary bus stops on North Road.
 

Metal Mickey

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I’m not a fan of Stirling Bus Station as it’s quite draughty and the University service doesn’t terminate there. The operator historically wasn’t willing to invest in an additional peak vehicle to allow for this which creates a minor inconvenience for passengers connecting from services coming from the south of Stirling, Glasgow and Falkirk.

Cumbernauld (which isn’t really a bus station) is a real pain if you’re coming from the north of the town and wish to travel to Stirling, Falkirk, Fife, Dundee etc as the stances are separated by a fast moving dual carriageway and a central crash barrier and you have make your way through the dire shopping centre complex to get to the other side.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Durham has always been a challenging bus station because it is on such a small footprint and there's nowhere to extend it.

The new bus station is 1000% better than the old one. There is actually room to queue now.
Indeed @Tetchytyke...hold my beer.

The previous bus station was actually built on the same site as a rather grand wrought iron affair in 1977-ish, and was improved over the years:
  • My first visit was probably 1985/6. The toilets were already closed - vandalism. The travel office on North Road only did holidays etc; bus service enquiries were in a small ante room off the tunnel from North Road which acted like a wind tunnel. There were no seats, and the place was dark and dank. Happy days there, shivering for a 723 to Darlington
  • In 1993, it got a very light refurb where the bus station gained skylights in the roof, an automated toilet (aka turdis) and some very slight cosmetic bits and pieces as well as being repainted/cleaned
  • The 2005 (?) era saw it enclosed, get entrance exit doors in the "tunnel" to North Road, and decent flooring/lighting.
The new one is 1000% better than what it replaced, which in truth, was something that had been rolled in glitter!
 

philthetube

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Unless things have changed I would nominate St. Ives, (Cornwall), buses reversing onto the main rd.
 

KHCT

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I'll nominate Beverley....it's a 6 stand bus station on a very small footprint which requires buses to make a sharp 180 degree right turn from Sow Hill Road. However, if stands D, E or F are occupied, many full length buses can't make the turn due to a lack of room so have to reverse back into the street before having another go; there can't be many bus stations out there where buses often have to do a three point turn to enter!

To be fair, there are benches which are under cover as well as live departure screens and a toilet. However, the cover ends at stand C meaning stands A and B are open to elements...not ideal given that stand A is the busiest one where Hull bound services stop!
 

Chrius56000

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. . . Birmingham has to be my nomination for being the worst place to catch buses anywhere! I used to find Bull Street very intimidating on weekday evenings after the library closed because of the hordes of youths congregating there, made worse by my service home only being hourly after 19.00!

. . .Why wasn't the opportunity taken to design something on the site when Mass House GSJ was levelled?

. . .I'm sure the former GSJ and the I.R.R. could have been converted into a bus–only approach and departure road with enough stands to accommodate all the services and a decent passenger amenity building, with the space formerly used by the grade–separated roundabout used to build a long oval turning area with drive–in/reverse out stands and the "straight" part of the oval facing the City Centre used for passenger amenities!

. . .Walsall is another of my black spots, two separate bus stations separated by an old pedestrianised shopping street that's long past it's prime – why not demolish the Saddlers Centre and Park Street and develop a larger one that combines St. Paul's and Bradford Place into one conveniently placed bus/rail interchange?
 
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Bristol LHS

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Yorkshire
I’d nominate Sunderland interchange. It’s a striking design, but it’s not very practical. The design with a very high roof means it’s not particularly wind or rain proof (an issue in a city on the North Sea coast!). It’s arguably also in the wrong place - it’s on the site of the old Park Lane (the Nothern/United ‘country’ bus station) but also replaced the old Central Bus Station, which tradionally had the ‘town’ PTE routes, and was demolished to make way for more shops. Park Lane is out of the way, and has become more so as the city centre shifts North, including the move of the Civic Centre/City Hall, which used to be right next door. The city centre‘s road layout means town routes need a diversion to serve it, and Stagecoach pulled out most of their services a couple of years after it opened, saying it wasn’t worth the diesel and use fees. They stop on street now.

So it’s left there, oversized for what it does, and with fewer Town services passing through, the Metro interchange doesn’t get the levels of use it might have otherwise.
 
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