Farigiraf
Member
With an increase in fixed-train ticketing, and possibly even mandatory reservation long-distance train services, I think a thread discussing which stations have suboptimal capacity would be useful.
In the coming years, more and more passengers at important intercity stations will be standing around waiting for a specific train they have an advance fare for, even if frequency is fairly high. However, a lot of these stations have surprisingly low capacity for people waiting for their train, the expectation being that you'll turn up fairly last-minute. There's a few seats on the platforms, the occasional small waiting shelter, or a coffee shop to sit and wait in. Plus First Class lounges at some stations, of course.
You can also suggest specific parts of stations where crowds can often be seen waiting around.
Euston's the obvious first contender for such a list, as a large black box with a few retail outlets isn't really suitable for the most important WCML station with 40M annual passengers. The HS2 rebuild has been descoped to an excessive degree over the years, to the point that even a rebuilt station may not be future-proof.
Manchester Piccadilly platforms 13 and 14, and the walkways leading up to it, are also largely devoid of anywhere for lots of people to wait around for a train at. At the moment, most of the time your options are either to dash there last minute from the main station concourse, or wait around standing on the platform. There are quite a few long distance services from these platforms (to Liverpool, Glasgow, Cleethorpes, Norwich etc) so I expect a rise in the amount of passengers waiting around.
In the coming years, more and more passengers at important intercity stations will be standing around waiting for a specific train they have an advance fare for, even if frequency is fairly high. However, a lot of these stations have surprisingly low capacity for people waiting for their train, the expectation being that you'll turn up fairly last-minute. There's a few seats on the platforms, the occasional small waiting shelter, or a coffee shop to sit and wait in. Plus First Class lounges at some stations, of course.
You can also suggest specific parts of stations where crowds can often be seen waiting around.
Euston's the obvious first contender for such a list, as a large black box with a few retail outlets isn't really suitable for the most important WCML station with 40M annual passengers. The HS2 rebuild has been descoped to an excessive degree over the years, to the point that even a rebuilt station may not be future-proof.
Manchester Piccadilly platforms 13 and 14, and the walkways leading up to it, are also largely devoid of anywhere for lots of people to wait around for a train at. At the moment, most of the time your options are either to dash there last minute from the main station concourse, or wait around standing on the platform. There are quite a few long distance services from these platforms (to Liverpool, Glasgow, Cleethorpes, Norwich etc) so I expect a rise in the amount of passengers waiting around.
