Illogical and haphazard stations

[Dr Hoo]

Farringdon isn't illogical but it is haphazard for those wanting step free access.

Platforms 2, 3 and 4 are best accessed using the Thameslink entrance/exit on the south side of Cowcross Street, as this has conveniently positioned lifts. This is also good for access to/from the Elizabeth Line via platform 4.

The big problem is getting to and from platform 1, the eastbound Metropolitan platform. There is a footbridge spanning platforms 1-4 at the northern end, but it is narrow and not step free. Sometimes I want to arrive on a Thameslink train from the south into platform 4, then depart from platform 1 to get to Liverpool Street. I have yet to find a sensible step free route for this.

Why not use the Elizabeth Line?

 

[satisnek]

Even at a simple two-platform station, getting from one side to the other can be remarkably complicated in some instances. To get from the ticket office to a Preston-bound train at Burnley Manchester Road involves walking out of the station, up the station approach, crossing over the line using the pavement alongside a busy main road and the descending a long and slippery footpath to the correct platform. All of which is distinctly unpleasant if it is raining heavily at the time (which it was when I visited last)!

Kidderminster was like this between c1970 and 2008, although being built into a much shallower hillside than Burnley Manchester Road it was a shorter walk! There are probably several examples of stations rebuilt/rationalised by BR where you can only get to the other platform by going out onto a public road. Of course, with unstaffed stations with separate entrances to each platform things can get really messy - Mirfield is an extreme example which springs to mind.

 

[dastocks]

Farringdon isn't illogical but it is haphazard for those wanting step free access.

Platforms 2, 3 and 4 are best accessed using the Thameslink entrance/exit on the south side of Cowcross Street, as this has conveniently positioned lifts. This is also good for access to/from the Elizabeth Line via platform 4.

The big problem is getting to and from platform 1, the eastbound Metropolitan platform. There is a footbridge spanning platforms 1-4 at the northern end, but it is narrow and not step free. Sometimes I want to arrive on a Thameslink train from the south into platform 4, then depart from platform 1 to get to Liverpool Street. I have yet to find a sensible step free route for this.

I think there may be a lift between platform 1 and the entrance in Turnmill St? Or (as posted elsewhere) it would be easier to use the Elizabeth Line.

 

[Magdalia]

Why not use the Elizabeth Line?

Because it is in a deep hole in the ground.

At Liverpool Street the eastbound Metropolitan platform is only a short walk from the low numbered platforms above ground, where trains to the Fens usually depart, and only involves a few steps.

I think there may be a lift between platform 1 and the entrance in Turnmill St?

I think you are right, but that involves going out of the station and back in again.

 

[Meerkat]

Kidderminster was like this between c1970 and 2008, although being built into a much shallower hillside than Burnley Manchester Road it was a shorter walk! There are probably several examples of stations rebuilt/rationalised by BR where you can only get to the other platform by going out onto a public road. Of course, with unstaffed stations with separate entrances to each platform things can get really messy - Mirfield is an extreme example which springs to mind.

I don't understand - why would you be going between platforms at an unstaffed station (unless its a penalty fare area and ticket machines are only on one platform - which would be a bit rubbish)

 

[Tester]

I don't understand - why would you be going between platforms at an unstaffed station (unless its a penalty fare area and ticket machines are only on one platform - which would be a bit rubbish)

I've done exactly that to make a connection at Long Preston, and found it to be unexpectedly tricky!

 

[zwk500]

I don't understand - why would you be going between platforms at an unstaffed station

There are a few places where it can be better to switch trains at a small staiton than continue onto the next 'big' stations

(unless its a penalty fare area and ticket machines are only on one platform - which would be a bit rubbish)

This is quite common - e.g. ticket machine on London-Bound platform only.

 

[satisnek]

I don't understand - why would you be going between platforms at an unstaffed station (unless its a penalty fare area and ticket machines are only on one platform - which would be a bit rubbish)

I have to admit that I only use Mirfield station for going to the Navigation Tavern (well, are there any non-locals who use it for anything else?). If I come from, say, Huddersfield then I go straight down the steps into the murk of the underline road and turn left. On my return, if I want to go back to Huddersfield, I get back to where I came from and suddenly remember which platform I need to use - and if I've timed it a bit tight then it can be a bit of a bind!

 

[Bevan Price]

While Manchester Vic and Exchange were built by different companies on opposite sides of the River Irwell and later joined end to end, with one long shared platform, by the LMS. I expect local passengers knew where Victoria ended and Exchange began!

Not really. Especially when trains departed from Platform 11 Middle at Manchester Exchange - which was the central part of the very long platform linking Victoria and Exchange. It was never clear were 11 Middle finished and Exchange 3 started - but I suppose BR probably had a plan showing the formal boundary. I have also arrived in Platform 11 Middle on trains shown to terminate at Manchester Victoria.

 

[bspahh]

Well it’s pretty hard to miss if you’re using the bridge, it’s right next to it.

There is a photo from in the subway at Carlisle station at https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4192601

 

[Tester]

There is a photo from in the subway at Carlisle station at https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4192601

How fascinating!

I shall definitely have a look.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I have to admit that I only use Mirfield station for going to the Navigation Tavern (well, are there any non-locals who use it for anything else?). If I come from, say, Huddersfield then I go straight down the steps into the murk of the underline road and turn left. On my return, if I want to go back to Huddersfield, I get back to where I came from and suddenly remember which platform I need to use - and if I've timed it a bit tight then it can be a bit of a bind!

Not sure if Batley is far away enough to class me as a non-local, but I regularly use Mirfield to visit both the Co-op and Lidl in the town, as well as the Navvy.
The fact that almost all Westbound trains use platform 3 might occasionally confuse people, particularly those doing the Ale Trail... though I imagine the rare occasions that platform 2 is used probably confuses more people!

 

[778]

I think Nuneaton is a bit haphazard and illogocal. Why does a fairly queit station need 7 platforms? I do quite like it though, it has an interesting layout.

 

[Ken H]

I think Nuneaton is a bit haphazard and illogocal. Why does a fairly queit station need 7 platforms? I do quite like it though, it has an interesting layout.

It used to be logical. I used it a fair bit around 1990.
There were 2 islands. One up one down with an fast and a slow each. There was a down loop with a platform by the main buildng. The inter cities stopped on the fasts. The Trent Valley locals used the slows - they were Rugby-Stafford cl 304's then.
Leicester - Brum trains used the slows.
I took my 5 yr old son to Skeggy on a train hauled by a pair of cl 20's. That went from the down loop.
Then they added 2 new platforms on the east side so Leicester - Brum trains coukd use the flyover and avoid crossing the West Coast line on the flat.

 

[zwk500]

I think Nuneaton is a bit haphazard and illogocal. Why does a fairly queit station need 7 platforms? I do quite like it though, it has an interesting layout.

It has 1 platform per track through the station (excluding the goods loop on the up side), which is hardly over-provision for a town and junction it's size.

 

[Mojo]

Marylebone isn't particularly good from a customer perspective. Chiltern seem to use platforms 1, 2 and 3 as an all-day stabling sidings with customers having to make the long walk to and from platforms 4, 5 and 6. I've even had it often with one of the platforms under the trainshed empty and they ended up putting us on top of another unit on one of the far away platforms.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Guildford is mostly fairly logical, but has one thing that always confuses me... it has a single track between - IIRC, platforms 6 and 7 - that has platform faces on both sides of it. That seems strange and pointless. I'd be curious to know how that came about.

 

[zwk500]

Guildford is mostly fairly logical, but has one thing that always confuses me... it has a single track between - IIRC, platforms 6 and 7 - that has platform faces on both sides of it. That seems strange and pointless. I'd be curious to know how that came about.

There's plenty of them about, usually either for connections both sides or space reasons. May also have been for loading/unloading in slam door days. Current ones are at Finsbury Park, Scarborough and Stratford, Lewes formerly had one but its now filled in.

 

[Ken H]

There's plenty of them about, usually either for connections both sides or space reasons. May also have been for loading/unloading in slam door days. Current ones are at Finsbury Park, Scarborough and Stratford, Lewes formerly had one but its now filled in.

and Derby and Ulverston
Hellifield had 2

 

[ian1944]

As a compulsive platform-length walker while waiting for a loose connection, or if for any reason there's a long time until before the wanted train leaves, I liked the huge joint platform at Manchester Exchange/Victoria when it was available. It's not just the discomfort of station seats, I find the ambience of a cold, echoing shed (e.g. Newcastle Central of an evening) not conducive to just sitting.

 

[zwk500]

and Derby and Ulverston
Hellifield had 2

Derby and hellifiled were bays set into the Island were they? So a single line with platform boths sides may have been a way of maximising length. Wigan Wallgate has a similar arrangement.

 

[6Gman]

Last time I went to Moorfields shortly after link and loop opened, you had to go up to the first floor to the ticket hall then go back down to the platforms underground. Think there were plans for walkways that were never built. Seemed pretty mad. Is it still like that?

It is indeed.

Up.

And then (a long way) down.

I always get lost trying to find the eastbound platform at nearby James Street.

 

[Ken H]

Derby and hellifiled were bays set into the Island were they? So a single line with platform boths sides may have been a way of maximising length. Wigan Wallgate has a similar arrangement.

Hellifield is an island accessed by a subway. The east end bay was definitely 1 track with platforms both sides. Google Maps satellite view seems to say the west end bay is the same but I haven't been there for many years so lets put that down as a 'probably'

 

[leytongabriel]

There's plenty of them about, usually either for connections both sides or space reasons. May also have been for loading/unloading in slam door days. Current ones are at Finsbury Park, Scarborough and Stratford, Lewes formerly had one but its now filled in.

Barking too. You used to be able to come off a GOBLIN train ( P1 I think). walk through a District line train on the other side of the platform and onto the platform for trains to Southend without having to go up and down the stairs.

 

[Mikey C]

A minor thing, but it always struck me as quite odd that the lifts at Essex Road station take you down further than the platform level, so you then have to walk back up to reach them!

 

[Tester]

Barking too. You used to be able to come off a GOBLIN train ( P1 I think). walk through a District line train on the other side of the platform and onto the platform for trains to Southend without having to go up and down the stairs.

This is common in Japan - three train cross platform interchange. It's very impressive to watch!

 

[nanstallon]

If you catch the first train of the day out of Plymouth, and hide on the floor so that nobody sees you, you won't have to get out, and can ride between the platforms *

* I haven't done this, but am really tempted to do so next time I'm down there

The link between the main line and the branch platform at :Liskeard used to be very verboten for passengers. Even railtours had to detrain their passengers on the main line platforms while the special train went over the connection. But one evening, many years ago, I was the only passenger on the last train of the day from Looe, and as we approached Liskeard, the guard asked if I minded being dropped off on the main line up platform, to save them having to drive the train in and out of the branch line platform before taking it back to Plymouth and Laira depot. I certainly didn't mind!

My pet hate is the ghastly redesigned Newport station. Changing trains (say, on a journey from Bristol to Hereford) used to be a simple cross platform job; now one ends up having to navigate a bridge down the far end of the platform and it takes much longer.

Yeovil Pen Mill is an oddity with the up line served by platforms on both sides.

 

[BRX]

Inverness has a kind of awkward layout - not really visible to the passenger, but effectively it's two termini parallel to each other, each leading in a different direction with a linking chord between them. So any arriving train can (with one reversal) choose which end of it arrives at the buffer stops.

 

[Ken H]

Barking too. You used to be able to come off a GOBLIN train ( P1 I think). walk through a District line train on the other side of the platform and onto the platform for trains to Southend without having to go up and down the stairs.

Sort of like Shipley?

 

[Rescars]

There are a few places where it can be better to switch trains at a small staiton than continue onto the next 'big' stations

This is quite common - e.g. ticket machine on London-Bound platform only.

This is common in Japan - three train cross platform interchange. It's very impressive to watch!

Does anyone remember Ventnor, where the only way of reaching the island platform was across a gangplank, unless there was a convenient carriage to walk through?