Interchange stations with no warm Waiting Room (Eastleigh)

[Dougal2345]

I often travel home for Portsmouth to Sway on a Saturday night, and Eastleigh is sometimes a good place to change. But now winter's coming, it's somewhere I'd rather avoid, as there is absolutely nowhere warm to wait.

Its official closing time is 22:00 (rather early), but I was there at 21:45 last Saturday, and the room on P2/3 was closed, as was the ticket hall on P1. The only place to get out of the worst of the wind was the covered (but freezing) footbridge.

Admittedly there aren't always huge numbers of people waiting at this time of night - maybe 20 or so at a guess - but surely a station like this should provide something, at least until around midnight? Is this typical of stations of this size?

 

[Lrd]

Eastleigh used to be open (well at least staffed) 24 hours with the main ticket office/waiting area open until the last train. But that was back when the stairs/lift were inside the building until they moved the doors/glass partition into the building by a couple of metres to their current location to allow the building to be closed but the stairs/lift still accessible.

 

[Ianno87]

Tamworth's facilities aren't much to write home about. Ely can be a bit bleak very late at night too.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Wakefield Kirkgate and Halifax could be seen as having no warm waiting room, with Halifax having its waiting room locked shut from around 7pm.

 

[Old Hill Bank]

Smethwick Galton Bridge is an un-hospitable interchange.

 

[Essexman]

Dovey Junction.

One that's very good though is Manningtree. Choice of a lovely warm comfortable waiting room or a buffet that's more of a pub.

 

[DanNCL]

I often travel home for Portsmouth to Sway on a Saturday night, and Eastleigh is sometimes a good place to change. But now winter's coming, it's somewhere I'd rather avoid, as there is absolutely nowhere warm to wait.

Its official closing time is 22:00 (rather early), but I was there at 21:45 last Saturday, and the room on P2/3 was closed, as was the ticket hall on P1. The only place to get out of the worst of the wind was the covered (but freezing) footbridge.

Admittedly there aren't always huge numbers of people waiting at this time of night - maybe 20 or so at a guess - but surely a station like this should provide something, at least until around midnight? Is this typical of stations of this size?

Heworth surely meets this criteria. There is no proper shelter for the national rail platforms at all, the metro station is only part underground, and the bus station just uses ordinary bus shelters. Though, I don't think Heworth is used by quite as many passengers as Eastleigh (certainly not on national rail anyway).

 

[robbeech]

Whilst only a small interchange station, Worksop has a combined ticket office and waiting room that closes when the ticket office closes at 1700, and i think lunch time on a Saturday (closed Sunday although there are no trains Sunday until 1400 and no "connections" at all). There IS a waiting room on the opposite platform, but it is locked most of the time even when the ticket office is open, most trains go from that platform too as the Nottingham trains come in and out of there aswell as it being used for all Retford/Lincoln services. A connection from the Robin Hood line onto a train towards Sheffield or Lincoln is around 45 minutes wait, in the cold at this time of year.

 

[50031]

Haddenham & Theme Parkway has a decent enclosed and heated shelter, but only on the London bound platform. A good example of what could be achieved on an unstaffed platform. I presume it remains open throughout as the main building is on the other side.

 

[route:oxford]

Edinburgh Park - Absolutely bitter.

There is a single wall mounted "Push button to activate" fan heater at the foot of the Wesbound stairwell. However, with the doors locked wide open and the heat output and fan capacity equivalent to a panting Labrador it does nothing to ease a chill.

Passengers interchanging from international (or domestic) flights to tram to train deserve so much better than to stand freezing for 30 minutes at EDP.

 

[BigCj34]

Carnforth, it was not fun waiting there when changing when coming back from Leeds to Ulverston, especially when the train was delayed. Unless you want to count The Snug as a waiting area!

 

[cactustwirly]

East Midlands Parkway isn't fun at any time of day.

 

[infobleep]

Effingham Junction is fairly open but not many would change there.

 

[sonic2009]

Helsby has not a warm waiting room in site. You probably wouldn't see many people changing there only a handful of services to Ellesmere Port.

 

[tsr]

Guildford always used to be terrible (especially if you weren’t able to wait in the corner of Costa!) but fortunately they seem to have started consistently keeping the waiting rooms open and the heaters in working order.

Dorking Deepdene is bad, if you’ve walked over from Dorking Main to get a NDL connection. They are rebuilding the shelters at the moment, so it’s been even colder in the last few weeks, as there has been literally no shelter at all.

Tulse Hill can be pretty miserable at times, as can the Overground side of Crystal Palace. The Up platform at Streatham is just grim. The Fast platforms at Balham only get occasional use but are not recommended, especially on a late autumn evening when it’s tipping down with rain.

I don’t particularly like Lewisham but it’s OK if you only have a short wait. Anything longer can be uncomfortable depending on platform. I do feel more than a bit of sympathy for gateline staff there.

Harrow on the Hill can be a bit of a nuisance if you get turfed off a train for any reason, and want to wait in a position where you will actually be able to get on another service.

 

[squizzler]

I often travel home for Portsmouth to Sway on a Saturday night, and Eastleigh is sometimes a good place to change. But now winter's coming, it's somewhere I'd rather avoid, as there is absolutely nowhere warm to wait.

I remember I used to leave near St Denys a couple of stops down the line and there was a decent pub on both ends of the footbridge. In view of the works heritage I would have thought Eastleigh might have a nice hostelry close by which is accustomed to being a de-facto waiting room (but I guess the decision to order a beer depends on how long the connection will be)

Dovey Junction.

One that's very good though is Manningtree. Choice of a lovely warm comfortable waiting room or a buffet that's more of a pub.

Obscure Wales and Borders interchanges: I'll raise you Craven Arms. Bus shelter on the platform. There is a chip shop opposite the car park entrance.

 

[Lrd]

I remember I used to leave near St Denys a couple of stops down the line and there was a decent pub on both ends of the footbridge. In view of the works heritage I would have thought Eastleigh might have a nice hostelry close by which is accustomed to being a de-facto waiting room (but I guess the decision to order a beer depends on how long the connection will be)

There's a spoons directly opposite Beastleigh station

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Mirfield!
Even the pub is too far away to be an alternative!

 

[mike57]

Seamer, just bus shelters, change there to and from Yorkshire Coast line. If the connection time is long enough I usually change in Scarborough, and to be fair the announcements usually suggest changing in Scarborough if it is one of the longer waits

 

[Parallel]

Dovey Junction is an interchange at certain times in the day. Always seems to be pretty cold too. Beautiful location though.

Stapleton Road is particularly uninviting. Filton Abbey Wood is also bare.

 

[Harbouring]

Id probably go up to the bridge if it was particularly bad at Eastleigh.

 

[scrapy]

Bolton has waiting rooms which always seem colder than the platforms. The freezing cold metal chairs don't help either.

 

[planetf1]

As above id visit wetherspoons. About a 30s walk from the station and open breakfast until late.

There's also a wonderful new craft ale bar... Steam town brew company over the road bridge which has various paraphernalia from the railway including train seats and old locomotive works lighting. About 7 minutes walk so likely to result in a missed train!!

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Speaking of the Yorkshire Coast Line - Filey. You do get waiting rooms but the Scarborough bound platform waiting room seems to be always shut. One thing I have noticed is that its the only unstaffed station to have a bog, but its still cold.

I'd probably add Frome too (although I did go in the summer), one observation is that its similar to Filey but only with a single platform and I couldn't find the waiting room (I was more concered on getting back to Westbury at the time).

 

[ashworth]

Whilst only a small interchange station, Worksop has a combined ticket office and waiting room that closes when the ticket office closes at 1700, and i think lunch time on a Saturday (closed Sunday although there are no trains Sunday until 1400 and no "connections" at all). There IS a waiting room on the opposite platform, but it is locked most of the time even when the ticket office is open, most trains go from that platform too as the Nottingham trains come in and out of there aswell as it being used for all Retford/Lincoln services. A connection from the Robin Hood line onto a train towards Sheffield or Lincoln is around 45 minutes wait, in the cold at this time of year.

Totally agree. Architecturally a lovely station which probably hasn’t been changed much in years. However, it’s a freezing cold and desolate place to have to have to wait in winter or in the evenings most times of the year, for up to 45 minutes for the connection to Sheffield or Lincoln. No wonder so few passengers actually travel by this route from the Mansfield area with the poor connections and no waiting facilities, apart from the pub, outside of booking office hours.

The good news is that when the improved timetable eventually happens between Worksop and Sheffield the connection from the Robin Hood Line to Sheffield will be much reduced to only about 10 minutes. The bad news is the long wait will then be in the opposite direction with both the fast and stopping trains from Sheffield arriving in Worksop within a few minutes of each other with a wait of nearly 40 minutes for the connection into the Nottingham train.

 

[xotGD]

Passengers changing off the Grand Central at Pontefract Monkhill to go to Castleford have a rather desperate half hour fester.

 

[MML]

West Hampstead Thameslink always used to be bad with the heated waiting rooms locked overnight and only an open, freezing cold bus shelter for minimal cover.

But most surprising is even the brand new, accessible glass shelters at Luton have no heating inside. A fan heater on a low set thermostat is all that the travelling public require. Instead, we have electrically operated, push button doors entering into what can only be described as a fridge in mid-winter.

 

[jon0844]

West Hampstead Thameslink always used to be bad with the heated waiting rooms locked overnight and only an open, freezing cold bus shelter for minimal cover.

But most surprising is even the brand new, accessible glass shelters at Luton have no heating inside. A fan heater on a low set thermostat is all that the travelling public require. Instead, we have electrically operated, push button doors entering into what can only be described as a fridge in mid-winter.

On the flip side, in the summer they turn into ovens, so if you took an average over the year they'd appear perfect!