Trivia: Worst Bus Station

[_toommm_]

I would have said Ashton previously but the new bus station is rather nice, and will only improve once they’ve redeveloped the old site next to it.

Because of this, I nominate Stockport. Almost the same style as the old Ashton interchange, but on a bigger scale.

 

[Daniel740]

I’m going to say Uxbridge. It’s just too cramped, with buses parked willy-nilly, even on surrounding streets overnight. The depot really needs to be relocated in my opinion.

 

[peterblue]

Surely Heathrow T5 has to be one of the worst places to catch a bus. Dark, dingy, cold, little to no timetable data or maps or routelist.

 

[Trackman]

Historically, the Manchester Arndale bus station.
I can still taste and smell it.
It was really bad news.

 

[Class465pacer]

Chatham "Waterfront", which was brand new at the time this thread started. It’s open air (I’m not a big fan of open air bus stations), located too far from a lot of the shops, not covered well by the roofs, the passenger info screens don’t work half the time, the travel centre is always closed, and 4 of the stops are completely outside the bus station. Arrivas mediocre services don’t help either but that’s for another thread.

The old Chatham bus station was considered to be very grotty and dirty, but it was located well, inside the Pentagon shopping centre closer to all the shops. It should have been refurbished instead

 

[scosutsut]

I'd fire Edinburgh on the list. Not because it's an eyesore or particularly bad design, but because it's ignored by so many operators (only Stagecoach, Borders and long distance services use it) On top of that, despite being in a central location, seemingly can't be found by any tourist, ever, given how many I have directed to it over the years (including people who were actually in line of sight with the entrance to it!) It's frontage is very vague!

 

[M60lad]

Out of interest where was the original Ormskirk Bus Station as I only remember the current one?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Out of interest where was the original Ormskirk Bus Station as I only remember the current one?

Think it was a combined depot and bus station and the buildings survive as Kwik Fit

 

[bussikuski179]

London Victoria. It’s small, cramped and the toilets are horrifying, last time I went there one of the toilets hadn’t even been flushed. Disgusting honestly.

 

[MrKyleBuses]

Surely Heathrow T5 has to be one of the worst places to catch a bus. Dark, dingy, cold, little to no timetable data or maps or routelist.

Na I'd say T4, its even more dingy than T5 however T5 is a nightmare to catch a bus from due to how the long it is

 

[Geordie driver]

The current Haymarket Newcastle, when it first opened you came out and turned left to come out onto Percy St. via Prudhoe Place, where you joined a queue for the place you had just left, it was designed in congestion and this went on for years, it could often take an hour to get parallel to the bus stand you had just left. Plus they knocked down the Farmers Rest pub to build it, criminal.
Old Edlon Square, diesel fumed hell hole, lower that Percy St.( which remains one of the most polluted streets in the country) so fumes rolled in added to the bus fumes. There were no rules about leaving buses running either, or if there were, they weren't enforced. This must have taken years of some people's lives.

Cracking pizza takeaway in there mind and they did a discount for bus drivers, best I have ever had.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Think it was a combined depot and bus station and the buildings survive as Kwik Fit

Here's a Street View of it (may need to spin round):

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

I was going to say the Kwik Fit bit was a new build, but if you compare it to this:

Ormskirk old bus station

...the distinctive ridge at the side of the building is still there, so it looks like they just built their modern-looking building into the shell of the old building. The Art Deco style building on the right is definitely original, though.

Back to the subject of the thread this is the grim mess that is the building in the existing one:

Ormskirk bus station building - Liverpool Echo

which was roughly as grim as that the day it opened. It had an enquiry office at the near end (long closed, I think), and disgusting toilets (poorly ventilated, whitewashed and all stainless steel) at the right hand end of the picture which I believe still exist. The trouble is the middle bit, which when the toilets were closed was just a public gents' urinal and not a nice place to wait for the bus. People think antisocial behaviour is a 2000s thing, but I'd venture that it was actually quite a bit worse in the general Merseyside area in the 80s and 90s than it is now.

 

[PeterC]

The worst that I have used in the last couple of years was Luton. Just a large open space with a few shelters and no information to guide you to the correct bay.

Bedford is another that uses the "open field" model but at least I could find my bus and there were some loos nearby.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Bedford is another that uses the "open field" model but at least I could find my bus and there were some loos nearby.

I don't know how recently you used Bedford, but in the last 5-10 years it has been completely rebuilt, albeit to pretty much exactly the same layout as it was. It's mostly not an "open field", that's just the X5 stops and a stop by the road for a couple of local services that isn't really part of it - the main building has about 12 "nose-in" bays next to the covered building. What is interesting about it is that they retained space for buses to be stored during the day - very few bus stations have kept that due to the value of the land in the town centre.

The toilets, interestingly, are not in the bus station but in the adjacent multi storey car park.

 

[py_megapixel]

Because of this, I nominate Stockport. Almost the same style as the old Ashton interchange, but on a bigger scale.

Stockport has its problems, but it serves its purpose pretty well.

Much of its problems come simply because it is huge. There aren't really enough of the "stand finder" posters (tables containing every route number and which stop they leave from).

Sure, it feels a rather outdated, but nothing that a clean-up, a coat of paint and some new lights couldn't fix. (It was due for something along those lines pre-Covid).

The bit that is dire is the toilets. They don't seem to ever be kept very clean and they don't look safe at all!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Nov 2020 ==

Ambleside, two bus shelters

Does that even count as a "bus station" though?

Forgot about that. They really could do with building something "proper", ideally staffed in holiday periods and with toilets, on the car park behind said bus shelters. It's about the right size, and something nice in local style stone could be built.

I'm not sure how well that car park is used to be honest... Ambleside has a pretty 'compact' town (village?) centre so there's little parking other than there IIRC.
That said I imagine most local residents have parking outside their homes.

 

[route101]

I'd fire Edinburgh on the list. Not because it's an eyesore or particularly bad design, but because it's ignored by so many operators (only Stagecoach, Borders and long distance services use it) On top of that, despite being in a central location, seemingly can't be found by any tourist, ever, given how many I have directed to it over the years (including people who were actually in line of sight with the entrance to it!) It's frontage is very vague!

What services should be moved to Edinburgh Bus Station?

 

[Robertj21a]

I'd fire Edinburgh on the list. Not because it's an eyesore or particularly bad design, but because it's ignored by so many operators (only Stagecoach, Borders and long distance services use it) On top of that, despite being in a central location, seemingly can't be found by any tourist, ever, given how many I have directed to it over the years (including people who were actually in line of sight with the entrance to it!) It's frontage is very vague!

Regrettably have to agree about the 'new' Edinburgh bus station. So well hidden away (and not too good inside either) that you'd think they're ashamed of it. Certainly needs much better signage to find it.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Again, a pet subject of mine and some on this list I concur with but here's my list of the worst current offenders:

• Newcastle Haymarket (current) - too small and congested for both buses and passengers as they pinched a chunk of it for the expanded M&S about 25 years ago
• Bath - quite modern and well located but it's filthy
• Sunderland - modern and built to integrate with the Metro but it's peripheral and more importantly, it's largely open to the elements
• Durham - just past it's prime
• Rugeley - a semi circle of knackered bus shelters with no information at all accessed via a grim walkway from a 70s precinct
• Cannock - a set of bus shelters...that's about it
• Newport - could be ok but tends to be inhabited by the local p*55 artists, feral children and general ne'er do wells
• Merthyr Tydfil - horrifically awful double horse shoe (thought due for imminent replacement)
• Pontypridd - again, dodgy types abound with no option but to indulge in passive smoking
• Dudley - usually cold, past it's prime in about 1995, and a myriad of stands and platforms from which to find your bus
• Worcester - a strange one, built well after it was established that bus stations under shopping centres and car parks = fume filled hell holes
• Leek - stuck in a timewarp
• Barnstaple - only because there's a perfectly good office/cafe building that it criminally unused in the main
• Inverness - good location but otherwise crap
• Ayr - dismal
• Alnwick - just waiting for the day the developers move in
• Blyth - see Alnwick
• Camborne - see Alnwick

That said, I could write a longer list about the ones that have thankfully been condemned to history!

I've not included the pathetic ones of one or two bus shelters etc

 

[Welly]

Northampton's is pretty vile I seem to remember.

Northampton Greyfriars was blown up back in March 2015 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-31889521

 

[Western Sunset]

Locals always moan about Poole bus station, though reading some of the above comments, maybe it isn't so bad.

Is the generally poor quality of bus stations a "class" thing? The poor/OAPs use the buses = don't spend money on the bus station for those groups of people.

 

[On the Buses]

Is the generally poor quality of bus stations a "class" thing? The poor/OAPs use the buses = don't spend money on the bus station for those groups of people.

No, it’s more often that not a reflection on the way local government is funded.

Revenue funding is severely constrained - maintenance and titivation are a long way down the list of priorities for local authorities.

By contrast capital ‘competitions’ and bidding rounds abound and huge sums of capital are there to secure for grand new bus stations.

The result is to provide the two extremes. New all singing all dancing quality facilities - and decaying existing facilities.

 

[PaulWC]

Crewe is still a grim place to arrive by bus. Made even worse by the fact that the passageway from the bus station to the town centre now ends in the middle of a street apparently awaiting demolition.

Crewe is by far the worst mainly because it's due to be knocked down, and because no basic maintenance has taken place on it for years because the redevelopment of the town centre has taken far too long to get started. The passageway (Royal Arcade) is or is about to be blocked off as they finally start on the demolition of the row of shops stretching from Queensway and round into Victoria Street. None of it will be missed apart from the clock tower (Big Bill as its known) which is also coming down.

 

[Non Multi]

Surely Heathrow T5 has to be one of the worst places to catch a bus. Dark, dingy, cold, little to no timetable data or maps or routelist.

Worse still it wasn't built in 1973 but 2007. Shameful. Utterly, utterly shameful. I have no idea how BA staff put up with this half arsed, third rate facility.

Massive own goal from HAH considering they need humongous modal shift from the private car for their third runway.

Considering the main building for the T5 station and shops is fully enclosed and a pleasant place to be right next door, it's inexcusably rubbish. HAH could easily have done so much better. 1/10

 

[Daniel740]

Worse still it wasn't built in 1973 but 2007. Shameful. Utterly, utterly shameful. I have no idea how BA staff put up with this half arsed, third rate facility.

Massive own goal from HAH considering they need humongous modal shift from the private car for their third runway.

Considering the main building for the T5 station and shops is fully enclosed and a pleasant place to be right next door, it's inexcusably rubbish. HAH could easily have done so much better. 1/10

Do any airports in the U.K. do much better though? Just look at Gatwick, the bus stops for the south terminal are hidden away on the A23 down a dingy staircase.

 

[Whistler40145]

Bradford Interchange must be one of the most uninviting of Bus stations I've ever visited

 

[Bletchleyite]

Northampton Greyfriars was blown up back in March 2015 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-31889521

To be replaced by one that's really quite nice but about half the size it needed to be, so many buses stop on the road outside instead.

Someone even wrote a song about it!

 

[py_megapixel]

really quite nice but about half the size it needed to be, so many buses stop on the road outside instead.

Gloucester bus station suffers from exactly the same problem.
It's also somehow is invariably freezing cold.

 

[MrKyleBuses]

Gatwick airport seems to have very few signs and is very hard to find the way round, North Terminal tho seems to better than the South

Do any airports in the U.K. do much better though? Just look at Gatwick, the bus stops for the south terminal are hidden away on the A23 down a dingy staircase.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Bradford Interchange must be one of the most uninviting of Bus stations I've ever visited

I guess it must have gone downhill in recent years - I went there about 15 years ago and recall being quite impressed with the airport-terminal-like thing they had there.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Nov 2020 ==

Gloucester bus station suffers from exactly the same problem.
It's also somehow is invariably freezing cold.

I think the issue with bus stations is that if you enclose them they invariably end up smelling musty and of wee, but if you ventilate them they're cold, and nobody is willing to pay the significant cost of heating and air conditioning what is usually a very large and not very well-insulated space.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Nov 2020 ==

Do any airports in the U.K. do much better though? Just look at Gatwick, the bus stops for the south terminal are hidden away on the A23 down a dingy staircase.

I failed to catch one of those buses once due to being completely unable to find it, and ended up giving up and taking the train instead, which as it required a double back via East Croydon took about an hour longer.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Nov 2020 ==

Crewe is still a grim place to arrive by bus. Made even worse by the fact that the passageway from the bus station to the town centre now ends in the middle of a street apparently awaiting demolition.

Corrected that for you

Good to see some regeneration work is happening, though, it's needed. Though it will always suffer from the "unconnectivity" problem of Preston as far as buses go because the railway station isn't in the town centre or indeed anywhere near it, something I don't quite understand given that it grew up to the size it is as a railway town. At least if you did shift Preston bus station down the other end of Fishergate and repurpose the old one in some way, it wouldn't be any further from the shops, just at the other end.

 

[alansheppard77]

Skipton is awful