Worst Stations

[CCF23]

I agree no way is Paddington bad its a great station one of my favourite London terminals and it will soon get better with the fourth span being re-opened

 

[LE Greys]

Paddington is NOT a crap hole

Paddington is the most beautiful station in London (at least where we don't have strange awnings up). Yes, it may be noisy and echoey, but the MTUs have (regrettably IMO) cut down a lot of departure noise.

If you want the worst station I've ever used, I'll say Stevenage or Westbury. Stevenage now has tea/coffee stalls on the platforms, but the one outside the barrier is cheaper (annoyingly). That little ticket office over the platforms is far too small in the peak and level access is awkward, since only the staff can use the lifts. Then, no shelters further out along the platforms, not even canopies, and horrible modern architecture.

Westbury is bleak, windswept and a shadow of its former self. Not so bad in the day, but I remember getting stuck there once (major delay whilst going to school) on a winter night. Everything was locked up, the temperature was below freezing and it took ages to persuade the night staff to send a car. Even in the day, one tiny waiting room with a heater and a very small ticket office is simply not good enough.

 

[4SRKT]

I'm adding a sixth vote for the appalling Wakefield Kirkgate, which must put it so far in front as to be unassailable by this stage. Truly the most unloved, squalid place I've ever been.

 

[Sapphire Blue]

Vote 7 for Kirkgate, and with TLC it could have been kept/made so much better than the anodine, souless Westgate

 

[yorksrob]

Leeds station is a craphole its a steel and concrete, modern looking hell hole. By the way Paddington is NOT a crap hole

I quite like the new station at Leeds. The atmosphere is quite light and airey and it's a vast improvement on the corrugated iron shed that went before - and there is of course the superb art - deco Wellington Street concourse.

With regard to Wakefield Kirkgate, I agree with previous posters. An absolute hole with all the charm and atmosphere of the concrete sarcophagus at Chernobyl.

 

[4SRKT]

Wakefield Kirkgate now on 8 votes.

Anyone beat that?

 

[Pumbaa]

It has 9 now - worst station I've ever visited.

Stations can be the 'worst' on many different levels, and its unfair to say that somewhere like London Bridge is worse than Bletchley, which is by the way, CRAP.

You need to look at them as levels of small/medium/large stations.

With that in mind...

Worst small - Wakefield Kirgate (everyone else has said why)
Worst medium - Bletchley (narrow footbridge, cramped platforms, not maintained and pretty miserable, not to mention no working/audible PIS)
Worst large - Euston (only thing its got going for it is large wide ramps to aid passenger flows)

 

[Greenback]

Worst small Wakefield Kirkgate (yet another vote!)
Worst medium Portsmouth Harbour (cold, gloomy, and very few facilities) or Shrewsbury (abysmal toilets, miserable subway and always wet)
Worst large Birmingham New St (just horrible)

 

[Capybara]

Another vote for Wakefield Kirkgate. I wouldn't even call it a small station either.

And an honourable mention for Croxley Green

 

[Geezertronic]

I hope they do the revamp of Birmingham New Street so it gets taken off a few of your lists. Same with Euston although Euston is not likely to get revamped now until they have decided on how HS2 will fit in.

 

[LE Greys]

I'm not going to slag off places I've never been to (so I'll hold fire on Kirkgate) but New Street is probably the worst big station I've ever been to. Still, I'd trade Westbury for Pompey Harbour any day.

 

[90019]

Definately New Street in it's current form.
Having been there last year, I'd rather not go back. Mind you, that goes for Birmingham in general

 

[LE Greys]

Ought to add Euston for sixties vandalism (of the Doric Arch), general ugliness, darkness and dinginess. Along with a rotten concourse design and poor access to the Tube.

 

[4SRKT]

Once there was Belfast York Road, which was even worse than Wakefield Kirkgate is now. Happily it's now closed and lies beneath NIR's main depot.

 

[eddygrim]

i like new street becuase its dark at night and you get lots of vareity and a good amount of trains. crewe station is quite bad

 

[stut]

Bedford St Johns.

Believe it or not, I do use this station from time to time, although finding it isn't always obvious (do you walk over the busy road bridge by the trading estate and down the steps, or through the car park used by lorries with no signposts?) A single bus shelter on a pile of logs, and a feeling you've reached the end of the world. It could be so handy, too...

(I believe they've got a spangly new bus shelter now, mind. With - wait for it - a sloping roof.)

And then off you pop, either to screech your way through back gardens up to Bedford Midland, or off down to Marston Vale via Kempston Hardwick, a station almost entirely pointless apart from the fact that it's easier to pick someone up there than face rush hour traffic in central Bedford. Yes, I have actually used it, and must be among the 3 people and a cat each year that does.

 

[Capybara]

I'll stick up for New Street on the grounds that it is actually a fair bit better than it was 15 or 20 years ago, and if you know where to get off the train you can be out of the back exit without having to encounter the rest. I'll defend Euston as well. It should be listed. It is a perfect example of 60s architecture and should be preserved as such.

 

[jon0844]

The bins in question have to follow TranSec guidelines with a loop bracket being used as well as see though bags.

I don't get that. Simply hide a bomb in a KFC bag or something. Someone didn't really think things through!

 

[j0hn0]

gotta be Coventry, New Street, Euston, Kirkgate, Manchester Victoria, Castleford, Bradford Interchange, Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Tamworth, Derby

all terrible in their own way, but if I was to vote for one it would be

Castleford

 

[CarterUSM]

I'm changing my mind and now nominate Gourock, at least until it is rebuilt.

 

[jopsuk]

For a nineties station, Tottenham Hale is astoundingly poor on several fronts.

 

[cuccir]

Bedford St Johns.

That is truely awful.

I don't think I've much experience of the very worst, but Sunderland's is a bit crap for a place of its size.

 

[4SRKT]

Bedford St Johns.

Believe it or not, I do use this station from time to time, although finding it isn't always obvious (do you walk over the busy road bridge by the trading estate and down the steps, or through the car park used by lorries with no signposts?) A single bus shelter on a pile of logs, and a feeling you've reached the end of the world. It could be so handy, too...

(I believe they've got a spangly new bus shelter now, mind. With - wait for it - a sloping roof.)

And then off you pop, either to screech your way through back gardens up to Bedford Midland, or off down to Marston Vale via Kempston Hardwick, a station almost entirely pointless apart from the fact that it's easier to pick someone up there than face rush hour traffic in central Bedford. Yes, I have actually used it, and must be among the 3 people and a cat each year that does.

Now then stut. How are you? What about all the others on GUT?

 

[stut]

Now then stut. How are you? What about all the others on GUT?

Aha! This is where you've been hiding, eh? I am very well, LS, and you?

 

[me123]

I think it describes Glasgow in general...

Oi! That certainily does not describe Glasgow in general

Dalmarnock is the pits, though. Got to be the worst in Scotland, and probably the worst in the UK. I don't think the Commonwealth Games investment will make that much of a difference. Then again, look at Partick...

 

[4SRKT]

Aha! This is where you've been hiding, eh? I am very well, LS, and you?

I'm OK thanks. I haven't posted on GUT for quite a long time. I held on in the railway thread for a while, but everything else just got too ridiculous. There really are some utter clowns on there. Seems everyone's either a troll or so far up his own hole that you can't have any sort of discussion. Maybe I'm just getting old and ten years on it just doesn't seem the same........

 

[krus_aragon]

I've only travelled through Pontypridd twice, but it gets my vote. Many of the stations I know in Wales have been rationalised, and are shadows of their past glory. But Ponty seems to have been cut up quite randomly. Several platforms are disused, the two with track (on different islands) are grade separated by a few feet, and on the southbound platform the station buildings is dark and dingy. The track drifts away at one end of the platform, which is fenced off and abandoned. The layout is confused, and I feel quite sorry for the station.

 

[transportphoto]

Can you find me the NRES Page for this station - I can only find the Main Bedford Station.

Or am I missing something?

Bedford St Johns.

Believe it or not, I do use this station from time to time, although finding it isn't always obvious (do you walk over the busy road bridge by the trading estate and down the steps, or through the car park used by lorries with no signposts?) A single bus shelter on a pile of logs, and a feeling you've reached the end of the world. It could be so handy, too...

Image Removed.

(I believe they've got a spangly new bus shelter now, mind. With - wait for it - a sloping roof.)

And then off you pop, either to screech your way through back gardens up to Bedford Midland, or off down to Marston Vale via Kempston Hardwick, a station almost entirely pointless apart from the fact that it's easier to pick someone up there than face rush hour traffic in central Bedford. Yes, I have actually used it, and must be among the 3 people and a cat each year that does.

I have removed the Image from the quote - I don't want to see it again

 

[Waverley125]

Leeds station is a craphole its a steel and concrete, modern looking hell hole. By the way Paddington is NOT a crap hole

rubbish. Leeds is airy, atmospheric and clean. It may not have the Victorian architectural brilliance of York but it's certainly half decent.

Kirkgate is by far the worst station in the country. Dark, dank, unstaffed, derelict, stinks of **** and people get raped in the subway (this isn't me joking-this actually happened last year).

 

[Greenback]

I've only travelled through Pontypridd twice, but it gets my vote. Many of the stations I know in Wales have been rationalised, and are shadows of their past glory. But Ponty seems to have been cut up quite randomly. Several platforms are disused, the two with track (on different islands) are grade separated by a few feet, and on the southbound platform the station buildings is dark and dingy. The track drifts away at one end of the platform, which is fenced off and abandoned. The layout is confused, and I feel quite sorry for the station.

Yes, Pontyprid is a very sad sight these days. On the plus side, it has a BTP office! Or it used to, unless it;s been closed now!

I got off there once and for a true picture of its grottiness, you really need to approach it from the street! What a dump!