Birmingham New Street named as Britain’s worst railway station

[SpookyFrank]

Interesting to note that the station which was deemed second best for cleanliness, signage etc was the one that looks like it's been left untouched since Edwardian times with nice big clear GWR signs.

http://www.urban75.org/railway/birmingham-moor-street-station.html

Those signs are great. Can't think of any other station that doesn't just have generic and boring NR signs.

 

[SpookyFrank]

That is pretty awful.

Either the artist who knocked that up doesn't understand perspective, or the architect who designed it in the first place doesn't understand topography.

One way or another, I'm pretty sure it's not possible for that thing to actually exist in the material universe. Thank god.

 

[editor]

Those signs are great. Can't think of any other station that doesn't just have generic and boring NR signs.

I've never understood why they removed the super-clear, extra large GWR signs with raised letters and replaced them with smaller metal ones that are often unreadable from a moving train. Actually, I do: the modern ones are cheaper.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I would think the little flat signs require less repainting. But yeah, lots of small stations are so poorly signed you don't know what station you've pulled into until the train pulls out again.

 

[editor]

I would think the little flat signs require less repainting. But yeah, lots of small stations are so poorly signed you don't know what station you've pulled into until the train pulls out again.

Worst of all, lots of stations now have those dire "Home of...some shitty company or another" words incorporated into their signs.

 

[SikhWarrioR]

The concourse is ok, if a bit small, but the platforms are grim.

"Worst" is tricky to pin down though. I mean, there's loads of stations out there that are just a car park and a bus shelter, a mile from the center of whatever town they're named after. Just cos millions of people don't ever see them, doesn't mean they're bad stations...

The "Bus shelter" propably used to be a spotlessly cleaned by its staff Victorian or Edwardian edifice

 

[SpookyFrank]

Worst of all, lots of stations now have those dire "Home of...some shitty company or another" words incorporated into their signs.

Christ

I've seen signs for universities and colleges like that, and Exeter station boasts that it's the 'home of the met office', but that kind of blatant commercial sponsorship is pretty outrageous. That sign has a pretty important job to do and it shouldn't be co-opted by fucking adverts.

Also, why are they called Liverpool Victoria if they're in fucking Croydon?

 

[editor]

Look at this horror:

 

[stuff_it]

Snow Hill is pretty grim and all, but at least most of the trains that go to it are on the correct platform and have WiFi.

For a truly bleak rail experience you couldn't go far wrong with Derby.

 

[SpookyFrank]

They might at least advertise something relevant to the place. Like undertakers in Bournemouth, scuba diving courses in central Somerset or Satan in Leeds.

 

[editor]

For a truly bleak rail experience you couldn't go far wrong with Derby.

That looks like a magistrates' court.

I think I prefer the Victorian facade.

 

[stuff_it]

More of Derby, to cheer up the West Mids...

An exciting day for Derby Station, ressurfacing on some of the platforms...

 

[StoneRoad]

I've been a passenger at BNS a great many times, although not that often in recent years. It is the absolute pits. end of.

The work will not improve it by much, if at all. But I'll reserve final judgement until it is finished.

 

[SikhWarrioR]

I've been a passenger at BNS a great many times, although not that often in recent years. It is the absolute pits. end of.

The work will not improve it by much, if at all. But I'll reserve final judgement until it is finished.

Nothing is gonna improve Birmingham New Street untill they sort out the capacity issues both entry and exit for trains but that would involve serious construction and money

 

[Crispy]

The hope is that now you'll wait for your train in the big concourse upstairs and only scurry into the gloom when your train arrives.

 

[JTG]

Recently saw the outside of New Street and it didn't fill me with hope tbh. I'm informed the changes are not an improvement but didn't see inside for myself

 

[SpookyFrank]

Recently saw the outside of New Street and it didn't fill me with hope tbh. I'm informed the changes are not an improvement but didn't see inside for myself

At present it's just one narrow, confusing concourse replacing another. Apparently by 2015 the new concourse will be joined with the old one to create a single open space. You can expect this new space to be focussed more on selling you stuff than actually getting you on your train in a timely fashion, but such is the way with train stations these days.

 

[rich!]

Snow Hill is pretty grim and all, but at least most of the trains that go to it are on the correct platform and have WiFi.

For a truly bleak rail experience you couldn't go far wrong with Derby.

I've slept outside there, and to be fair there are several worse vistas than that one. The car park is actually pretty decent, as train station car parks go!

 

[SpookyFrank]

Derby station is just banal and dull, nothing much to hate about it really. They've redone a lot of it recently but it's still just banal and dull.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

That is pretty awful.

While at the moment that's the main entrance, when it's all finished it will be the "back" one. The main entrance will be on the other side of the complex.

 

[emanymton]

The concourse is ok, if a bit small, but the platforms are grim.

"Worst" is tricky to pin down though. I mean, there's loads of stations out there that are just a car park and a bus shelter, a mile from the center of whatever town they're named after. Just cos millions of people don't ever see them, doesn't mean they're bad stations...

My local station is 2 platforms, one either side of the road, there is no ticket office or machines, no screens or announcements to let you know how the trains are running, there are no faculties of any kind apart from a small shelter with 4 seats on each platform. objective it is a worse station than Birmingham new street. But I think it's great as it is 5 minutes walk from house and without it getting to work in the morning would be a real pain.

 

[editor]

My local station is 2 platforms, one either side of the road, there is no ticket office or machines, no screens or announcements to let you know how the trains are running, there are no faculties of any kind apart from a small shelter with 4 seats on each platform. objective it is a worse station than Birmingham new street. But I think it's great as it is 5 minutes walk from house and without it getting to work in the morning would be a real pain.

I guess it's decided n what would be a reasonable expectation for that size of station. You wouldn't expect much from an unstaffed halt, but you would do from a major station in one of Britain's biggest cities.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

<snip>
It took me a while to find a timetable until I noticed people swiping big digital screens. It was like something from the future.

If the experience of Manchester Piccadilly is anything to go by, it'll only be a matter of time before they're broken.

They installed two banks of plasma screens in the middle of the concourse for the new departure boards when they refurbished it ten years or so ago. I think it was only open a couple of weeks before some idiot hoyed a brick at it, and it took them ages to get it fixed.

If I've got time this week I'll take some photos of how the redevelopment is progressing and post them up here.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Some of the stations on the Tarka line in Devon are basically just a Tarmac strip at the bottom of someone's garden. They're not scheduled stops, if you want to get on the train you have to stand on the platform and wave to the driver like you were catching a bus

 

[SpookyFrank]

If the experience of Manchester Piccadilly is anything to go by, it'll only be a matter of time before they're broken.

They installed two banks of plasma screens in the middle of the concourse for the new departure boards when they refurbished it ten years or so ago. I think it was only open a couple of weeks before some idiot hoyed a brick at it, and it took them ages to get it fixed.

If I've got time this week I'll take some photos of how the redevelopment is progressing and post them up here.

Even if they don't get broken, there are never gonna be enough screens for everyone at busy times. And unlike a big bit of paper with train times on it, a swipe-screen thingy can only be used by one person at a time.

The current system at Piccadilly, where instead of a chronological list of departures there's an A-Z list of stations with the time of the next train to each, works very well IMO.

 

[JTG]

Some of the stations on the Tarka line in Devon are basically just a Tarmac strip at the bottom of someone's garden. They're not scheduled stops, if you want to get on the train you have to stand on the platform and wave to the driver like you were catching a bus

Do kebab shops open until 4am on the Tarka Line?

 

[SpookyFrank]

Do kebab shops open until 4am on the Tarka Line?

I don't think 4am even exists in North Devon.

 

[T & P]

Worst of all, lots of stations now have those dire "Home of...some shitty company or another" words incorporated into their signs.

That's not the worst corporate siganage East Croydon has to offer...

 

[editor]

I fucking hated that sign.

 

[peterkro]

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