Worst Bus Station in the World Ever?

[kyser_soze]

Agreed x 10,000

Could never understand how it instead of Colchester (which is generally lovely) became the county town...

 

[Pie 1]

Agreed x 10,000

Could never understand how it instead of Colchester (which is generally lovely) became the county town...

Having grown up halfway between both (Maldon), I've never understood either. Colchester was always our playground of choice.
My old man worked in C'ford & loathed the place as well.
I got the fuck out of that area as fast as I could was 18 & never looked back. Fortunately my folks also followed suit some yrs later.

 

[kyser_soze]

Grew up down the road from you in Witham, and yeah, I was out by 18/19 too...altho I have many happy memories of playing Gauntlet at the little river promenade thing in Maldon when I was a teen.

 

[Brainaddict]

Bus stations are good at being *menacing* in a way that train stations never are. I remember the bus terminal in Quito being particularly menacing, though possibly that was just because it was the first time I'd been out of Europe alone.

This photo suggests that my memory is not entirely inaccurate though:

 

[kyser_soze]

I think it's the concrete and tarmac combination - even when they're brand new they look old and weatherbeaten.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

I remember Aylesbury as being exceptionally naff - sort of concrete bunker with the ambience of a gas chamber ....

that was 20 years ago - so it might be redeveloped now - I hope so !

I came to this thread to nominate Aylesbury. The side of the bus station was the location for a scene of Urban grimness in Clockwork Orange.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Pristina is pretty bad / or was - backs onto a graveyard IIRC, with the fantastically named Bill Clinton gravestone outlet to boot.

Not much goes frrm there through - the odd bus to Skopje & Tirana, but thats bout it

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Luton, Nottingham and Milton Keynes all horrible. Is Newport (the one in Gwent) still as bad as it was?

Victoria Coach Station is pretty horrible too, to tell the truth.

Actually "good bus stations" would be a bigger test.

 

[lizzieloo]

Luton bus station.

Horrible place, they put ultraviolet lights in the loos so people couldn't find viens to inject. It smells of piss 24/7 and has no nice features at all. (appart from it possibly gets you out of Luton )

That picture makes Luton bus station look much brighter than it really is.

Another vote for Luton

 

[tombowler]

Pamplona is OK compared to Granada. Why are bus stations such seedy places full of dogey fucks?

In Granada bus station I was beaten by plain clothes security. Sat on the floor with my rucksack by a socket so I could charge my phone. Two guys appear demanding I get up. I tell them where to go and suddenly batons appear from nowhere and they start smashing me around the thighs.

Try using the gents in Granada bus station at 4am. You get pestered non-stop with offers of anything you want from seedy gay sex to hard drugs.

It's as much the people hanging around and the security at Granada I dislike as much as the grimness of the place. I just hate being there. Does the city no justice at all. That said, Granada is fading rapidly with spiralling street crime and a ban on all street art.

i think i was confusing it with san sebastien! only been to granada in the morning iirc not been over for five years though.

Plzen is pretty grim may be able to get a picture this month of it.

 

[DotCommunist]

even in it's cleaner days it didn't look that clean. I cry 'shop

 

[UnderOpenSky]

To be fair after arriving the rest of the town doesn't get any better.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Hammersmith Bus Station. The terrible musak they play drills into your head all night long.

On the other hand you can actually get inside, away from the fumes, which is an unusual privilege.

 

[tombowler]

I give you Hanley - Stoke on Trent. So bad it has its own video.

my goodness that made it look better than it is!

but then i hate stoke with a passion having lived and worked there for a few years. Oatcakes are good though!

 

[Andy the Don]

The Port Authority of New York bus terminal Manhattan was fucking grim in the 1980's. No doors on the loos but junkies still "jacking up". Although from "googled" images its been refurbished and does not look too bad.
Tangier's central bus station a great place to be robbed, stabbed and generally ripped off. No signage of any type so you did not know if you were on the right bus until you got to your destination.

 

[bi0boy]

Bath was shit, thankfully they have just demolished it as it was right in the centre of the city.

Demolition on it's way...

 

[mitochondria]

Zaragoza bus station 6 years ago tops the list for me. Actually calling it a station would be a praise - it was more like a garage. Stuffy, smelly and full of Spanish people arguing about buses at 3am.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

Zaragoza bus station 6 years ago tops the list for me. Actually calling it a station would be a praise - it was more like a garage. Stuffy, smelly and full of Spanish people arguing about buses at 3am.

Zaragoza now has a very nice, swanky, modernist bus/train station. A nice way to arrive in the city, but it's a fair walk from the centre.

 

[grubby local]

I came to nominate Brasilia .. shameful mess in eye shot of the spanky shiny Congress. Sums up all thats bad about Brazil. The nobs in high office on one side and the forgotten plebs on the other.

But here's a completely gratuitous picture taken there coz I can't find one to illustrate my point. This one's better anyway! Spot the tranny(s) ...

 

[cybertect]

I've never been that keen on Slough's Brunel Bus Station

Though it seems it's going to be replaced with a funky, wavy thing

http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/slough-bus-station-to-bejewel-the-heart-of-slough-project/

 

[_float_]

Kampala ?

 

[electric.avenue]

Castleford, West Yorks. No centralisation, departures board, or indoors - you just go from stand to stand in the rain and wind reading the timetables, till you find your bus. Hoping you don't get mugged. The crappest bus station in the universe.

 

[jambandit]

Milton Keynes Bus Station.

i find milton keynes quite inoffensive as far as bus stations go.... whats your reasoning?

 

[Yelkcub]

The Port Authority of New York bus terminal Manhattan was fucking grim in the 1980's. No doors on the loos but junkies still "jacking up". Although from "googled" images its been refurbished and does not look too bad. .

Yeah, I was there last month. Was ok, in daytime, anyway.

Chortlon Street Staion in Manchester used to be ropey, back in the early nineties anyay

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Pudu in KL's not very nice, but I doubt it's anywhere near the worst in the world.