Stations

On UK Transport, Patrick Crozier wonders about stations.

I find almost all stations disappointing. And it's not just the graffiti, the vandalism, the tatty appearance of many of them or the fact that so many have been rebuilt by modern architects - modernity's answer to the Luftwaffe. Even if none of those things applied I would still be disappointed.

Any why is it that some of the surviving Victorian stations seem to be so much better than the 'modern' ones? I hate the places where they've put a bloody great concrete raft over the platforms, leaving a dark and dingy environment for the passengers. I realise this releases real-estate above the station for retail and office development, but what's the value of the more pleasant passenger environment? Star prize for the most awful station has to be Birmingham New Street, narrow cramped stairways, dark and claustrophobic platforms. Probably the reason Birmingham has such a bad reputation is that New Street (or Spaghetti Junction) is most visitors' first impression of the place. Not that it's a uniquely British problem either; Bern in Switzerland is pretty horrid too.

There are better stations around; I like Manchester Piccadilly, especially now they've built the new airy concourse which compliments the modernised and cleaned-up Victorian train shed. Pity half the trains use the desolate and windswept platforms 13 & 14 ten minutes walk from the rest of the station.

There are a few places where there are decent wide footbridges under cover; Carlisle comes to mind as a pleasant station to use; so does Chester and York. All three are refurbished Victorian buildings complete with overall train-sheds. I think there is a pattern here.

As for confusing layouts, that's not confined to large stations. Dawlish in Devon is horrible in that respect; the place is a maze, it's difficult to find the way out or in, especially when the booking office is closed and you have to get in through the gate at the side. Walking to the corner of the building you're presented by a flight of steps that you naturally assume lead up to the platform. Wrong! After about six steps it leads to a blank wall, where a doorway had been bricked-up. The real entrance is a little further on.

Of course, many smaller unstaffed stations have more in common with a bus stop than an airport in terms of the number of people that use them. I can't think of a good solution to vandalism in a lot of the smaller stations that it's simply not economic to staff all the time. One good idea is to sell off redundant railway buildings as private housing; this has been done in a few places in Britain. I've seen this in Switzerland, where the station buildings of now unstaffed stations are occupied by retired railway staff.