Leeds

Norm is unimpressed by Leeds railway station.

Here's a word of advice. If you travel by train from Manchester to Leeds at the weekend and have it in mind to return, then find another way of travelling back.

The first thing is that Leeds station is not a great place to spend time. It never has been. It had a makeover some years ago, but it's still a cold, unwelcoming place, not like Manchester Piccadilly - though Manchester Victoria does have something of the same feel about it.

By coincidence I travelled from Leeds to Manchester yesterday evening, although I spend something like zero time waiting; I had to leg it across the footbridge from platform 1 (where my connection from Harrogate deposited me) all the way to platform 16, where I caught the train with about a minute to spare. I suspect this was not advertised as a connection, as it's less than the regulation ten minutes that's supposed to be allowed.

Of course, I missed the connection to Cheadle Hulme at the other end, and had to kill 30 minutes at a Manchester Piccadilly that was absolutely crawling with police, presumably because of the bloody football. I wonder who comes up with these timetables? It's roughtly a half-hourly service on all three legs of the journey, but each change involves the maximum possible wait at both interchanges, in both directions. Presumably not many people travel from Cheadle Hulme to Harrogate and back.

On my regulation half-hour wait on the way out, I had the first opportunity to sample the rebuild Leeds station, which was still a building site on my last visit about five years ago. It's a steel and concrete 'New Brutalist' style edifice; as Norm says, not a patch on the superb Manchester Piccadilly. At least they've gone for a proper train shed and avoided the temptation of a Birmingham New Street style underground car park. Unfortunately, the platform facilities are a little lacking, even in the buffet, where there are virtually no seats.