The Worst Stations In Britain

Preston Station by Benkid77 via Wikimedia Commons

It seems it's time to give the railway a good kicking again, with the news that the transport minister Lord Adonis is on a Grand Tour of Britain's worst train stations. Actually, there's not much point in me trying to big any of these stations up - it's quite clear that they're awful (The Times has a slideshow here) Here's the full Top 10 - or should that be Bottom 10? - list:

1. Manchester Victoria
2. Clapham Junction
3. Crewe
4. Warrington Bank Quay
5. Barking
6. Preston
7. Wigan North Western
8. Luton
9. Liverpool Central
10. Stockport

The two I know best from that list are Crewe and Preston. We used to do all of our training down in Crewe so I've spent weeks at a time in the station and it's surrounds. The problem with Crewe is that it used to be a major station with activity 24/7, and now it's barely even an interchange. The complex is vast but most of it goes unused which gives the entire place a post-apocalyptic feel. It could do with a lick of paint, and also perhaps offering local businesses cheap rent to use the offices and buildings that lie mothballed or dilapidated. Turn it once again into a community resource.

Preston station, on the other hand, could do with a tactical nuclear strike.

When I worked with Virgin Trains, Preston was as far south as we went. For 8 years, I visited a couple of times a week and grew to detest the place. The station itself was a dead-zone as far as information is concerned. The info screens either don't work or show the wrong details, and the station staff see it as their duty to spend as little time on the platforms as possible. The facilities would have a Guantanamo Bay Guard recoiling in horror. And the platforms seem to be angled to take full advantage of the wind blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean via Blackpool, providing a handy wind-tunnel effect for anyone who wants to practice their paragliding skills.

I mentioned Blackpool, so I may as well get my snobbery out of the way too - Preston is the interchange for all the Glasgow neds going to Blackpool for their holidays. On a Saturday afternoon the platforms are heaving with white shell-suits screaming at little Britney to stop pulling little Chantelle's hair, while arguing whether they got the spelling right on the home-made tattoo they gave 12-year-old Shuggy.

I hated the place. At least travelling down the East Coast Main Line we get a better class of ned!