Comparison of station facilities with motorway services

[yorksrob]

Two of the highlights of visits to service areas during my younger days were the views from Aust of the Severn Bridge, and from the viewing platform at Forton.

Unfortunately, despite Aust now being called (inappropriately) Severn View, the current building has views only of the car park and filling station; while the tower at Forton was closed on the only occasion I've been there in recent times, which looked as if it was a permanent closure.

Maybe patrons don't want views these days, as they're too busy catching up with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or whatever.

I've never got to go up the tower in Forton unfortunately.

It does remind one that real care and planning went into their design back in the day.

 

[snowball]

while the tower at Forton was closed on the only occasion I've been there in recent times, which looked as if it was a permanent closure.

Yes, it's been closed for decades, sadly. I think because of fire regulations. It's a listed building though.

 

[miklcct]

Railway station facilities are generally used at the start or end of a journey, whereas motorway facilities are used during a break in the journey. That being the case it's not really a like-for-like comparison.

As rail passengers do not normally have a choice in their departure/destination station they are limited to the facilities that are on offer at those stations. By contrast, motorway uses may decide which services to stop at based on their preference for one or other retailer; or even just on the general ambience at one services compared with that of one 20 miles away.

Railway station facilities are generally used while interchanging trains, in a similar manner that motorway facilities are used during a break in the journey. Therefore it's a like-for-like comparison.

As rail passengers normally have a choice where to change trains for a long-distance journey, they can choose an appropriate interchange station on their preference for their mid-journey meal, for example, like motorway users choosing where to stop based on their preference.

 

[edwin_m]

Railway station facilities are generally used while interchanging trains, in a similar manner that motorway facilities are used during a break in the journey. Therefore it's a like-for-like comparison.

As rail passengers normally have a choice where to change trains for a long-distance journey, they can choose an appropriate interchange station on their preference for their mid-journey meal, for example, like motorway users choosing where to stop based on their preference.

Agreed that people changing trains are more likely to buy something at the station than people starting or finishing their journeys, who generally have less need to purchase more option to use any better/cheaper shops nearby. But most journeys don't involve a change and what changing takes place is concentrated on a relatively small proportion of stations - which may in part explain why similar-sized stations vary wildly in their provision of shopping and catering. However, it's also true that a large number of the people you see at most stations aren't interested in buying anything, just passing through on the way to somewhere else.

At a motorway service station, the people "passing through" just stay on the motorway or in some cases just stop in the car park. Anybody entering the building will be doing so because they intend to use at least one of the facilities even if it's just the toilet. This helps to explain why a railway station building usually has less facilities than a motorway service station building of similar size.

For most journeys that involve a change, there no real choice of where to do so. Even where there is, most passengers will probably use the station required or recommended by their ticket booking, so I don't see the amount of type of station catering as having much effect on people's travel plans. Again this is a bit different with motorways - once the journey goes over a couple of hours everyone has to stop somewhere but usually has some choice on where to do so.