Stations with roads inside

[Taunton]

Used to be that this was standard layout at major termini. One of the excitements of arriving at Paddington in the 1960s was London taxis coming down the ramp in parallel with the arriving main line train. 12 hours later and the same roadways were used by lorries loaded with newspapers, for direct transfer to the departing Newspaper Trains. It seems to have been the style to replace such roads with another pair of tracks and platforms. Was Fenchurch Street the only London terminus without this?

Edinburgh Waverley in the 1970s had filled in the onetime substantial number of east end bays, now redundant as hardly any local services went that way at the time, with a car park which you got a space in with a sleeper reservation, or an "Executive" ticket to London. Accessed by car rather hesitatingly along the main south side through platform. All seems further changed now, and the bays reinstated, even for the likes of Lumo 5-cars to London.

 

[themiller]

I believe Carlisle has a road from Victoria Viaduct onto a small car park between platforms 1 and 3.

That parking area is for service vehicles only as the gates at the bottom of the ramp are normally kept locked. I've seen Network Rail, Police dogs, station contractors and delivery vehicles there since it was refurbished last year.

 

[Haywain]

One of the excitements of arriving at Paddington in the 1960s was London taxis coming down the ramp in parallel with the arriving main line train.

In the mid to late 1970s there was car parking by the platforms at Paddington.

 

[jfollows]

Although the question is about today, a lot of people have added insight into the recent past, so I thought I'd add that the space between platforms 10 and 11 at Manchester Piccadilly used to be a road. It was used to load the various parcels trains which used to use platform 11 (as well as Mayfield station) and it was a useful station exit/entrance if you didn't want to go through the barrier line for some reason which only extended as far as platform 10. Platform 12 wasn't really used at the time (1970s) and indeed subsequently lost its track until the up-turn in rail usage caused both platforms to be brought back into use.

 

[greyman42]

There is parking near platform 2 at York

The taxi rank and drop of point at York is in the station portico if you count that?

 

[Spandau]

There’s a circular road at Bangor which needs to be crossed by customers going from the ticket office to the Chester bound platform.

 

[Rescars]

Used to be that this was standard layout at major termini. One of the excitements of arriving at Paddington in the 1960s was London taxis coming down the ramp in parallel with the arriving main line train. 12 hours later and the same roadways were used by lorries loaded with newspapers, for direct transfer to the departing Newspaper Trains. It seems to have been the style to replace such roads with another pair of tracks and platforms. Was Fenchurch Street the only London terminus without this?

Edinburgh Waverley in the 1970s had filled in the onetime substantial number of east end bays, now redundant as hardly any local services went that way at the time, with a car park which you got a space in with a sleeper reservation, or an "Executive" ticket to London. Accessed by car rather hesitatingly along the main south side through platform. All seems further changed now, and the bays reinstated, even for the likes of Lumo 5-cars to London.

Re London termini, was it possible for a road vehicle to access the platforms at Broad Street?

 

[PTR 444]

Does any station with a level crossing between two staggered platforms count?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Do road vehicles still come into Paddington?

No - the station layout was changed 20+ years ago.
I recall seeing the taxi rank road in use in the late-80s and (I think) the early 90s.
That roadway had become pedestrian only (walkway to the Grand Union / Paddington Basin) exit in the early 2000s, I used it daily.

 

[D1511]

Edinburgh Waverley in the 1970s had filled in the onetime substantial number of east end bays, now redundant as hardly any local services went that way at the time, with a car park which you got a space in with a sleeper reservation, or an "Executive" ticket to London. Accessed by car rather hesitatingly along the main south side through platform. All seems further changed now, and the bays reinstated, even for the likes of Lumo 5-cars to London.

I can remember that. The Motorail loading ramps were at the end of that car park up by what used to be Platform 7 where the loco hauled Newcastle services used to leave from. Given Waverley's pigeon population at that time, you wouldn't want to leave your car in that executive Inter‐City car park for very long!

 

[duffield]

That parking area is for service vehicles only as the gates at the bottom of the ramp are normally kept locked. I've seen Network Rail, Police dogs, station contractors and delivery vehicles there since it was refurbished last year.

I was there a couple of weeks ago trying to visit the Tesco next to the viaduct, which it turned out had closed permanently just three days before my visit, and thought that road looked like a handy shortcut back into the station, then I realised it wasn't for passenger use.

Carlisle seemed a lot more run down (closed shops etc.) than when I was last there, but that was pre-COVID so I guess that's not unexpected.

 

[GLC]

At Kyle of Lochalsh you can drive onto the actual platform

 

[AlbertBeale]

The parking is still there at track level. There was an idea to use that area to terminate the proposed fast trains from London via Parkway (so on the correct side of the station to minimse conflicts) but I believe that was dropped even before the trains were.

More generally, ability to drive into stations has been much reduced in recent years. The ending of rail parcels traffic removed one reason to allow them, and safety and security considerations mean that a busy concourse isn't the best place to have road vehicles. Where it is still possible (including basement areas), substantial security barriers are often provided, likely to be proof against ramming by a truck.

I can recall as a young child (early 70s) that my uncle drove right into a main London terminus to pick us up when returning from holiday, though I don't recall if it was Victoria (from Gatwick) or Waterloo (from Weymouth) the following year.

Not just parcels - the regular mail vans with post from sorting offices for TPOs used to drive onto the roads alongside platforms at all the main London terminals of a night. I regularly popped round to St P from my office and went onto the platform road to post things directly onto the TPO back in the day, to give me a later collection than ordinary post boxes. (I regularly had material to send First Class to Nottingham, with tight deadlines to get it written.) If you knew which station served which set of destinations, and you were based in central London, you had extra time to get stuff in the post to most of the country. I must have posted stuff directly onto the train on pretty much all of the TPO routes radiating out from London at some stage.

And yes - the Brighton road is still there, but there's a barrier in the way now I think.

At both Liverpool Street and at Paddington, I frequently used the old cab roads onto the platform area (sometimes right onto the platform where it was the right one) when arriving at the station by bike and taking my bike with me on the train, or when cycling to meet someone arriving.

 

[WatcherZero]

Would Leicester count at all - with the car park and taxi rank underneath the station canopy?

View attachment 145729

Manchester Piccadilly is similar, short term parking/taxi rank right next to the Metrolink platforms in what would have been the stations undercroft.

 

[joncombe]

Helensburgh central you can drive and park under the canopy.

 

[themiller]

I was there a couple of weeks ago trying to visit the Tesco next to the viaduct, which it turned out had closed permanently just three days before my visit, and thought that road looked like a handy shortcut back into the station, then I realised it wasn't for passenger use.

Carlisle seemed a lot more run down (closed shops etc.) than when I was last there, but that was pre-COVID so I guess that's not unexpected.

The shops that you saw just inside the Citadel that were closed would have been in preparation for the redevelopment of the area in connection with the building of the new University of Cumbria medical campus which will take in most of the block from the viaduct to the station forecourt. The station will also be redeveloped with the rear entrance in Water Street becoming a much improved passenger facility with ticket machines in the undercroft and rhe addition of stairs to the platforms among other things.

Story Contracting awarded Carlisle Station redevelopment works - Story Contracting

Story Contracting have been appointed to deliver redevelopment works at Carlisle Railway Station. On behalf of the Cumbria County Council with Carlisle

www.storycontracting.com

 

[trainmania100]

Eastbourne immediately comes to mind. Used for taxis and buses but I think cars go in too.

 

[RailWonderer]

Nobody’s mentioned London Liverpool St yet? Between platforms 10 and 11 there is a loading bay for deliveries which leads to a ramp on Primrose St. Does York count?

 

[Railcar]

Following a rebuild, the station canopy at Eastbourne covers a road.
The Kings Cross Cab Road (inside the building) became Platform Zero

 

[pitdiver]

Euston was mentioned up thread. I can remember a number of years ago joining a coach under Euston Station.

 

[DunsBus]

I can remember that. The Motorail loading ramps were at the end of that car park up by what used to be Platform 7 where the loco hauled Newcastle services used to leave from. Given Waverley's pigeon population at that time, you wouldn't want to leave your car in that executive Inter‐City car park for very long!

I can remember the taxi rank and pickup points being right outside the booking hall at Waverley, together with the queue of taxis which regularly snaked all the way back to midway down the north ramp (and, occasionally, to the top of it). As soon as the taxi at the front of the rank left, the rest all moved forward.

 

[edwin_m]

I can remember the taxi rank and pickup points being right outside the booking hall at Waverley, together with the queue of taxis which regularly snaked all the way back to midway down the north ramp (and, occasionally, to the top of it). As soon as the taxi at the front of the rank left, the rest all moved forward.

Horrible place - risk of being run down when hurrying for a train, fumes mixing with those from the DMUs beyond the barrier.

 

[Elecman]

Manchester Piccadilly is similar, short term parking/taxi rank right next to the Metrolink platforms in what would have been the stations undercroft.

View attachment 145766

That was the site of the former Fairfield Street Maintenance depot

You can drive right through Euston station basement from Eversholt Street to Melton Street

 

[Master Cutler]

There’s a circular road at Bangor which needs to be crossed by customers going from the ticket office to the Chester bound platform.

The taxi rank at Bangor is on the old platform track bed, which also incorporates the car park on the Chester side.

 

[1D54]

There was at St Pancras (shown on the early episodes of Porridge and filmed i think from the Kings Cross end) and I'm trying to work out what is there now.

 

[urpert]

I haven’t been to Paddington for a while, but you certainly used to be able to clearly see the Motorail access road and loading areas on the left when leaving from the low-numbered platforms.

Victoria obviously has the taxi rank/short stay car park above the Central side platforms (accessed from Ecclestone Bridge) which is also where the Gatwick check-in area used to be:

 

[stuu]

Liverpool Street still has the "cab road" between platforms 10 and 11 if I have remembered correctly.

Yes, I caught a bus replacement boat train service to Harwich from there a couple of years ago - despite having used Liverpool St fairly regularly for several decades I had no idea it was there

 

[edwin_m]

There was at St Pancras (shown on the early episodes of Porridge and filmed i think from the Kings Cross end) and I'm trying to work out what is there now.

The vehicle access was the big arch, so the wide platform with the road is about where the middle of the Eurostar platforms is now.

 

[AlbertBeale]

The vehicle access was the big arch, so the wide platform with the road is about where the middle of the Eurostar platforms is now.

Correct - and it was quite a wide road - plenty of space to have loads of trolleys of mailbags all over the place as the vans came in and out.

Euston had a road on the east side, so you could drive directly in from the road adjacent to the station and go up the road alongside the track (maybe there was one track between the road and the station wall, so the road could feed two platforms - I forget). The access was sometimes used to drive royals directly to the door of their royal train.

 

[Recessio]

There was at St Pancras (shown on the early episodes of Porridge and filmed i think from the Kings Cross end) and I'm trying to work out what is there now.

The vehicle access was the big arch, so the wide platform with the road is about where the middle of the Eurostar platforms is now.

Correct - and it was quite a wide road - plenty of space to have loads of trolleys of mailbags all over the place as the vans came in and out.

Best seen in this clip from film The Fourth Protocol starring Michael Caine: