I spent 45 minutes at Kirkby (Merseyside) today. The old woman going through the bins and tracksuit-wearing youths deciding to slip through fences to take a shortcut over the line adding to the time spent at this terminus made me wonder what other places on the network you'd rather avoid and why.
Thinking through, some random places which are unpleasant for one reason or another:
~ Aylesham - always seems full of unpleasant people, especially at night.
~ Hampden Park - "
~ many of the Coastway stations - quite troublesome at certain times, especially west of Brighton.
~ Hilsea - In middle of industrial area, plus always seems to have unpleasant types hanging around.
~ Cosham - not bad location but often chavs hanging around.
~ Reading West ~ immediate area is awful, and station seems to find use as a short-cut.
~ Sandy - perhaps surprising as the place outwardly doesn't seem too bad, but I find this town deeply depressing for some reason, a combination of the people there and the way the town is cut up by the A1. Station area often seems to have kids hanging around causing problems.
~ Leagrave - in a rough area.
~ Hatfield & Stainforth - not a pleasant place.
~ Lawrence Hill - rough area.
~ Stapleton Road - not much better than Lawrence Hill.
~ Ore - station seems to get vandalised on a daily basis.
~ Weeley - often kids hanging around causing problems.
~ Ifield - rough area.
~ Rainham, Purfleet, Grays, Chafford Hundred, Ockendon - awful places, though to be fair station are not too bad as tend to have a staff presence.
~ Glasshoughton - next to out-of-town type leisure complex, station always getting smashed up.
~ Thorne South - dump.
~ Chapeltown - dump.
~ Hattersley - dump.
~ Trafford Park - rough area.
~ Moston - station quite deserted.
~ Blackpool North - some very unpleasant and unhelpful station staff there.
