Trivia: Bleakest Terminal Stations

[Spaceship323]

Pembroke Dock, but at least the GWR Summer Saturday train gives you an hour there to find a good fish and chip shop.

If you go down the hill instead of into town you will see ASDA, it's only 5 minutes from the station

Scarborough, awfull smell last time I was there

 

[nanstallon]

Goole is the terminus of a daily train from Leeds. I 'did' that line, and spent the turn-round time taking a look at the town. It was about the grottiest place I've ever seen, even by British standards. I said to the conductor as I got back on the train that I'd hate to miss the last train out of Goole!

 

[Iskra]

Goole is the terminus of a daily train from Leeds. I 'did' that line, and spent the turn-round time taking a look at the town. It was about the grottiest place I've ever seen, even by British standards. I said to the conductor as I got back on the train that I'd hate to miss the last train out of Goole!

The station seems fairly pleasant though, with a nice signal box too.

 

[nanstallon]

The station seems fairly pleasant though, with a nice signal box too.

View attachment 170705

Yes, a very nice signalbox. Is it still there and in use? Perhaps it is, after all, a nicer station than the town deserves. Apologies to the (I'm sure) many nice people who live there.

 

[Iskra]

Yes, a very nice signalbox. Is it still there and in use? Perhaps it is, after all, a nicer station than the town deserves. Apologies to the (I'm sure) many nice people who live there.

Presumably so, that photo was May so relatively recent.

 

[MadMarsupial]

Goole is the terminus of a daily train from Leeds. I 'did' that line, and spent the turn-round time taking a look at the town. It was about the grottiest place I've ever seen, even by British standards. I said to the conductor as I got back on the train that I'd hate to miss the last train out of Goole!

In the early 1980s I had a room in a shared house. One of the other inhabitants was a trainee manager with Marks and Sparks. They were threatened with a transfer to the Goole store for bad behaviour.

 

[nanstallon]

In the early 1980s I had a room in a shared house. One of the other inhabitants was a trainee manager with Marks and Sparks. They were threatened with a transfer to the Goole store for bad behaviour.

I expect that they behaved themselves after that!

 

[phantomphish]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned East Croydon.

(Probably deserving of its own thread as it is used so much by so many people and has so many issues )

 

[consettman]

A first-time visitor to Blackpool might have low expectations. Blackpool South will not help.

 

[PaulJ]

I always think Great Yarmouth is less than welcoming.

 

[MichaelTrains]

Bradford Forster Square and Bradford Interchange.

Appalling and disgraceful facilities for a top-10 UK city.

Both currently don’t even have toilet facilities for passengers.

If you stand at the north end of Marylebone station and photograph down the tunnel it looks a dump if you stand outside and look at the buildings it looks great, if you turn round at Heysham you photograph a warm modern building with seats where you can wait and buy a coffee and sandwich if needed.

With the context of this thread I cannon understand where you are coming from.

Both Bradford stations are far worse than Heysham.

 

[30907]

It's surprising that Semley, long closed, was not called Shaftesbury Junction, for not only is it nowhere near Semley village but was the nearest station to Shaftesbury, about 3 miles away, the latter being the largest traditional town in the country which never had a railway.

Maybe the absence of a branch line explains it? Shaftesbury Road, perhaps? As in Bodmin, Grampound and Gwinear on the line through Taunton

 

[Taunton]

Maybe the absence of a branch line explains it? Shaftesbury Road, perhaps? As in Bodmin, Grampound and Gwinear on the line through Taunton

They were indeed all remote stations for their settlement. Bodmin town got its branch a full quarter-century after its eponymous main line station. Grampound Road is one of those places which then developed around an isolated station, and is now as large a village as its namesake over the hills, with the Cornish Main Line right through the middle. I can still recall its strange-sounding name being called out, very infrequently, by the Taunton station announcer.

Not far away is Port Isaac Road, on the old Southern line to Padstow. Railway author Hamilton Ellis wrote of passing through there in WW2, with an American soldier in the compartment also making the tedious journey. They stopped there, without a habitation in sight. The soldier said that if the station was so remote, Port Isaac must be even more so. Presumably a bleak station in winter, desperately trying to keep us back on topic!

 

[D6130]

Maybe the absence of a branch line explains it? Shaftesbury Road, perhaps? As in Bodmin, Grampound and Gwinear on the line through Taunton

The LSWR didn't seem to use that suffix nearly as frequently as the GWR....although there were a few exceptions, such as Daggons Road on the Salisbury-West Moors line and Morchard Road on the Exeter-Barnstaple line.

 

[D365]

Peartree, Derby
Single platform, though rarely open

I'm not sure you are thinking of Peartree, which has two platforms and sees ~2tpd in each direction. Additionally, there are no services booked to terminate at Peartree at this point in time.

 

[RPI]

There's a shop nearby that sells tickets, coffees and ice creams.

I think it's artistic licence to describe St Ives as bleak (except during one of those Cornish fogs)

I lived there long enough, I did say it's bleak in the winter!

 

[duffield]

I'm not sure you are thinking of Peartree, which has two platforms and sees ~2tpd in each direction. Additionally, there are no services booked to terminate at Peartree at this point in time.

RTT says it's a luxurious 4tpd in each direction!

Realtime Trains | Departures from Peartree between 0200 and 0159 on 09/12/2024

Train information at Peartree between 0200 and 0159 on 09/12/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[JGurney]

The LSWR didn't seem to use that suffix nearly as frequently as the GWR....although there were a few exceptions, such as Daggons Road on the Salisbury-West Moors line and Morchard Road on the Exeter-Barnstaple line.

Plus Beaulieu Road and Lyndhurst Road (now renamed 'Ashurst New Forest').

 

[GoneSouth]

It's no grand St Pancras trainshed is it!

No, but oddly one of the grimmest places I’ve ever had the misfortune to wait for a train was St Pancras back in the very early nineties. It was absolutely filthy, some of the platforms just looked like they’d been turned into a car park, there were lots of undesirables about long before the ’gentrification’ of anything around King’s Cross. BR wanted to close it, and the only people who wanted it to remain open were the beggars and prostitutes who pestered customers at the station’s hellish bar.

Never felt so uncomfortable at a station, before or since.

Scarborough, awfull smell last time I was there

Although it’s seen better days, it’s a grand old place with plenty of shops, pubs and places to eat nearby. The boy racers doing donuts in the carpark in the evenings don’t help it though!

 

[yorksrob]

The bit they have done up is fine. Possibly even nice. The main footbridge is a dump. The biggest problem by far though is the dead skeleton. If they are not going to do it up, get rid of it. As for the main columns in the middle. Why did they forget to paint them when they did up the main part of the roof???

The waiting areas are also poor for an interchange station. The cafe bar areas stink.

I do agree, they could do with re-glazing the skeletal section, as well as your other points. Those seem fixable, with the money and the will.

I lived there long enough, I did say it's bleak in the winter!

I guess the cafe would be closed then.

 

[Some guy]

Colne is a very bleak terminus line station. It needs to be extended for services to skipton

 

[BeijingDave]

Bleak (well, quite sparse on people and services for a major terminus) but beautiful: Hull Paragon
Bleak but nasty: Blackpool South

 

[Sheddyone]

Surprised Great Yarmouth hasn't been mentioned, bleak aspect of run down approach to the town and no pub nearby.

Kings Arms on Northgate not far. Google quotes an 8 min walk but didn't feel that long when I did it.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Both currently don’t even have toilet facilities for passengers.

Both stations have toilets.

Forster Square has a disabled toilet in the ticket office which is accessible with a RADAR key. The staff will also help.

Interchange has always had toilets. They were temporarily closed because of the structural issues in the bus station but they re-opened last month.

 

[yorksrob]

Both stations have toilets.

Forster Square has a disabled toilet in the ticket office which is accessible with a RADAR key. The staff will also help.

Interchange has always had toilets. They were temporarily closed because of the structural issues in the bus station but they re-opened last month.

I don't count RADAR only toilets as adequate facilities.

Bradford FS should have full toilet facilities, given its importance.

 

[modernrail]

I don't count RADAR only toilets as adequate facilities.

Bradford FS should have full toilet facilities, given its importance.

Totally agree. Crazy that it hasn’t.

 

[GoneSouth]

Both stations have toilets.


Interchange has always had toilets. They were temporarily closed because of the structural issues in the bus station but they re-opened last month.

But 11 months is a long time to wait for a pee!

The toilets were so disgusting last time I went there I couldn’t use them anyway. Very grim place indeed

 

[Tetchytyke]

Bradford FS should have full toilet facilities, given its importance.

It’s a suburban station, nothing more, and all the trains have toilets anyway.

The toilets were so disgusting last time I went there I couldn’t use them anyway. Very grim place indeed

Not the nicest but apparently they’ve been refurbished. See how long they survive the effects of Bradford’s finest!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

It’s a suburban station, nothing more, and all the trains have toilets anyway.

...apart from the London services (EDIT: Which aren't "suburban"; not suggesting they don't have toilets!), which are set to increase hence the new platform being built.

 

[yorksrob]

It’s a suburban station, nothing more, and all the trains have toilets anyway.

No it's not, it's a city centre terminus.