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Trivia: Worst Bus Station

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fairysdad

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Guildford Bus Station is very grot, looks like is stuck in a 1987 time warp, dark bricks very dirty perpex and non existant rubbish collection particularly used condoms and Needles - all a bit of a worry with young children, & very dark and unwelcoming
Yes, I'd agree with Guildford even though I've only been there once, and that was just walking through into the shopping centre there. Shame as the shopping centre is a quite nice one. A friend who lives in Guildford tells me that there are plans on refurbishing it though, but as with most schemes of this ilk that seldom happens.

I was going to suggest Ilfracombe bus station - run down, dire place, more a bus depot yard with some bus stop signs put up in it. However, on searching for images to show I find out that it closed a while ago because of a fire... and is still there (supposedly), fire-damaged, and disused - right in the middle of the seafront bit of Ilfracombe. Wonderful for tourists!
 
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CC 72100

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Another vote for Gloucester - it smells, and its full of tramps and druggies when the sun sets. Last time we intended to use it our train was late and we missed the bus, there was another in an hour, but we took one look at the 'clientelle' and opted for a taxi.
It is set to be demolished along with many other down trodden buildings in the area. It is well used, so hopefully they can replace it with something more welcoming.

Wise move! I hate it there, I refuse to get my phone out when in the bus station too. My normal plan is wait in the train station until about 10 minutes before my bus is due, as it is normally in by then.
 

Statto

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Also, Ormskirk, just a few shelters. Skelmersdale, horrible bus station at one end of the shopping centre, & the shopping centre is quite bad as well. Runcorn's, Halton Lea North & South. Warringtons Golden Square was bad, but that's now been replaced by a new bus station.
 

Ivo

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Also, Ormskirk, just a few shelters. Skelmersdale, horrible bus station at one end of the shopping centre, & the shopping centre is quite bad as well. Runcorn's, Halton Lea North & South. Warringtons Golden Square was bad, but that's now been replaced by a new bus station.

Nowt wrong with Ormskirk's bus station - friendliest bus station I've ever been to. For a town of its size it is well maintained and laid out. OK, so the shelter provision isn't great, but there's enough room to fit under the shelter by the travel shop! It's alo very easy to access from the station.
 

madannie77

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Although it is almost twenty years since I was in Ormskirk and Skelmersdale, using the power of Google suggests that not much has changed at either Bus Station.

I have to agree with Ivo that Ormskirk Bus Station is fine for a town of its size, and my perception of Skelmersdale Bus Station as being not very nice was proabably clouded by having to walk through the shopping centre.

I am very glad that Warrington's Golden Square Bus Station has gone - I spent far too much time in there through necessity.

Carlisle's Bus Station is rubbish, with about half a dozen stands and very small shelters, and a waiting room which is not near the stops.
 

VTPreston_Tez

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has anyone suggested Weymouth yet?

Weymouth doesn't have an actual bus station, some buses stop at the back of the coach depot but the main terminus is King's Statue (my buses use K6 and K7 when I'm there)
Infact even that's good in summer with ice-cream cafés and decent toilets usually.
 

Schnellzug

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Weymouth doesn't have an actual bus station.

exactly. The trouble (one of them, at any rate) is that routes that come from from one way (from the Dorchester direction & the north of town) terminate at the Statue of good ol' Mad George, and the ones that go towards Portland stop round the back of the bus depot and outside Debenhams by the Harbour (the road that the trains used to go down to the Quay), and it's a bit of a hike between them, not to mention that there's very limited space to wait at either of them (helped by the fact that, since the latest Improvements, the Buses don't wait at the stands at the Statue but wait on the other side of the road and only come round at the last moment).
 

beermaddavep

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For catching buses in Dorset I'd take the set up in Weymouth over that in Dorchester any day- arriving from Blandford on Wilts and Dorset you get dumped near a car park behind waitrose.

I had to resort to wandering around and hoping, 2 pubs then the tourist info centre later I found the shoddy main bus stops, a poor set up for a town with lots of tourists.

Oh and for reference the 103 to Bovington and Lulworth leaves from another, different car park!
 

Statto

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Piccadilly Gardens - bus station, well really a collection of stops. Useless.

Seconded, considering it's one of the main bus stations in Manchester, & City Centre to boot, it is quite poor, far too many buses stop on the main part of the bus station, which has too few stands, the other stops that make up Piccadilly are the other side of the Gardens, with stops for some South Manchester routes on London Road towards Piccadilly Station.
 

Midlandman

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Imagine a slightly more claustrophobic version of Birmingham New Street, full, and I mean full of bus exhaust fumes, a confusing layout, multi levels, useless signposting, rude and unhelpful staff and an awful lot of people you frankly wouldn't want your daughter to bring home. I give you New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in the 1980s. It may have changed but, given the average American attitude towards public transport, I bet it's not by much
 

LE Greys

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Has Stevenage come up yet? It's pretty rotton, a few shelters surrounding a sort of roundabout where the buses stable for a while. It also has really crummy access, with everything having to go in and out through the same narrow road at the south-west corner (with a zebra crossing on it). There's also the problematic link to the station, an enormously long footbridge going through the Gordon Craig Theatre. The area to the south-west of there now has a Matalan on it, but used to be the bus garage.

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.901597,-0.202609&spn=0.00096,0.002642&t=h&z=19
 

Sheepy1209

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Imagine a slightly more claustrophobic version of Birmingham New Street, full, and I mean full of bus exhaust fumes, a confusing layout, multi levels, useless signposting, rude and unhelpful staff and an awful lot of people you frankly wouldn't want your daughter to bring home. I give you New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in the 1980s. It may have changed but, given the average American attitude towards public transport, I bet it's not by much

I passed through there in 1986 a couple of times. Horrible, nasty place - including what looked like ten-year-old crackheads begging. I'm sure it's better now, but it didn't endear me to the US.
 

Midlandman

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I passed through there in 1986 a couple of times. Horrible, nasty place - including what looked like ten-year-old crackheads begging. I'm sure it's better now, but it didn't endear me to the US.

The reason for my coment that it might have changed, but I doubted it was that, a couple of years ago, I had to use the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco which, while nowhere near as unpleasant as the PA Terminal, had not changed one bit in the 30 years since I last was there! This is in a city which actually cares about public transport, so what some other places in the US are like nowadays doesn't bear thinking about.
 

Mag_seven

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Just thought I would follow on from the best bus station thread, what is the worst bus stations, my nominations would be

Middlesbrough, dont like the layout and design of it, also Park Lane in Sunderland and Durham which I think are badly designed

Worst of all time for me would be the old Seaham Bus Station near Sunderland, it was filthy, never cleaned and always, alway smelt like a tramps underpants and was sometimes littered with dog turds.

Thread reopened by request.
 

Hardcastle

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Thank you this will complement the newer thread best bus stations.This will open a can of worms.
 
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TrainBoy98

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Doncaster (IIRC), a huge space wasted, and always dark and gloomy!

Paris Gallieni was poor too if my memory is holding up
 

Redmike

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Crewe is still a grim place to arrive by bus. Made even worse by the fact that the passageway from the bus station to the town centre now ends in the middle of a street apparently awaiting demolition.
 

Bletchleyite

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Ormskirk is horrid (and to be fair has been horrid pretty much since it was built, particularly the manky toilets). Interestingly the old one, which was a lot less horrid, is still there having found new uses (it was a builder's yard but I forget what it is now).

I did hear recently, though, that there's a plan to redevelop it, paid for by building a block of student flats on the car park that sits in the middle of it.
 

Statto

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Imagine a slightly more claustrophobic version of Birmingham New Street, full, and I mean full of bus exhaust fumes, a confusing layout, multi levels, useless signposting, rude and unhelpful staff and an awful lot of people you frankly wouldn't want your daughter to bring home. I give you New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in the 1980s. It may have changed but, given the average American attitude towards public transport, I bet it's not by much
The Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York appears in an episode of the sitcom Everyone Hates Chris, & it's not too complementary about the bus terminal either.:D
 

Jordan Adam

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Surprised Inverness hasn't been mentioned. The general layout combined with the design of the kerbs mean that it's impossible to get near to the pavement and buses constantly end up getting damaged. As such most drivers stop ahead of the pavements meaning there's quite a large step to get on to buses. Also to get to the stands you have to walk in to the path of buses.

You can see the problems perfectly illustrated here (Link to google streetview):
 

Andyh82

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Reading through the old pages, so much has happened in 8 years

Blackburn now has a new bus station, as does Castleford, and Lincoln

Preston was refurbished

Nottingham Broadmarsh is no more

And I’m not sure of the current status, Exeter has either gone or is going
 

Hardcastle

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Forgot about that. They really could do with building something "proper", ideally staffed in holiday periods and with toilets, on the car park behind said bus shelters. It's about the right size, and something nice in local style stone could be built.
I agree but who's going to pay for it ! not Cumbria county council all the bus stations are decrepit they don't invest in public transport or subsidise bus services.
 
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