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Which stations look poor compared with the settlement they serve?

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67thave

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Having only changed trains there I can't comment on what the city is like, but Ludwigshafen(Rhein) Hbf takes some beating in my book!
Even by Germans, the city is joked about as being nothing besides a polluted wasteland dominated by BASF. That should give you an idea of what the city is like.
 
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The exile

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Since we are at Paris bashing, I hate that monstrosiaty Montparnasse.

In Germany, München Hbf is beginning to show clear signs of decay. Literally falling apart is my local station. Duisburg Hbf.
As you’re fairly local - is the open space at the southern entrance to Essen Hbf still a druggie’s haven that smells like a sewer? Used to hold my breath when passing through it as I did nearly every day for two years. Mind you - that was 20 years ago.
 

geoffk

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Brussels Kapellekerk/Chapelle station immediately comes to mind. Two run-down island platforms in central Brussels between Brussels-Central and Brussels-Midi stations, lots of graffiti everywhere and a very limited 1 tph weekday only local service until approximately 8pm with all other trains passing through the station without stopping.
Just a tiny little bit less appalling is Brussels-Congres station between Brussels-Central and Brussels-North, located in the same tunnel as Brussels-Central, which looks like nothing has changed in the last decades and has a very eerie feel to it. Weekday only local service until 8pm as well, although this station has 2tph calling there.
I seem to remember Brussels Central itself was very uninviting but it's some years since I was there.
 

dutchflyer

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[West]Germany: Duisburg HBF and Krefeld HBF-scrapheaps, leaking at many spots when it trains, parts of some platforms fenced off with red/white bands-apparently too unsafe to go, should have been renovated before 2000! Cities with around 500k/150k people.
In fact most eastern-exDDR-stations have been nicely renovated.
For Ams-Zuid a major, major renovation and enlargement is planned, in the SAAL project (schiphol-Amsterdam-Almere), but this will take some more years
Thailand: as a frequent visitor there-untill just before covid- HuaLampong-very soon to be near abandoned and then renovated into some show piece of national unity with nearly all trains gone is no that bad. Look at the airport station (old airport-Don Muang): just 2 platforms and a tiny shed to sell tickets, opens only 15 mins before any departure-plus that for some reason 1 patform is completely fenced off with green sheets. Serves the 2nd most important international airport.
 

MarcVD

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I seem to remember Brussels Central itself was very uninviting but it's some years since I was there.

Has been fully refurbished à few years ago with new entrances, shops, etc. Still however carries all the inherent negatives of all underground stations, but you can't do much about that.
 

superjohn

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[West]Germany: Duisburg HBF and Krefeld HBF-scrapheaps
Krefeld Hbf seems to be undergoing something of a renaissance in the last couple of years. DB certainly neglected it as its importance declined but VRR have since taken control of many regional stations in the area and is sprucing them up. Monchengladbach is going through a similar revival, I can remember it being much worse.

The whole NRW region is undergoing something of a reinvention following the massive decline of heavy industry. Some cities had become decidedly grim around 2010-15 but they seem to have turned a corner now.
 

duesselmartin

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As you’re fairly local - is the open space at the southern entrance to Essen Hbf still a druggie’s haven that smells like a sewer? Used to hold my breath when passing through it as I did nearly every day for two years. Mind you - that was 20 years ago.
Yes it is.

Krefeld Hbf seems to be undergoing something of a renaissance in the last couple of years. DB certainly neglected it as its importance declined but VRR have since taken control of many regional stations in the area and is sprucing them up. Monchengladbach is going through a similar revival, I can remember it being much worse.

The whole NRW region is undergoing something of a reinvention following the massive decline of heavy industry. Some cities had become decidedly grim around 2010-15 but they seem to have turned a corner now.
Krefeld Hbf has improved a lot and their are grand plans for Duisburg. Only locals dont believe it until it happens. Last time DB failed to get a contractor for the price they wanted to pay.
Dortmund is also seeing major reconstruction
 

miklcct

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Beijing East station - basically in a slum in the middle of Beijing with no convenient access to the surrounding Central Business District, which is now mainly used as a freight station with only very few slow passenger services.
 

TravelDream

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Beijing East station - basically in a slum in the middle of Beijing with no convenient access to the surrounding Central Business District, which is now mainly used as a freight station with only very few slow passenger services.

Exactly. It's a very small minor station so hardly representative of 'the settlement it serves'.

With the way China has developed it's rail infrastructure, they have gone from one or two main stations to multiple in each major city.
Beijing has more than ten major stations far grander than Beijing East. Actually, I wonder why any foreigner would go there (I've never been).

It's like saying Peckham Rye is not the best introduction to London.

Beijing West is the city's busiest station followed by Beijing station. Both are suitably grand is scale, though not as nice as some of the more modern major train stations in other Chinese cities.
 

MP393

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Kőbánya Kispest is a very demic station, on the outskirts of Budapest. I’m saying that, none of the stations I visited in that area were shall we say “luxury” but that one really stood out at being demic, for what felt like a pretty major interchange too.
 

rg177

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Kőbánya Kispest is a very demic station, on the outskirts of Budapest. I’m saying that, none of the stations I visited in that area were shall we say “luxury” but that one really stood out at being demic, for what felt like a pretty major interchange too.
The rail side definitely felt like the "forgotten" part when I visited. The Metro station was a little more polished and the adjoining shopping centre actually quite decent, complete with large Tesco.
 

miklcct

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The rail side definitely felt like the "forgotten" part when I visited. The Metro station was a little more polished and the adjoining shopping centre actually quite decent, complete with large Tesco.
And fortunately I have taken a few pictures, posted on my blog, just before the renovation in 2017.

img_20171023_105350-1024x576.jpg

img_20171023_105142-1024x576.jpg

img_20171023_105149-1024x576.jpg

img_20171023_105157-1024x576.jpg

img_20171023_105206-1024x576.jpg


"the passenger station was small and aged, with only few departures per day. Its usage was so little that only before a train arrives the station was opened to passengers, and the supermarket for the station was already out of business."

The timetable was stuck at the station, showing all the trains serving the station in a day.

It seems that, after the renovation, it has now become the expected standard for a suburban station.
 

alex397

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It's a car park on the edge of the city in the middle of nowhere. One shop that is sporadically open, and no nearby bus or tram (bus 36 stops about 10 mins walk away). No roof until recently !

Whatit replaced (which was going to be a railway museum run by Serbian Railways post closure, but is now going to a "Museum of Serbian History", to be run by a close associate of the ruling party)
It really annoys me what has happened in Beograd.

Beograd Glavna (Main) was a beautiful grand station. Although not in the very centre, it wasn’t that far away and had a tram interchange with various routes, and was right next to the coach station. So, a really good location. The area was busy on my visit in summer 2019, even though there were no trains. I witnessed them demolishing the platforms. Even then, the ticket hall was still open with staff selling rail tickets.

I went to see Centar, which was eerily quiet for the main station of a capital city. There were more trains there than waiting passengers. The platform area was actually quite good I thought, but the location is terrible, and the exterior design of the station is awful as shown by that picture. There is a bus link to the city centre, number 36, which did stop outside the station on my visit, but that’s it. I can imagine they have lost many passengers since this become the main station.

There is actually a local rail link from Centar to the western eastern area of the city centre. It goes underground where there are a few stations, which were originally built for the Metro system which never happened. The stations here are also very dilapidated, intimidating and just not fit for purpose. The graffiti covered Soviet-built rolling stock with steep steps and plastic school chairs as seats certainly didn’t improve the experience (as an enthusiast I enjoyed it, but it’s no good for the people regularly using it).

The two underground stations are Karadordev Park and Vukov Spomenik. The first isn’t that exceptional, but Vukov Spomenik is a large grand Russian-style Metro station which must have looked great when it was built in the 1990s but in 2019 was falling apart, with a semi-abandoned shopping centre attached to it. I walked through some of the shopping centre and part of it was almost pitch black with no lighting. Quite incredible!
 
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TravelDream

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"the passenger station was small and aged, with only few departures per day. Its usage was so little that only before a train arrives the station was opened to passengers, and the supermarket for the station was already out of business."

It seems that, after the renovation, it has now become the expected standard for a suburban station.
To be fair, the 2017 refurb doesn't look massively different to what you experience other than a few LCD screens and gateline. The metro station is still under construction and according to Wikipedia will open in 2022.

From your blog, you seem to like cutting things fine too! No way would I have planned those exact timings to get to Shenzhen North. Those late afternoon/ evening buses to the mainland are always very busy. You must have been fairly lucky with the traffic in Shenzhen too which can be difficult.
 

Gag Halfrunt

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I went to see Centar, which was eerily quiet for the main station of a capital city. There were more trains there than waiting passengers. The platform area was actually quite good I thought, but the location is terrible, and the exterior design of the station is awful as shown by that picture.

The roof is a foundation slab for a shopping centre. Several different developers have come and gone and the latest news, according to Wikipedia, is that the slab will have to be reinforced to carry the building proposed by the (current) winning bidder.

 

The exile

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It really annoys me what has happened in Beograd.

Beograd Glavna (Main) was a beautiful grand station. Although not in the very centre, it wasn’t that far away and had a tram interchange with various routes, and was right next to the coach station. So, a really good location. The area was busy on my visit in summer 2019, even though there were no trains. I witnessed them demolishing the platforms. Even then, the ticket hall was still open with staff selling rail tickets.

I went to see Centar, which was eerily quiet for the main station of a capital city. There were more trains there than waiting passengers. The platform area was actually quite good I thought, but the location is terrible, and the exterior design of the station is awful as shown by that picture. There is a bus link to the city centre, number 36, which did stop outside the station on my visit, but that’s it. I can imagine they have lost many passengers since this become the main station.

There is actually a local rail link from Centar to the western area of the city centre. It goes underground where there are a few stations, which were originally built for the Metro system which never happened. The stations here are also very dilapidated, intimidating and just not fit for purpose. The graffiti covered Soviet-built rolling stock with steep steps and plastic school chairs as seats certainly didn’t improve the experience (as an enthusiast I enjoyed it, but it’s no good for the people regularly using it).

The two underground stations are Karadordev Park and Vukov Spomenik. The first isn’t that exceptional, but Vukov Spomenik is a large grand Russian-style Metro station which must have looked great when it was built in the 1990s but in 2019 was falling apart, with a semi-abandoned shopping centre attached to it. I walked through some of the shopping centre and part of it was almost pitch black with no lighting. Quite incredible!
Yes - Belgrade has to be experienced to be believed - both local stations and some of the trains that serve them - the following were in 2018.

Karadordevich Park:IMG_2647.JPG

Novi Beograd:IMG_2628.JPG

Class 412 emu at Pancevacki Most:IMG_2625.JPG

Interior of Class 412 unit:IMG_2626.JPG

Mind you, considering we were bombing them less than 25 years ago....
 
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