frodshamfella
Established Member
Chester is a popular city for visitors, yet it's station leaves a lot to be desired. I passed through last Saturday, and it really is a grubby place. Its such a shame as the building is pretty grand.
Transport for Wales don't care so much for England!
To be fair not nearly as bad as the subway on the main route from the station to the centre. Cestrians are always doing something daft, like demolishing or building over Roman artefacts.Chester is a popular city for visitors, yet it's station leaves a lot to be desired. I passed through last Saturday, and it really is a grubby place. Its such a shame as the building is pretty grand.
To be fair not nearly as bad as the subway on the main route from the station to the centre. Cestrians are always doing something daft, like demolishing or building over Roman artefacts.
I seem to remember that was a feature added by Arriva, as part of the aim of integrating rail and bus services in the ATW franchise.On the other hand the ticket office was smart, welcoming and efficient, and there was a useful feature near the station entrance, a departure screen for buses, showing times and bus stand numbers, which I don't recall seeing anywhere else (though they may well exist, of course). That's something that would be useful, for example, at Preston, so we could see when the next buses from the Fishergate stops at the station front were due.
I also thought this on changing for Crewe on Tuesday evening.Chester is a popular city for visitors, yet it's station leaves a lot to be desired. I passed through last Saturday, and it really is a grubby place. Its such a shame as the building is pretty grand.
It is nothing to do with any new bits. The place is a run down dump. There are weeds everywhere, including on active platforms, and the whole station has just been neglected.It's more about what Arriva Trains Wales did to it - the recent additions with the Arriva-green (copper I think?) roofing look utterly awful. A refurb that to me made it worse.
Grays station is a bit of a non-entity but it has a bus screen too at the coast bound exit.I made two Saturday return journeys from Southport to Chirk via Chester recently, and agree that the station interior is depressing (the façade is fine); there's something about the colour of blue brick en masse that always feels gloomy even when fairly clean and on a sunny day (just as slate used as building stone in Keswick or Blaenau is similarly depressing). The entry to the platforms is not intuitive since you might expect to go in through the automatic gates, but can't. On the other hand the ticket office was smart, welcoming and efficient, and there was a useful feature near the station entrance, a departure screen for buses, showing times and bus stand numbers, which I don't recall seeing anywhere else (though they may well exist, of course). That's something that would be useful, for example, at Preston, so we could see when the next buses from the Fishergate stops at the station front were due.
The main issue for a lot of people is the long, shadowy, badly lit approach from both directions, Brook St and City Road; Chester council (CWAC) should do much more to make the route from the city centre feel safer.
I agree about the tunnel at the roundabout, but you don’t have to use it, there are crossings provided, heading towards the city centre if you proceed down City Road on the right hand side.The subway at the roundabout is just grim and belongs in about 1975, it direly needs filling in and street level crossings provided instead. An utter blight on a lovely little city.
It seems daft to me that to get to the ticket office you have to walk past WH Smith’s, a cafe and a betting office in order to buy a ticket.
Actually the booking office used to be opposite where WH Smith is sited. It was moved to where Costa now is possibly in the 70s/80s?This wasn't interestingly the original layout. The booking office used to be where Costa is. Presumably whoever the Costa franchisee is offered a chunk of money big enough to take that prominent position and hide the booking office elsewhere. Having not bought a ticket there since doing North and Mid Wales Rangers as a teenager, I can't even remember where it is now!
That’s how I remember the entrance to Chester station in the 70’s. Two gates at the neck of the short passageway. Originally, the travel centre was on the left as you entered, the ticket office on the right.Actually the booking office used to be opposite where WH Smith is sited. It was moved to where Costa now is possibly in the 70s/80s?
So as you walked in off the street you had the booking office on one side and something (possibly a travel centre?) where WH Smith is now. This would be 1970s. I'm trying to remember where the ticket barriers were. Possibly at the end of that initial passageway, which would mean you would walk onto a concourse unencumbered by Costa, retail units or where the barriers are now. Of course there were more (GW) platforms to your left in earlier times.
You turn right on the concourse and head up towards the bay platforms (P1 and un-numbered) and staff area, opposite what are now toilets and just before the bike racks.This wasn't interestingly the original layout. The booking office used to be where Costa is. Presumably whoever the Costa franchisee is offered a chunk of money big enough to take that prominent position and hide the booking office elsewhere. Having not bought a ticket there since doing North and Mid Wales Rangers as a teenager, I can't even remember where it is now!
I also thought this on changing for Crewe on Tuesday evening.
donePerhaps useful if you all filled this station survey in ...
Chester, Flint and Runcorn East Customer Survey
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