the best and worst bus station you have visited

[danny]

Basically as the title says, which is the best bus station, interchange ect you have visited, and which didn't impress or was just a nightmare, you dont have to keep it to the sunny old west midlands but would be nice to have a few.

For me, inside the west mids my fav has to be stourbridge, just because of its fresh appeal and unusual layout, worst is bradford place, just because I don't think it has the means and capacity for It's current traffic, in my humble opinion.

Outside this lovely county I'm a fan of st ives in cornwall, just because of the method of turning and getting onto the "stand".

The floor is open :)

[Tony]

From a Passenger point of view Crewe and Northampton are two of the most vile, although when I went to Crewe this week at least it had had a coat of paint making it more presentable than earlier in the year. Crewe at least does offer photography, Northampton is just disgusting in every respect

[Bob]

Crewe bus station is truly vile but the old hanley one was absolutely disgusting!  The old bull ring bus stn was nasty too.

The old walsall bus station was good much better than the monstrosity thats there now plus the old toilets were free, three times the size of the current one and always smelt of jeyes fluid!  Lol

Cannock bus station is quite nice, and the new wolverhampton one is good

[notepanel]

I like Wolverhampton bus station, but always feel it seems too big when I'm there.

Outside of the West Midlands I am always shocked at the reversing off bay situation at most bus stations. I rarely visit these stations but have seen several near misses. It can't be good to reverse a solo out from next to a 15m coach! 

[nitromatt1]

Inside the West Midlands, I'd say the worst would be Merry Hill. Not big enough therefore several services sharing stands causing queues of buses, especially when they're all due out at about the same time. This also means services such as the X96 and 276 often have to layover in the bus parking spaces with passengers on board, so if someone suddenly wants to get off, I don't think they are allowed to? It's also way too cramped 'inside' the shelters, and (unless there are some I haven't found yet) you have to walk a fair way into Merry Hill to get to any toilets.

The best in the West Midlands in my opinion is Wolverhampton, joint largest (I think?) with Dudley but obviously the difference being it is so much more modern and clean. I don't think there are actually that many more services in Wolverhampton station than in Merry Hill, but the difference is that there are so many more stands that you very rarely get buses queuing to load, or using the wrong stand (with the exception of the 59 and 126). The facilities there are also of a high standard for a bus station, even if you do have to spend 20 pennies in order to spend another... One drawback with Wolverhampton is that it can be a very long walk to get from, for example, stand T to stand L, whereas in the old style bus stations it would be a quick hop across the bus lane (which I know you shouldn't do, but everyone does...)

Outside the West Midlands, I must say I haven't visited a huge number of bus stations, but I have used a few and my favourite so far would have to be Worcester bus station. Plenty of places to take photographs, lots of space for buses to lay over and the stands aren't usually too crammed with buses (but then again, with the exception of the 44's, the services using Worcester bus station aren't really frequent enough for that to become a problem). There is also access to a shopping area and the railway station from the bus station (if I remember rightly), and what's more, there are nice clean toilets which are absolutely free to use! (when there isn't a female attendant in there, anyway...)

My least favourite bus station so far in the UK would have to be Penrith. Not the nicest of settings, seemingly in the middle of a council estate. Hardly any waiting space or shelter for buses. Also, due to the layout of the bus station, buses have to reverse out of their stand when departing! Looks rather silly. The toilets were locked when I went there but they didn't look to be the nicest ones in the world.

[Isle of Stroma]

Two 'dumps' that I used to be fond of were Chelmsford & Bristol.

My favourite used to be Taunton, with Derby Morledge as a runner-up (though I can't stand the new lego replacement). Have to agree that Northampton is the worst (& I've not used it for 20 years!), with Redditch (when enclosed) a close second.

A special 'total naffness' award goes to any Station that Centro have ballsed up had any involvement with.

[the trainbasher]

A special 'total naffness' award goes to any Station that Centro have ballsed up had any involvement with.

Who's designs are a pile of rubbish provided a significant amount or lack thereof passenger comfort. :-)

[Isle of Stroma]

A special 'total naffness' award goes to any Station that Centro have ballsed up had any involvement with.

Who's designs are a pile of rubbish provided a significant amount or lack thereof passenger comfort. :-)

No more comfy than any other, to be honest - & Pool Meadow & Wolverhampton are absolute barns in the winter (I used to have cause to spend several evenings at the latter & felt positively hypothermic - so much so that I required 'medical assistance' in the 'Western prior to my train home!

Incidentally, both of those examples aren't capable of handling the movements of their predecessors, forcing routes out to bog standard street stops. I fail to see any comfort improvement there....

[Sh4318]

Pool Meadow is the best, Dudley is the worst

[Ash]

Walsall Bradford Place is one of the worst the changes have made little difference and Merry Hill stands are awful incapable of holding the capacity of people waiting for multiple buses from one stand, West Bromwich is one of the best the problem is exiting the bus station traffic builds up as buses struggle to get out especially when turning right towards Walsall.

[BU07 LGO]

Wednesbury is the worst, buses struggle to get onto the stop if there are others in the surrounding stops and end up having to reverse

[bususer12]

Preston Station is particularly drab, Merry Hill station is also rubbish, because of no capacity and the fact that services going to similar areas depart from different stands. Even if they do rebuild Merry Hill, it would still take a while to get stand locations right, just look at how ling it took to sort the allocations at Stourbridge

[vinh1000]

I liked the Liverpool one :)

[Liverpool Street]

Don't like Manchester Airport Station. So dead. Even saw a tumbleweed. Horrible place. Saying that I don't like anything NX Coach anyway.

[Stu]

Anyone remember the old bus station in Oldbury town centre? That was pretty grim.  :o