the best and worst bus station you have visited

[PM]

Big fan of west brom/halesowen/stourbridge/wolverhampton

Dont really like pool meadow-has seen better days and merry hill isnt really a proper bus station lets be honest.

Redditch is a bit dingey and dark and cold-full of pidgeons and there isnt enough room for full size single deckers-it clearly wasnt designed for them-to be honest, anything underground isnt going to be great

Preston bus station looks good but again a bit dated and a car park offering cheap parking above it kind of defeats the point of a bus station in the first place.

Durham bus station is ok as well

[Mike K]

Gornal Wood. Is there a more random place for a bus station?

[j789]

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...)

Worcester isn't great to drive in - you should see it on an evening when there are loads of buses parked up being going up to the garage. It really needs to be twice as big. When it was built Midland Red had loads of minibuses and the bus stands were built for them mainly - also the top stand in the middle section used to be a 'reversing' stand for the 144 before it got changed. If there is a 30 Dines Green on the top stop (stop J) and you are doing a 44 to Malvern it is tight getting on the stand H (the railings also make it difficult) - same with the 35 route.
Also, there are quite a few frequent routes too - the 35 is every 7-8 mins, the 31 is every 10 mins, the 30 is every 10, the 144 is every 15 as are the 33/34, plus you have a regular park and ride council service and lots of other routes - it is a very busy station for its size.

[Trident 4609]

In the West Midlands

Based on the building and architecture/Best looking it has to be Wolverhampton/Stourbridge with Merry Hill in my opinion the worst

[PM]

For good design I would say west brom as things dont seem to clog up as much as in some bus stations-got to admit Im a fan of the open layout of the halesowen one-merry hill does really need a new one though

[Liverpool Street]

For good design I would say west brom as things dont seem to clog up as much as in some bus stations-got to admit Im a fan of the open layout of the halesowen one-merry hill does really need a new one though

Halesowen is very good in my opinion. I wish it had a bus park though but I guess drop backs aren't long enough to inspire such.

[Bob]

Im surprised nobody apart from me has mentioned how awful walsall is. Absolutely diabolical a total monstrosity

[wbdriver]

For good design I would say west brom as things dont seem to clog up as much as in some bus stations

is that why it took me 5 minutes to leave the bus station on Saturday afternoon on the 5 then?  :)

seriously, WB is a good design when it works properly. enough room for buses to park in the middle and to leave and enter stands clearly. The problems with it are:

the taxi rank right at the exit - taxis doing illiegal u turns, blocking the exit and preventing the buses leaving and entering the station.
the traffic lights round the bus station - all out of sync, causing traffic to build up and blocking the road. can easily lose 5 minutes here.
private cars coming along the road from the Public to Busby's lights. Shouldn't be there as it is a bus and taxi only zone.

we keep reporting the above but nothing seems to be done about it.

anyway, worst bus station - Merry Hell - parking bays are tight, no room to go on stand (eg when WB did the full 289 on a Sunday, i managed to block the entire station up once!) (well i say me, the stupid Diamond driver on the 4M [due to leave the exact same time from the same stand] parked right behind me blowing his horn and i just sat there...) :D

[PM]

For good design I would say west brom as things dont seem to clog up as much as in some bus stations

is that why it took me 5 minutes to leave the bus station on Saturday afternoon on the 5 then?  :)

seriously, WB is a good design when it works properly. enough room for buses to park in the middle and to leave and enter stands clearly. The problems with it are:

the taxi rank right at the exit - taxis doing illiegal u turns, blocking the exit and preventing the buses leaving and entering the station.
the traffic lights round the bus station - all out of sync, causing traffic to build up and blocking the road. can easily lose 5 minutes here.
private cars coming along the road from the Public to Busby's lights. Shouldn't be there as it is a bus and taxi only zone.

we keep reporting the above but nothing seems to be done about it.

anyway, worst bus station - Merry Hell - parking bays are tight, no room to go on stand (eg when WB did the full 289 on a Sunday, i managed to block the entire station up once!) (well i say me, the stupid Diamond driver on the 4M [due to leave the exact same time from the same stand] parked right behind me blowing his horn and i just sat there...) :D

Also the problem at WB is when pedestrians just stroll out in front of buses whenever they want and the bus is about to set off

[wbdriver]

For good design I would say west brom as things dont seem to clog up as much as in some bus stations

is that why it took me 5 minutes to leave the bus station on Saturday afternoon on the 5 then?  :)

seriously, WB is a good design when it works properly. enough room for buses to park in the middle and to leave and enter stands clearly. The problems with it are:

the taxi rank right at the exit - taxis doing illiegal u turns, blocking the exit and preventing the buses leaving and entering the station.
the traffic lights round the bus station - all out of sync, causing traffic to build up and blocking the road. can easily lose 5 minutes here.
private cars coming along the road from the Public to Busby's lights. Shouldn't be there as it is a bus and taxi only zone.

we keep reporting the above but nothing seems to be done about it.

anyway, worst bus station - Merry Hell - parking bays are tight, no room to go on stand (eg when WB did the full 289 on a Sunday, i managed to block the entire station up once!) (well i say me, the stupid Diamond driver on the 4M [due to leave the exact same time from the same stand] parked right behind me blowing his horn and i just sat there...) :D

Also the problem at WB is when pedestrians just stroll out in front of buses whenever they want and the bus is about to set off

that's WB people for you! :D :D :D

it mainly seems to be those who catch the 45 or 46. they see it on the stand and squeeze past the 5 bus then have the cheek to moan when it drives off!

[D10]

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

I guess there was a couple of good things about it; one was the fact that some services could pull in off the road so they didn't block the main road outside. Also, I have old WMPTE and WM Travel leaflets that have Oldbury Bus Station down as having a Travel Shop which is a facility that is no longer available there, although there is a newsagents nearby that sells Travelcards and has a few timetables.

Talking about good bus stations though, I really like the new Swansea bus station. It is nice and bright with good facilities. If you haven't seen it, I suspect that it was designed by the same team as Digbeth, it is very similar!

[mikestone]

At least Northampton is not much longer for this world - work on its replacement is well advanced.
;

[Dylan4579]

Bearwood is the worst

[Kevin]

Bearwood is the worst

Bearwood and Perry Barr in my view are half-arsed bus stations, only some of the routes in the vicinity stop there. Not entirely sure what the scope is at Bearwood to completely redesign the junction and bus station, but (using Perry Barr a lot) I hope one day they'll see sense, bulldoze the Crown and Cushion pub and rebuild the bus station above the rail station, with entrance from the roundabout and exits both by the one stop itself (wher it is at the moment) and back onto the wellington road - that way buses in both directions and the 11A/C can all stop there as well.... can but dream

Best bus station locally I'd say Wolves, even though it does seem a bit too big somehow, possibly because loads of services don't stop there.

[horsencart]

It is on this footage  for a few seconds the Bus was being built at the time
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dofartshavelumps/7904963846/in/set-72157631077349924

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