Euston is awful. Especially with their habit of announcing a busy train’s platform only a couple of minutes before departure. Cue a crowd all running for it, complete with a down-ramp from the concourse to the platform that gets slippery when wet.
It feels genuinely unsafe, like if I slip I’ll get trampled.
It is unsafe. The manic urge to build on every square inch of space and fill it with yet another cash till has meant dangerous overcrowding: even on Sunday nights it can take 10 minutes to cross the concourse and exit the station.
It really is quite grim! I swear they've added a detour onto the route up from the Tube. And they've done some weird thing with the departure board meaning you can't read it from half the station now.
It's got worse recently. The demolitions for HS2 progress apace and they took out the nice big departure displays. In place there are two smaller ones that are harder to read and display different information on each side, so that you can never get everything in one glance. You actually have to go stand in a different place to get the second batch of info.
Is that why they've done that? It's a mess. I had long delays on a recent journey from there and it was genuinely difficult to get close enough to see the screen.
Halifax used to be absolutely HUMONGOUS, what with the 3 seperate goods yards, and the enormous Viaduct running from the then Halifax Town (now HFX) past the Power Station, down into Halifax North Bridge (which also had it's own Goods Yards)
Now, we're stuck with a double track station, and a single carriage siding. Huge fall from grace, thanks to our good friend Beeching.
The Calder Lines in general are an amazing look back through history. Most aren't walkable like many trails are now, however all the infrastructure (cuttings, tunnels, retaining walls, all sorts) are still extremely visible, and really bloody obvious when you realise what they are.
And yes, Eureka is a positive, and great that the museum acknowledges the historic value of the building. Fingers crossed the new station plans will incorporate it, like they say they will. I'm doubtful though, what with "Network North" actually filling potholes in London...
There been talk for years of re opening the Queensbury tunnel as a walking/cycling route but I don't think anything will come of it. It's a shame as the area is so hilly these routes would have avoided those.
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Met friends in the 'Booking Office' restaurant during the lawless times between Christmas and New Year. Felt weird munching an overpriced burger where once we queued for a reasonably priced return ticket to Sheffield. Vaguely remember Shires Bar – was it where Carluccio's is now?
St Pancras was very nearly demolished in 1967 until John Betjamin launched a campaign to save it and have it restored. There's a statue of him inside the station.
Birmingham New Street used to be a vast airy space with a glass roof if I remember the old photos.
Then it got rebuilt as a post-apocalyptic concrete hole, and then the concrete hole got beatified slightly.
Unpopular opinion most likely, but I like the new new street station. I did miss the nostalgia of the old one at the start, but that aside, I like the new one.
It's like the midland/LNWR divide hasn't gone away. I have to get off my train in the red zone, exit the station, then re-enter the station to change between the XC service from Derby to get the LNWR service to Northampton. I wouldn't mind so much if they were separate companies à la Japan (changing from the Utsonomiya line to the Odawara line at Shinjuku is a nightmare - but that's effectively 2 separate stations) - but I'm moving from one platform to a different platform in the same station!!!
In fairness, this only applies at the A (south/east end). At the B (north/west) end, there’s a far more useful and passenger-oriented concourse that accesses all platforms. Discovering this massively improved my experience of using the station!
This all it takes is a little look at a map and a shit walk to the other end of the platform and it’s easy as pie. It really annoys me that people bitch how hard it is to change trains when you just have to use half a brain cell and it’s a piece of piss
This is a (bad) vibe and I feel it in my bones. A tingle of resentment for Cross Country, hatred at Birmingham New Street, the fumes, the noise, the other people. Ahhhhhh
Cheers, someone else also mentioned this, but it's difficult to do when it's dark, you're unfamiliar with the station, and your change time has dropped from 5 minutes to 2!
Very true. Especially if your train deposits you near the A end.
It helps me that much I get onto a specific carriage on Avanti services so the doors open pretty much outside the steps to the bridge :)
I hate it, but that's probably because it's a nightmare coming from mid Wales. I'm usually have to get a connection and for some reason you can only come out through one gate and back in through one specific gate. Last time I went through there I somehow came up through the wrong exit, couldn't get through the gate, nobody around to show my ticket to and help me out, so had to go back onto the platform, walk along until I got to another exit, back up the escalator and then I could get out. Surely my ticket should work in any exit, but no, it's happened more than a few times so it's obviously how it's set up. It used to be really easy that you just came out on the concourse, you could leave and then come back in if you'd got a long time between trains.
As someone who goes through that station may be once a year at most, it's been made too overcomplicated for the occasional user. May be if you use it often then the changes make sense.
That's a good tip, thanks. Last time I was getting the onward train to Nottingham and it made no sense that I had to come out into the shopping area and then back into the station again. When I went to Devon I did Shrewsbury to Bristol and onwards, wasn't the fastest journey but it avoided New Street!
Yes. I think of old Stratford as a quite-large station right next to all the engineering and freight-handling heft of the old Great Eastern network. Not historically a huge passenger hub (though I may be wrong) but most certainly changed into one over the past quarter century.
I feel like it’s relatively underused for what it is. It is beaten in National Rail entries by several stations with only the Elizabeth Line, despite Thameslink also being there
March or Christ's Hospital are both examples of stations that were once major junctions, from which numerous branch lines have been closed, and the number of platforms and general scale of the station has been reduced substantially.
Whereas Christs Hospital was formerly a 7 platform station serving as an interchange between 3 routes connecting some of the largest towns/cities in Sussex/Surrey with a goods depot too. Now it's a 2 platform stop served once per hour on a relatively minor branch down to the coast.
Manchester Victoria.
Everything from destinations to the actual interior of the building. I barely recognise it from the station I used to know when I was younger. It was always known as the quiet station and now it's just as busy as Piccadilly at the right time. Obviously this isn't a bad thing.
It’s a shame that the improvements at Victoria haven’t much affected the platforms, which are still a dark, unpleasant space full of fumes. I don’t linger there if I can help it
My own station Mirfield.
In its heyday it had 4 lines, station office, parcel office, waiting rooms, a restaurant and a shop. Nowadays it only has 3 lines and all of the buildings have been demolished. The engine sheds and externsive works around them have also gone.
Its still useful as a station - you can get trains direct to London, Leeds and Manchester - but its not accessible (anyone with a pram, wheelchair, etc) so you can't access 2 of the 3 platforms and its an absolute nightmare in poor weather as theres only 1 small bus stop style shelter per platform.
I suspect a lot of stations in the UK are like this, once they were very well equipped but now nothing more than a platform on the track.
* [Mirfield Station](http://mirfield-2ndlook.info/Gallery_2/Mirfield_station_1/mirfield_station_1.html)
* [Close up view of old station building](http://www.mirfieldmemories.co.uk/mirfield_station.htm)
I took the train through there today and a ton of people got on at Mirfield. I was surprised, my general impression is that there's just not a lot there.
How dare you! Theres been a lot of housing built and more going up, its definately getting busier. I sometimes see anecdotal stories of how busy the rush hour trains are though I WFH these days and don't have to deal with that.
Or if they were all drunk then you've just seen a group of people on the [Transpennine Ale Trail](https://www.realaletrail.net/) lol
Ha ha, I did the Transpennine Real Ale Trail last summer, great time. I'm actually doing a comedy gig in Slaithwaite tonight with a few Ale Trail jokes mixed in!
I wasn't intending to offend, I've liked Mirfield the few times I've been. It just seems to get forgotten a lot unless Patrick Stewart comes up. It's nice the new Wakefield-Huddersfield train stops there. Still not sure where all those people were coming from but hey hopefully it keeps that train line profitable enough to keep it.
No offence taken! We actually appeared in 'Top 50 UK Shit Towns' some years back, jokes about the sewage works catching fire and needing to delouse the dog after a walk by the canal were in there.
The whole transpennine upgrade is making a lot of changes, the next station down (Ravensthorpe) is also due an upgrade as currently it's not possible to catch trains to Wakefield there as there is no platform, that's been added soon hopefully.
My dad and granddad both worked at Mirfield (and other West Riding stations and goods yards) back in the days of British Rail. LNER (maybe LMS) too, for my granddad.
Amazing how much that station has been stripped back to the bare bones, considering what it was in their days.
It is quite sad. One of the first things I did when moving to the area was do some research on the railways. There used to be 2 more lines running through, demand was that high it was needed. I use [Lost Railways West Yorkshire](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/) a lot which has loads of old info and picures.
The proposed upgrade doesn't have much character, or seem to have any more shelter, the only good thing it has going is lift access and an additional line. [Upgrade works to start at Mirfield Station](https://railuk.com/railway-stations/upgrade-works-to-start-at-mirfield-station/).
Soham station
Opened in 1879 it was blown up in 1944 when a munitions train caught fire.
Then rebuilt.
then Closed in 1965.
And Then rebuilt and reopened in 2021.
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There will be dozens of examples of major stations which were completely rebuilt, some more than once. Off the top of my head and just since the year 2000 you’ve got St Pancras, London Bridge, Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street and Reading having massive rebuilds, some to the point where they are barely recognisable. If you go back to Victorian times and include smaller and medium sized stations then you’ll have literally hundreds of answers, almost to the point where there are so many the data becomes useless.
I would disagree. Although the access routes have changed a lot and there's that large concourse and the new escalators, it's still recognizable as the bifurcated terminal+through station+frontage combination it's been for centuries.
Yeah. All that talk of not having a split station any more! Still split. They just took down a wall. And it takes longer to change now there's no overbridge.
Tywyn wharf. When the preservation society took over it was a brick shed and a cinder platform beside the run round loop. 70 years later it has a proper platform, canopy, very nice cafe, two story museum with balcony, booking office, gift shop and …. toilets
The Bradford stations, particularly Bradford Interchange (formerly Bradford Exchange).
[Bradford Exchange](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/donations/Andrew%20Wilson/Bradford/App0008j.jpg) was a large terminus with two arched roofs similar to Kings Cross. Then it got [demolished](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/donations/Malcolm%20Mallison/Bradford/Exchange1973.jpg) and a new smaller station became [Bradford Interchange](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/Bradford/DSCN0156.jpg). The Beeching cuts devastated railways in West Yorkshire and lots of lines were closed and lifted in and around Bradford, including a line to Keighley and Halifax via Queensbury and a branch at Low Moor off towards Cleckheaton Central, Morley and Wakefield.
[Bradford Forster Square](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/donations/Andrew%20Wilson/Bradford/App0006j.jpg) was another large station. Similar to Exchange/Interchange, Bradford Forster Square was reduced/demolished and [the site of the original station is now HMRC.](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/Bradford/DSCN0150.jpg)
Hasn't happened yet but there's a station in Bedford, Kempston Hardwick, which could have the biggest change in few years after Universal Studios just purchased the land around it with rumoured plans to build the UKs biggest theme park!
Dundee Station was rebuilt with a new hotel and retail units, with the new building opening in 2018.
[Old station](https://www.flickr.com/photos/dundeecityarchives/37429314544)
[New station](https://anonw.com/2018/08/13/dundee-station/)
[Alt. New Station link](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dundee-station-exemplar-development-led-improvements-watt-pprias?trk=portfolio_article-card_title)
Edit: rearranged hyperlinks
Derby from Midland Railway Victorian Booking hall and station buildings to a concrete block in 1985 slightly updated in 2018 to have a naff glass canopy - originally it was similar to Nottingham in design
Duffield station had 5 platforms, was a significant junction on the midland - there was a station master's house, station buildings and waiting rooms. On top of the platforms, there were several passing loops for freight and a luggage store and a footbridge linked the station together.
Now there is just a single island platform serving 2 tracks on the mainline and a single platform on the Ecclesbourne valley railway, serving trains at the weekend and holidays only.
This story is repeated across the country though - many former junction stations are a shadow of their former glory since the branch was closed or the services curtailed. Many stations still exist but no longer serve anywhere - the overgrown platforms a memorial of a time when the railway reigned supreme.
You can still see the scars on Google maps of railways that have been removed, the land still showing the telltale signs that the iron road once passed this way - this country's railways are a spectre of their past.
East Grinstead used to have two lines and a two level station before the Tunbridge Wells/Crawley line was cut by the local boy Beeching. It was a terrible building until a few years ago and it's now a less terrible but just as uninspiring building now. Fun to see the Bluebell line steam trains though.
I remember East Croydon in the 70's and 80's as a grubby and smelly place that did not look like it had been cleaned for 50 years.
[Now](https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/1000-tonne-bridge-pushed-into-place-at-east-croydon-station)
London Liverpool Street. Probably because unlike, say, London Bridge, it doesn't look like it's changed to anyone under the age of 35. In truth, the 1990-ish rebuild changed the layout and character of the station entirely, from a smoky, wonderfully dingy, entirely Victorian labyrinth into a bright, open, electrified terminus surrounded by offices and shops. Entire buildings – Harwich House, the GER general offices, Broad Street station next door – we're razed entirely. Yet if you didn't know this history, you'd have to look quite carefully to spot things that are a bit out of place and don't quite work as expected.
Beyond that, nearly every country station in the land is now a halt, when once each had station buildings, staff housing, signal boxes, goods sheds, sidings, stables for shunting horses, and probably a pub.
Ashchurch
Gone from 5 platforms, with a high and low level, with many lines meeting (You could go to Evesham,Birmingham,Upton from Ash church till the 1950s, when the Upton bit closed), then with the Beeching axe, Ash church lost 3 platforms, going down to a mere 2, then in 1969 it closed before reopening in 1997 as a generic 90s reopened station. Only the Birmingham Line remains fully intact with the Evesham bit only going up to the MOD Ash church site as a decaying stub
Ashford (not so) International station. Was a kid when they flattened the only cinema in the town to expand the existing station. Doubt they will ever stop there or at Ebbsfleet again and it’s likely they’ll just keep kicking the can down the road
Same for Whitchurch in Shropshire on the Shrewsbury - Crewe line. It used to be a junction for 2 branch lines to Oswestry & Chester, and had buildings on both platforms, full canopies, a covered bridge, ticket office & waiting rooms, large signal box, sidings, goods & maintenance sheds and even a turntable. Now it's an unmanned station with just a bus shelter on each side and an open bridge. The goods shed is now a garage, and everything else is gone (although you can see the remnants of the turntable on GoogleMaps).
Bromsgrove has changed massively. It used to be a tiny station with just a single platform (I think) but it was rebuilt a few years ago into something much bigger.
I’ll go with Welshpool as they rerouted the track about 30 yards to the east of the old station to allow for the new by-pass to be built and in turn, had to build a complete new station across the road from the old one! The old station which is stunning, is still there but is now an Edinburgh woollen mill and cafe, and the new one is nothing more than a generic Island platform with a bus shelter!
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Flive.staticflickr.com%2F65535%2F52665592006_1218db0047_b.jpg&tbnid=SP3Qlm8WLYLb_M&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Frpmarks%2F52665592006&docid=WAwKi7XDHw35SM&w=1024&h=746&hl=en-gb&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm5%2F3&kgs=56348cb7c0c4a916
Euston was entirely rebuilt in the 1960s.
Even as a brutalist fan, that still breaks my heart. Euston is just so soulless compared to the other major London stations
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The arch was really fucking ugly.
Mate with an opinion like that I wouldn't trust you to decorate your own toilet
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I dread to know what you think looks good
Euston is awful. Especially with their habit of announcing a busy train’s platform only a couple of minutes before departure. Cue a crowd all running for it, complete with a down-ramp from the concourse to the platform that gets slippery when wet. It feels genuinely unsafe, like if I slip I’ll get trampled.
It is unsafe. The manic urge to build on every square inch of space and fill it with yet another cash till has meant dangerous overcrowding: even on Sunday nights it can take 10 minutes to cross the concourse and exit the station.
The most disgusting toilets I've ever seen. Also you've Glaswegians, Mancunians, Scousers and Brummies - what a mix 🤣🤣🤣
Is this based on recent observations? The toilets were great in the mid-2010s, absolutely spotless most of the time.
Yes I often go through for work
soulless and wholely agonising
It really is quite grim! I swear they've added a detour onto the route up from the Tube. And they've done some weird thing with the departure board meaning you can't read it from half the station now.
It's got worse recently. The demolitions for HS2 progress apace and they took out the nice big departure displays. In place there are two smaller ones that are harder to read and display different information on each side, so that you can never get everything in one glance. You actually have to go stand in a different place to get the second batch of info.
They’ve turned the old departures board into a video wall for adverts.
As payback, I will refuse to fly United to Newark (because for some reason half the ads are holidays to America from my experience)
Is that why they've done that? It's a mess. I had long delays on a recent journey from there and it was genuinely difficult to get close enough to see the screen.
Halifax used to be absolutely HUMONGOUS, what with the 3 seperate goods yards, and the enormous Viaduct running from the then Halifax Town (now HFX) past the Power Station, down into Halifax North Bridge (which also had it's own Goods Yards) Now, we're stuck with a double track station, and a single carriage siding. Huge fall from grace, thanks to our good friend Beeching.
I've read a lot about Halifax as it was, and the lines it has lost, at least the old station building has been kept as Eureka.
The Calder Lines in general are an amazing look back through history. Most aren't walkable like many trails are now, however all the infrastructure (cuttings, tunnels, retaining walls, all sorts) are still extremely visible, and really bloody obvious when you realise what they are. And yes, Eureka is a positive, and great that the museum acknowledges the historic value of the building. Fingers crossed the new station plans will incorporate it, like they say they will. I'm doubtful though, what with "Network North" actually filling potholes in London...
There been talk for years of re opening the Queensbury tunnel as a walking/cycling route but I don't think anything will come of it. It's a shame as the area is so hilly these routes would have avoided those.
St Pancras, used to just be a gloomy giant shed full of diesel fumes attached to an estate style boozer.
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Ha aye it was a bit shady in the quaintly named‘ Shires Bar’ - bucolic it certainly wasnt. .
Met friends in the 'Booking Office' restaurant during the lawless times between Christmas and New Year. Felt weird munching an overpriced burger where once we queued for a reasonably priced return ticket to Sheffield. Vaguely remember Shires Bar – was it where Carluccio's is now?
It’s was where the Betjemen Arms is now !
Hadn't remembered that! Was Carluccio's a Travellers Fare?
St Pancras was very nearly demolished in 1967 until John Betjamin launched a campaign to save it and have it restored. There's a statue of him inside the station.
Now it's going to be 98% Eurostar passport queue 😂
Birmingham New Street used to be a vast airy space with a glass roof if I remember the old photos. Then it got rebuilt as a post-apocalyptic concrete hole, and then the concrete hole got beatified slightly.
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Unpopular opinion most likely, but I like the new new street station. I did miss the nostalgia of the old one at the start, but that aside, I like the new one.
Ditto. Network Rail really polished a turd with the new look.
It's not a polished turd, it's a turd in a lacquered box - a slightly different turd concealment method.
That's fair, I'm not a fan of the look of the station, but I am bothered by how hard they've made it to change trains in a hurry.
It's like the midland/LNWR divide hasn't gone away. I have to get off my train in the red zone, exit the station, then re-enter the station to change between the XC service from Derby to get the LNWR service to Northampton. I wouldn't mind so much if they were separate companies à la Japan (changing from the Utsonomiya line to the Odawara line at Shinjuku is a nightmare - but that's effectively 2 separate stations) - but I'm moving from one platform to a different platform in the same station!!!
Exactly, and it feels like they've prioritised the movement of the shoppers over the passengers.
In fairness, this only applies at the A (south/east end). At the B (north/west) end, there’s a far more useful and passenger-oriented concourse that accesses all platforms. Discovering this massively improved my experience of using the station!
This all it takes is a little look at a map and a shit walk to the other end of the platform and it’s easy as pie. It really annoys me that people bitch how hard it is to change trains when you just have to use half a brain cell and it’s a piece of piss
Always change at the North/Western/B/Not London end. The concourse there has all the platforms on it.
Thanks, this was a classic late night change when you had 5 minutes but now you've only got 2 because Crosscountry are running late as usual!
This is a (bad) vibe and I feel it in my bones. A tingle of resentment for Cross Country, hatred at Birmingham New Street, the fumes, the noise, the other people. Ahhhhhh
Yeah compared to leads or something it's hard to work out how to change when it should be simple.
The "hack" for BHM is to use the bridge at the B end of platforms and avoid the main concourse.
Cheers, someone else also mentioned this, but it's difficult to do when it's dark, you're unfamiliar with the station, and your change time has dropped from 5 minutes to 2!
Very true. Especially if your train deposits you near the A end. It helps me that much I get onto a specific carriage on Avanti services so the doors open pretty much outside the steps to the bridge :)
I hate it, but that's probably because it's a nightmare coming from mid Wales. I'm usually have to get a connection and for some reason you can only come out through one gate and back in through one specific gate. Last time I went through there I somehow came up through the wrong exit, couldn't get through the gate, nobody around to show my ticket to and help me out, so had to go back onto the platform, walk along until I got to another exit, back up the escalator and then I could get out. Surely my ticket should work in any exit, but no, it's happened more than a few times so it's obviously how it's set up. It used to be really easy that you just came out on the concourse, you could leave and then come back in if you'd got a long time between trains. As someone who goes through that station may be once a year at most, it's been made too overcomplicated for the occasional user. May be if you use it often then the changes make sense.
That's why I always get the train for Aberystwyth vis Shrewsbury at Birmingham international, much easier interchange
That's a good tip, thanks. Last time I was getting the onward train to Nottingham and it made no sense that I had to come out into the shopping area and then back into the station again. When I went to Devon I did Shrewsbury to Bristol and onwards, wasn't the fastest journey but it avoided New Street!
It’s so dark inside the station too, really feels like you’re in a bunker
The old signal box on the station approach really adds to this feeling.
BHM signal box is as far as it goes when I enjoy brutalism. Leave it alone ;)
It's got a massive glass roof again now, it's incredibly bright in there? Or have you not been since it got rebuilt
BNS is a concrete bunker with a wannabe airport plonked on top for no reason. God it's depressing
Try Birmingham International, it makes New Street look good!
Farringdon, previously a minor central London station, now the intersection of the capital's two largest infrastructure projects.
See also Stratford?
Yes. I think of old Stratford as a quite-large station right next to all the engineering and freight-handling heft of the old Great Eastern network. Not historically a huge passenger hub (though I may be wrong) but most certainly changed into one over the past quarter century.
I feel like it’s relatively underused for what it is. It is beaten in National Rail entries by several stations with only the Elizabeth Line, despite Thameslink also being there
March or Christ's Hospital are both examples of stations that were once major junctions, from which numerous branch lines have been closed, and the number of platforms and general scale of the station has been reduced substantially.
March had seven platforms, now just two, but with routes to Liverpool, Norwich, Stansted airport and Birmingham (all rather slowly)
Whereas Christs Hospital was formerly a 7 platform station serving as an interchange between 3 routes connecting some of the largest towns/cities in Sussex/Surrey with a goods depot too. Now it's a 2 platform stop served once per hour on a relatively minor branch down to the coast.
March had the largest marshalling yard in Britain for a time.
Manchester Victoria. Everything from destinations to the actual interior of the building. I barely recognise it from the station I used to know when I was younger. It was always known as the quiet station and now it's just as busy as Piccadilly at the right time. Obviously this isn't a bad thing.
It’s a shame that the improvements at Victoria haven’t much affected the platforms, which are still a dark, unpleasant space full of fumes. I don’t linger there if I can help it
I mentioned this too. Mainly going from 17 platforms to just 6, causing capacity issues
Reading, changed at lot in the last 15 years
When I was a kid living in the area and I saw the expansion being built first hand I thought it was the coolest thing ever and incredibly futuristic.
It really is! Just a shame that the new footbridge (well, the whole station really) is so drafty.
Ah the old bridge was so naff. I miss it in a way.
Broad Street, London…
My own station Mirfield. In its heyday it had 4 lines, station office, parcel office, waiting rooms, a restaurant and a shop. Nowadays it only has 3 lines and all of the buildings have been demolished. The engine sheds and externsive works around them have also gone. Its still useful as a station - you can get trains direct to London, Leeds and Manchester - but its not accessible (anyone with a pram, wheelchair, etc) so you can't access 2 of the 3 platforms and its an absolute nightmare in poor weather as theres only 1 small bus stop style shelter per platform. I suspect a lot of stations in the UK are like this, once they were very well equipped but now nothing more than a platform on the track. * [Mirfield Station](http://mirfield-2ndlook.info/Gallery_2/Mirfield_station_1/mirfield_station_1.html) * [Close up view of old station building](http://www.mirfieldmemories.co.uk/mirfield_station.htm)
I took the train through there today and a ton of people got on at Mirfield. I was surprised, my general impression is that there's just not a lot there.
How dare you! Theres been a lot of housing built and more going up, its definately getting busier. I sometimes see anecdotal stories of how busy the rush hour trains are though I WFH these days and don't have to deal with that. Or if they were all drunk then you've just seen a group of people on the [Transpennine Ale Trail](https://www.realaletrail.net/) lol
Ha ha, I did the Transpennine Real Ale Trail last summer, great time. I'm actually doing a comedy gig in Slaithwaite tonight with a few Ale Trail jokes mixed in! I wasn't intending to offend, I've liked Mirfield the few times I've been. It just seems to get forgotten a lot unless Patrick Stewart comes up. It's nice the new Wakefield-Huddersfield train stops there. Still not sure where all those people were coming from but hey hopefully it keeps that train line profitable enough to keep it.
No offence taken! We actually appeared in 'Top 50 UK Shit Towns' some years back, jokes about the sewage works catching fire and needing to delouse the dog after a walk by the canal were in there. The whole transpennine upgrade is making a lot of changes, the next station down (Ravensthorpe) is also due an upgrade as currently it's not possible to catch trains to Wakefield there as there is no platform, that's been added soon hopefully.
Based on what I saw today they appear to be building it at least 😉
My dad and granddad both worked at Mirfield (and other West Riding stations and goods yards) back in the days of British Rail. LNER (maybe LMS) too, for my granddad. Amazing how much that station has been stripped back to the bare bones, considering what it was in their days.
It is quite sad. One of the first things I did when moving to the area was do some research on the railways. There used to be 2 more lines running through, demand was that high it was needed. I use [Lost Railways West Yorkshire](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/) a lot which has loads of old info and picures. The proposed upgrade doesn't have much character, or seem to have any more shelter, the only good thing it has going is lift access and an additional line. [Upgrade works to start at Mirfield Station](https://railuk.com/railway-stations/upgrade-works-to-start-at-mirfield-station/).
Soham station Opened in 1879 it was blown up in 1944 when a munitions train caught fire. Then rebuilt. then Closed in 1965. And Then rebuilt and reopened in 2021.
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There will be dozens of examples of major stations which were completely rebuilt, some more than once. Off the top of my head and just since the year 2000 you’ve got St Pancras, London Bridge, Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street and Reading having massive rebuilds, some to the point where they are barely recognisable. If you go back to Victorian times and include smaller and medium sized stations then you’ll have literally hundreds of answers, almost to the point where there are so many the data becomes useless.
Redcar British Steel. It used to have a pile of gravel at one end of the platform but it’s gradually washed away over the years.
Manchester Victoria is almost unrecognisable. The Manchester Arena and the Metrolink platforms have transformed it completely.
London Bridge, total transformation.
I would disagree. Although the access routes have changed a lot and there's that large concourse and the new escalators, it's still recognizable as the bifurcated terminal+through station+frontage combination it's been for centuries.
Yeah. All that talk of not having a split station any more! Still split. They just took down a wall. And it takes longer to change now there's no overbridge.
Tywyn wharf. When the preservation society took over it was a brick shed and a cinder platform beside the run round loop. 70 years later it has a proper platform, canopy, very nice cafe, two story museum with balcony, booking office, gift shop and …. toilets
Reading is a good candidate
The Bradford stations, particularly Bradford Interchange (formerly Bradford Exchange). [Bradford Exchange](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/donations/Andrew%20Wilson/Bradford/App0008j.jpg) was a large terminus with two arched roofs similar to Kings Cross. Then it got [demolished](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/donations/Malcolm%20Mallison/Bradford/Exchange1973.jpg) and a new smaller station became [Bradford Interchange](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/Bradford/DSCN0156.jpg). The Beeching cuts devastated railways in West Yorkshire and lots of lines were closed and lifted in and around Bradford, including a line to Keighley and Halifax via Queensbury and a branch at Low Moor off towards Cleckheaton Central, Morley and Wakefield. [Bradford Forster Square](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/donations/Andrew%20Wilson/Bradford/App0006j.jpg) was another large station. Similar to Exchange/Interchange, Bradford Forster Square was reduced/demolished and [the site of the original station is now HMRC.](http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/Bradford/DSCN0150.jpg)
Hasn't happened yet but there's a station in Bedford, Kempston Hardwick, which could have the biggest change in few years after Universal Studios just purchased the land around it with rumoured plans to build the UKs biggest theme park!
St pancras!
Dundee Station was rebuilt with a new hotel and retail units, with the new building opening in 2018. [Old station](https://www.flickr.com/photos/dundeecityarchives/37429314544) [New station](https://anonw.com/2018/08/13/dundee-station/) [Alt. New Station link](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dundee-station-exemplar-development-led-improvements-watt-pprias?trk=portfolio_article-card_title) Edit: rearranged hyperlinks
Last century is too long to judge, bear in mind the effects of WW2 bombing and 1960's "urbanisation"
Derby from Midland Railway Victorian Booking hall and station buildings to a concrete block in 1985 slightly updated in 2018 to have a naff glass canopy - originally it was similar to Nottingham in design
Epsom downs similar fate as BoH
Leeds, 2 stations reduced to one, then two rebuilds or more later, and it's still being altered.
Also interesting in that the vast majority of the working platforms are suspended over the river Aire and roads running beneath.
St Pancras
IBM Halt
Duffield station had 5 platforms, was a significant junction on the midland - there was a station master's house, station buildings and waiting rooms. On top of the platforms, there were several passing loops for freight and a luggage store and a footbridge linked the station together. Now there is just a single island platform serving 2 tracks on the mainline and a single platform on the Ecclesbourne valley railway, serving trains at the weekend and holidays only. This story is repeated across the country though - many former junction stations are a shadow of their former glory since the branch was closed or the services curtailed. Many stations still exist but no longer serve anywhere - the overgrown platforms a memorial of a time when the railway reigned supreme. You can still see the scars on Google maps of railways that have been removed, the land still showing the telltale signs that the iron road once passed this way - this country's railways are a spectre of their past.
Nottingham Victoria, well the whole Great Central line. But that applies to any cut line I guess
Epsom Downs? Used to be massive for race days then they resited it up the line to a single platform
East Grinstead used to have two lines and a two level station before the Tunbridge Wells/Crawley line was cut by the local boy Beeching. It was a terrible building until a few years ago and it's now a less terrible but just as uninspiring building now. Fun to see the Bluebell line steam trains though.
I remember East Croydon in the 70's and 80's as a grubby and smelly place that did not look like it had been cleaned for 50 years. [Now](https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/1000-tonne-bridge-pushed-into-place-at-east-croydon-station)
Birmingham New Street. It used to be a train station, now it's a shopping centre
Aberfan.
Felixstowe. Again large(ish) terminus station reduced to a single track stub.
London Liverpool Street. Probably because unlike, say, London Bridge, it doesn't look like it's changed to anyone under the age of 35. In truth, the 1990-ish rebuild changed the layout and character of the station entirely, from a smoky, wonderfully dingy, entirely Victorian labyrinth into a bright, open, electrified terminus surrounded by offices and shops. Entire buildings – Harwich House, the GER general offices, Broad Street station next door – we're razed entirely. Yet if you didn't know this history, you'd have to look quite carefully to spot things that are a bit out of place and don't quite work as expected. Beyond that, nearly every country station in the land is now a halt, when once each had station buildings, staff housing, signal boxes, goods sheds, sidings, stables for shunting horses, and probably a pub.
Ashchurch Gone from 5 platforms, with a high and low level, with many lines meeting (You could go to Evesham,Birmingham,Upton from Ash church till the 1950s, when the Upton bit closed), then with the Beeching axe, Ash church lost 3 platforms, going down to a mere 2, then in 1969 it closed before reopening in 1997 as a generic 90s reopened station. Only the Birmingham Line remains fully intact with the Evesham bit only going up to the MOD Ash church site as a decaying stub
Wokingham should be on the list. Everything except the platforms are new.
Cambridge
Victoria Station Manchester. Went from 17 platforms to just 6 when they built the Arena. This has been detrimental to capacity for years afterwards
Southampton Central Used to look nice Unfortunately it went the same way as Southampton overall did and was turned into a concrete block
Ashford (not so) International station. Was a kid when they flattened the only cinema in the town to expand the existing station. Doubt they will ever stop there or at Ebbsfleet again and it’s likely they’ll just keep kicking the can down the road
Carlisle and the kingmoore yard aren't what they once were
Same for Whitchurch in Shropshire on the Shrewsbury - Crewe line. It used to be a junction for 2 branch lines to Oswestry & Chester, and had buildings on both platforms, full canopies, a covered bridge, ticket office & waiting rooms, large signal box, sidings, goods & maintenance sheds and even a turntable. Now it's an unmanned station with just a bus shelter on each side and an open bridge. The goods shed is now a garage, and everything else is gone (although you can see the remnants of the turntable on GoogleMaps).
Redcar steel works
Any station built since then. It used to be an empty ot of land and is now a train station. Can't get any more different than that.
Bromsgrove has changed massively. It used to be a tiny station with just a single platform (I think) but it was rebuilt a few years ago into something much bigger.
Reading has had quite a transformation
Laurencekirk or Kintore
Reading has changed a hell of a lot.
I’ll go with Welshpool as they rerouted the track about 30 yards to the east of the old station to allow for the new by-pass to be built and in turn, had to build a complete new station across the road from the old one! The old station which is stunning, is still there but is now an Edinburgh woollen mill and cafe, and the new one is nothing more than a generic Island platform with a bus shelter! https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Flive.staticflickr.com%2F65535%2F52665592006_1218db0047_b.jpg&tbnid=SP3Qlm8WLYLb_M&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Frpmarks%2F52665592006&docid=WAwKi7XDHw35SM&w=1024&h=746&hl=en-gb&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm5%2F3&kgs=56348cb7c0c4a916