Great Western Coffee Shop

As far as the revamp of Bath Spa ticket office/travel centre is concerned FGW are in NO position to be celebrating what was a complete waste of 400K!!!!! Its horrible and hardly a tribute to it's original builder Brunel. Just think what that money could have done in providing more services. The ticket hall and travel centre were fine before they demolished it, yes it did need some work done on it to smarten it up a bit but whats been done is not worth 400K.

http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=180730&command=displayContent&sourceNode=227209&contentPK=18613973&folderPk=106757&pNodeId=227220

i've heard nothing but good things about it,

is it really that bad?

It looks allright!

Its very dull and unwelcoming and could do with much better lighting. Yes I do have strong feelings about it but we used to have a decent travel centre, now all we have a dull draughty ticket hall and a solitary leaflet rack.

I personally think the booking hall looks dank, depressing, uninviting and faceless now. Even the announcements now echo throughout the hall as if to emphasise how hollow it is. ^400,000 is a joke when all that was really needed was a spring clean and things like the new monitors.

To think that what was once a friendly, inviting station that has been turned into this - and at that cost- is a disgrace!

First Great Western hired Sally Lunn characters and town crier Trevor Heeks to hand out Bath buns and hail the changes (link below.)
http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=163490&command=displayContent&sourceNode=163316&contentPK=18636317&folderPk=89126&pNodeId=163047

Andrew Griffiths (FGW) :

"This is an historic listed building that reflects Brunel's legacy to the railway."

"While major, external structural work is therefore impossible on this building, the internal modernisation programme was undertaken with the approval of the authorities at all times and great care and consideration was taken to ensure that the new designs reflect the building's heritage and its surroundings in such a glorious city."

Tony Ambrose (MTLS) :

"The barriers are inadequate to cope with the passenger flow from a high-speed train, causing passengers to queue back up the stairs to exit the station by the barriers and through the one remaining door. If two trains arrive at the same time, there is chaos."

"This is another example of FGW wasting money when what the public really want is trains that run on time, that are not overcrowded, with walk-on fares that don't cost the earth."