Inadequate Shelter on smaller stations

[whole diary]

[John R]

The up platform shelters at Nailsea and Backwell are becoming increasingly inadequate as passenger volumes grow. When it's raining in the rush hour about 20 to 30 lucky souls will find very squashed shelter whilst the rest (maybe same again) have to stand in the rain. The problem's maybe more pronounced as NLS is on an embankment so more windswept than most.

I don't think I've ever seen any discussion on the subject, but there must be other stations across FGW^▸ (First Great Western) land where this is the case. Is this on anyone's radar, or is it not seen as a big issue?

 

[anthony215]

I agree that there are many stations where the shelters are way too small to cope with the passenger numbers.

I had a shock last week when I went to catch a train at Pyle and found the shelters which had been there since the station opened in the early 1990's with some brand new shelters similar to those at Severn Tunnel Junction.


I have travlled through Nailsea on the train so I do agree with you about the size of the shelters there. Perhaps the local council etc can try and work with Network Rail about funding some new larger shelters being installeed if there is space available for them.

[JayMac]

Shirehampton in the morning peak can have everyone trying to huddle in the shelter when it is raining.

At a squeeze you can get five seated and another ten under the canopy. There are regularly 20+ passengers for the 0732 and 0807 departures.

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

We have this problem at Hanborough - just one small shelter with bench seating for about 9 people and another 9 or 10 standees. When last counted we have about 60 - 70 boarding the Charlbury starter at around 07.25 leaving the majority to cope with the weather oin the open platform. Since Hanborough's new car park became usable, growth has taken off in October with the new car park (191 spaces) now nearly 2/3 full. I haven't done a count of early morning train use recently but I suspect that there could be 80 or so people boarding peak hour trains at Hanborough. If use of the new car park grows, and this is most likely with increasing road congestion in West Oxon, there will be a safety problem of too many people being squashed up onto the short platform with operational problems with trains being delayed as so many people board the only 2 or 3 carriages with doors open at the platform. Oh the problems of success! Something that Trans Wilts will be hoping to see from December, I expect.

[Rhydgaled]

The up platform shelters at Nailsea and Backwell are becoming increasingly inadequate as passenger volumes grow. When it's raining in the rush hour about 20 to 30 lucky souls will find very squashed shelter whilst the rest (maybe same again) have to stand in the rain. The problem's maybe more pronounced as NLS is on an embankment so more windswept than most.

I don't think I've ever seen any discussion on the subject, but there must be other stations across FGW^▸ (First Great Western) land where this is the case. Is this on anyone's radar, or is it not seen as a big issue?

The waiting room at Shrewsbury was also of insufficent size on cold days last winter. And ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) (Arriva Trains Wales) want to replace the waiting room with one of even smaller capacity in a new building . There is plenty of 'private' / 'staff only' building space at Shrewsbury which the cafe could maybe be relocated to, allowing the current cafe to become the waiting room.

[John R]

The original post was intended to relate to smaller stations where there isn't enough space for people to stand out of the rain.  The thread appears in danger of morphing into another somewhat technical Reading Station discussion, which whilst interesting, wasn't quite what I had in mind.

[stuving]

The original post was intended to relate to smaller stations where there isn't enough space for people to stand out of the rain.  The thread appears in danger of morphing into another somewhat technical Reading Station discussion, which whilst interesting, wasn't quite what I had in mind.

That's fair enough - and in fact the canopy at Wokingham I was referring to earlier is only small and at the back of the platform, and not very long either. Stations seen as little-used or rural seem these days to get bus shelters instead. They may offer better protection, being a bit more enclosed, but is there any other reason to prefer one rather than the other?

Once a station does get busy, even for only a few trains, and needs a longer platform, is there a good case for shelter spread along its length? The argument is that otherwise everyone tries to board only part of the train and this slows boarding.

[Chris from Nailsea]

The original post was intended to relate to smaller stations where there isn't enough space for people to stand out of the rain.  The thread appears in danger of morphing into another somewhat technical Reading Station discussion, which whilst interesting, wasn't quite what I had in mind.

Fair comment, John R.  I've therefore split off some previous posts which relate quite specifically to the Reading Station redevelopment and merged them into that discussion.

I've also added a reference to 'smaller stations' in the heading of this topic, for clarity. 

[John R]

Once a station does get busy, even for only a few trains, and needs a longer platform, is there a good case for shelter spread along its length? The argument is that otherwise everyone tries to board only part of the train and this slows boarding.

That's sort of what I had in mind. A much longer shelter that is open on the platform face side, but continuously protected on the other side.



_{Edit note: Quote marks amended, for clarity. CfN.}

[onthecushions]

Absolutely.

A passenger train has many times the capacity of a bus and so requires shelters many times the size of bus shelters.

An example of an effective small station shelter survives at Frome, where 120' (37m) of platform (and train) is covered in an overall width including wide platforms of less than 50' (15m).

You can board a train there without rainwater sluicing off the carriage roof down your neck as you enter.

The NYMR^▸ (North Yorkshire Moors Railway) at Pickering actually put one back up - I suspect more for commercial reasons than for historical accuracy.

Singing in the rain...

OTC

[ChrisB]

There'sa Station IMprovement fund that TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) can access, along with Council's transport funds.

[grahame]

Once a station does get busy, even for only a few trains, and needs a longer platform, is there a good case for shelter spread along its length? The argument is that otherwise everyone tries to board only part of the train and this slows boarding.

I was struck at Oxford yesterday by the announcements that standard class passengers should wait on the "open platform beyond the footbridge" for their train, and board through the "12 doors on 6 carriages" to avoid further delays.  Perhaps there should be covered waiting only for first class travellers ...

P.S. 12 doors - should it be 11?

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

The platform shelter at Hanborough is of the bus shelter type and, I believe, has been adopted by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) for recent additional shelter installations across the network. Its outstanding merit is that the glazing panels are small and therefore less attractive to vandals. The Hanborough shelter, installed 5 or 6 years ago, to replace an older one (1970s vintage), has not been vandalised (touch wood) whereas the original one with big glazing panels was a regular target.

These new style shelters represent a success of style over utility in that they have a large open space on the sides close to the roof top and another large gap at the foot. If there is any wind about, the shelter becomes very draughty and rain comes in through the gap at the top to fall on the waiting travellers below and so is not of the best design to provide what it is intended nto do, i.e. provide shelter. It does however look stylish and is better than nothing

[Rhydgaled]

Stations seen as little-used or rural seem these days to get bus shelters instead. They may offer better protection, being a bit more enclosed, but is there any other reason to prefer one rather than the other?

I suppose 4-sided bus shelters (there are also single-sided ones which a absolutely useless in most adverse weather conditions) are quite good at sheltering you from rain. However, they are so full of gaps that there are still pretty useless at keeping you warm when it is windy. Certainly in my opinion they don't provide sufficent weather protection to extend the acceptable waiting time beyond 10 minutes. Given that buses don't wait for trains and PPM^‡(resolve) for long-distance rail services is 10 minutes, this makes a 'connection', by my definition, impossible at most rural stations.

Going back to Shrewsbury station, those unfortunate enough to find the waiting room full find much the same problem with the platform canopies that users of bus shelters have. Namely they (normally) keep you dry but they do not keep you warm.

[paul7575]

The platform shelter at Hanborough is of the bus shelter type and, I believe, has been adopted by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) for recent additional shelter installations across the network...

I think the 'bus shelter' style is a NR^» (Network Rail - home page) standard design across the country, most of what I see isn't unique to FGW...

Paul