Edinburgh Waverley station needs me.

Oh, and if appropriate you can quite correctly add, "I did use to be able to squeeze along your corridors. But since you've narrowed them, not so much."

I would guess that the addition of the specific wide-access accommodation is why they were permitted the H&S issue of narrowing the corridorrs.

I expect that you will indeed be able to book the accessible seat!

They've never asked me for proof of wheelchair or disability – and indeed on some occasions I have a folding mobility scooter and walk a few paces.

In my experience, one of the reasons they now call these accommodations "accessible" seats & compartments & loos is because the penny has dropped that not everyone who needs them uses a wheelchair.

I'm sure you're an old hand at this, but if you need to describe your needs when booking I'd say something like "I'll need the accessible seat please. I don't need a ramp to board thanks, but I'm a double crutches user and need the access."

Of course one can never predict when one will encounter some dreadful piece of work like the staffer who made you miss your train, but they'll find a way to ruin your life whatever.

I love Waverley, was there on Tuesday, didn't find it remotely confusing, the signs, arrows etc were perfectly clear to me.
My only complaint is the unbelievably extortionate prices charged in WH Smiths for a packet of sweets - daylight robbery, no wonder they are going down the pan.

@TressiliansStoneThank you that's really helpful. I used to travel on a 'seated sleeper' tkt as I couldn't afford the rooms. It's not at all comfortable but they now have wee lockers for your purse/phone so it's more secure than it used to be, kipping down in a carriage full of strangers. I just checked & they have a seat & wheelchair space avail on 3rd Dec for £55 which is a total bargain. End of carriage, near loo, so it's accessible too. In theory you can order coffee / sandwich at seat so don't need to go along 'squeezegut' room carriage corridor. But I don’t think I could book it as I don't use a wheelchair? I hope young tkt clerk that day never ends up with mobility difficulties as it's not so easy.

In general I like Waverley but it IS confusing.

That is just awful. It is all so unreasonable.

@siliconcover That's horrendous!

God that's incredibly shit, @siliconcover .

Both the staff member and the redesign. I'm so sorry to read of that.

I haven't been on the sleeper recently, but I can say that in previous and presumably current designs there is a wide-access sleeper-compartment which is sufficiently roomy for wheelchair access. You go from train door through a wider corridor area past the accessible loo to the accessible compartment.

If you haven't abandoned the service in disgust at how it's treated you (and I wouldn't blame you if you had), then perhaps that might be a possibility? I don't know if the "accessible" spaces are wide enough for your crutches.

It does mean you get woken all night by anyone using the loo, of course, but I guess that's true of the loo-adjacent compartments in every carriage. And of course you won't be able to move along the train to the buffet.

@EvenTypingIsComplicatedNow great post - really funny- thank you !
not to be all 'elevenerife' but ...
can I raise you the time I was trying to access the sleeper train (diff plat to usual, no signage, not allowed to board 'early' that night - ie until 5m before departure: I've used it many many times & you can always board up to 30min before dep..)
That night there was an especially sanctimonious staff member who would not let me through the barriers by showing my ticket as I had to 'put it through the barriers'. I said 'it's a sleeper ticker on my phone I can't do that'. She said: (I kid you not): "you won't learn if you never try". I am on double crutches. By the time it was sorted (no other staff near) the train had left without me. And, of course, noone available to speak to & all local trains returning home has already left.

I did my trip the next month. New rolling stock. The corridor is now so narrow that you cannot pass down it on double crutches. I have NO idea how that was passed through health and safety. I can no longer take the sleeper train.

I pass through Waverly most days. My favourite of the tricks is....

They tell you a platform number, and you arrive to find a train. But that is not your train. Somewhere in very small print, there is an announcement that says "top two carriages only". You go to the top two carriages only. That is not your train. You are required to wait and enjoy the view in the cold. It is a test. A test of nerves. Will you crack and wander off the check and get lost back in the Waverly voretx? Maybe you could go and find a gin and tonic to help you cope? That is also a test. If you got one, you fail. You can not have a gin and tonic on scotrail it is banned. If you pass the tests, a train will arrive 1 minute before your train departs. An entirely new train arrives. This is your train, and you must then compete with several hundred lucky train test pass holders who are understandably cold and stressed to be awarded a prize of a seat. Hallelujah. Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the 17:38 to Perth.

Shout out must good Leeds station that I used several times recently. I very rarely get train travel and I don’t think ever on my own as it’s usually for leisure with someone else. This time was for work and under time pressures.
I don’t know who decided on those platform numbers across the glass bridge but they deserve a knighthood. They’re in font size 35872, can actually see them down the road. It’s the future of railway, fooking massive number signs

Ah, I see.
Well, all I can offer here is good luck and safe travels …
actually ignore me, I entirely misread this.

It's unusual for the Kings Cross train to use platform 9 unless it's come from further north and the 2pm train starts at Waverley so I'd check that nearer the time @MinnieMountain

Edinburgh is like Hotel California you can check in but you can never leave. I’ve never not got lost travelling to Newcastle from Edinburgh. There are no signs until you get to the ring road.

Thank you everyone. It looks like I owe lots of fudge. It’s the King’s Cross train.

Does anyone know why EW choses to number its platforms that way?
All the lines are parallel-ish, despite them diverging into various directions (a not uncommon situation for mainline stations). Other stations have trains departing from either end of a platform.
Other stations manage to have customers waiting to board the train before it arrives, in zones for the local distance ones.
Others use subways and bridges

So why is one crazier than the others?

The term higgledy piggledy was made for Edinburgh Waverley.
It was originally 3 stations. Now melded into one. It's a nightmare.

Stand facing the main waiting room where the toilets are with Pret on your right & Costa on your left, then go up the escalator to your right, up & past Pret effectively. Then along the walkway, turn right at the end of the walkway & you’ll see signs for platform 8 & 9 🙂

Same at St Pancras for Sheffield trains. I think trains have such a short turnaround time though.

It’s up and over the bridge / walkway thing! Give yourself 5min to get there. Stand with your back to Pret A Manger and the other shops in that main concourse and go up the escalator to the right, keep walking in that direction when you get off the escalator and then you’ll need to go down stairs or the lift. Is it the Euston train rather than King’s Cross?
if you’re getting a taxi get dropped at market street and that’ll bring you in on the bridge / walkway thing right near that platform.

For platform nine, from the main concourse, so where Pret and the ticket machines are, you go up the escalator to the walkway and join another walkway - keep going in the same direction - and down the stairs or lift again (it should be signed platform 9 where you need to go down but I can’t remember actually seeing this)

I have just realised another thing which is annoying, the barriers on the walkway which mean that you cannot go from one side to the other easily. But on the plus side, the station makes so much more sense knowing the platforms go in a circle which is why 7 and 11 are different ends of the same one. Platform nine apparently has an east and a west, so for London, it would be 9e.

I think Kings Cross can be just as bad. The platform announcements for trains for Newcastle and Edinburgh are posted about 2 minutes before the train leaves. This creates a rush of people at the barriers, many with large suitcases. The usual platform is 5 but occasionally it is 10 which is at the extreme other end of the station. Now I look on phone at the arrivals so I know where to be.

I’m keeping an eye on which platform the 14:00 to London goes from. What’s the charge for helping me find platform 9?

Yes it’s awful - and I’m a native! The worst thing is the modern trick of not posting the platform number until the last minute. Unlike at King’s cross or Glasgow Queens St. where you just have to leap forward to the logically numbered platforms laid out in front of you, at Waverley you have to set off on a voyage of discovery involving lifts, stairs, escalators etc. etc. I’m mobility impaired so have to take the lifts but always find myself in competition with Americans and Chinese people who always seem to travel with GIANT suitcases…..

It is truly amazing if ALL the escalators on the Waverly Steps are functioning - I give it about a week max until one or more break again!

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