Edinburgh Waverley station needs me.

Fun fact: when first built, the railway terminated at Haymarket.

They had to get another Act of Parliament c.1844 to extend the line to Waverley and join up with the existing Newhaven line.

As Provost Adam Black put it in evidence to the Commons committee, "Nature seems to have left the hollow on purpose".

They drained the Nor' Loch (big bog helpful for defending the castle) in 18something to allow the joining of the New Town & the Old Town

Unfortunately Great Western don't run trains in Scotland, so I think you're doomed to wandering Waverley for a while. Avanti West coast maybe?

Edited sorry quoted wrong poster. That was for @GoBazGo

No I can do 13. Go through the gates in the main concourse bit to 14. Walk past all the offices in the left hand side and you get to a very dark and dirty little platform hiding beyond the building. That's 13.

The key thing that I don’t think anyone has mentioned about the secret John Lewis exit is that you can park there and pick people up (and drop them off, obviously). Mind you nobody has mentioned that you can exit into the main car park either.

Princes Street Gardens used to be a loch.

I have had this at King's Cross too. Unnecessarily traumatic.

My MIL was thrilled, grateful and relieved in equal proportions. As were all the other in-laws (I think there were about 10 in total on the train) many of whom were making their first journey north of Doncaster and already deep into here be dragons territory in their minds. And that was before they went even Scottisher....

no, all departures appear on those boards!

My life changed overnight when I discovered this. No more palpitations as I entered Waverley dreading that I’d have to spend 10 minutes following signs from one end to the other to find my train. Now I stride in confidently in the right direction every time, with plenty of time to buy Percy pigs on the way. I’m not even defeated by platforms 2 and 19 being different ends of the same platform. If you know, you know.

I think it’s to do with all the different levels being in an unexpected place (both the station and the city overall) - I can never quite get a bearing on what’s where, it’s like an Escher drawing (to me - but I have absolutely zero sense of direction - I can’t even quite place which room is above which room in my own house because the stairs go round a bend and back on themselves (it is a fairly new house….maybe I’ll get my bearing eventually). I also perpetually expect there to be a river down in the dip where Waverly is and am sort of perennially surprised to see train tracks.

They did, it was only like that for a day, something to do with points I think 🤔

It's been lodged in the cultural memory of the town though. "Do you remember that day when they switched the platforms round? Our Susan has never been the same since..." 😄

Interesting you say this as I think it has worsened. The central departure boards seem to leave people more confused than ever, as they're not standing at the back primed to go left or right, they're standing in the middle unsure whether they'll have to weave round to go beyond where they're standing or turn back on themselves. It seems to have destabilised people's sense of direction. I agree that the longer time between announcement and departure helps though. Mind you I sat on a stationary train bound for Manchester at Euston for almost 30 mins last Saturday before it left and it felt all wrong. I'm used to leaping on as the doors close and the train moves off, having only been told the platform 14 seconds earlier 😀

I've been doing this for almost 30 years and you're right, it is the maddest dash. It's been made worse by those new central two way departure boards, because everybody now congregates in the middle looking two separate ways. I think they intended it to stop the established practice of everyone standing in one massive throng and then dashing from the back to the front (and then left or right) when the train is called, but it's had the opposite effect. I use what platform.co.uk and position myself centrally. RadiatorDrying's Euston Technique, finely honed over the decades 😀

The "Euston dash" has actually improved after the minister responsible bollocked Network Rail at length and told them to reinstate proper departure boards and announce platforms longer than 3 minutes before departure time (which was particularly challenging given that train doors shut 2 minutes before departure time).

This is a relief as under the old system I was genuinely worried that an old person or someone with restricted mobility would be trampled to death.

Wait till you have to get a Scottish train from Euston they only ever let you which platform with minutes to spare , those on the know jog on the spot, elbows out for the mad dash, it’s madness!
Leaving those with a heavy suitcases, pushchairs or the elderly having to grab the first carriage and make their way along a moving train to find their seat
Someone’s having a laugh in Euston…. we will teach them to go North!

This one used to smell of cows. Many years ago, when I was a wee country girl down to Edinburgh for university the smell was the only reason I was able to escape the station at all.

My small, historic local station has 5 platforms - two main ones, one for going north/one for going south, two small ones miles away to take you in and out of the local seaside, and an overflow platform mainly used for trains to Liverpool and other dubious destinations.

Once in its 130 year history they switched north and south. It was a sight to behold. Reams of confused Lancastrians, all saying to staff in Victoria Wood/Peter Kay voices: "Can you not change it back? It's not normal trying to get to Glasgow from the London platform. I can't go to Edinburgh from platform 4, I'll get seasick. I've never seen anything like this. Not in my lifetime." 😆

I was in Paris last week where many Metro train doors are still manually opened from the inside by passengers whacking up a handle. They seem to have a new security feature which means they are only unlocked and able to be opened as they reach a station, which is an improvement on previous times when you could open them when the train was going at top speed through a tunnel. Line 12 was particularly bad for this. As a Brit used to TfL security features like automatically closing doors which spring open if they detect anything vaguely near them I'm always gobsmacked by how far behind RAPT is.

On the rolling stock that doesn't carry this feature the doors close and stay shut and the train moves off even if a person is trapped in them. There are stickers plastered over the glass with the deranged-looking French railway rabbit Serge (who is now almost 50) saying " Danger - risque de deces" which is why you regularly see terrified looking French people not daring to jump on a train just before departure on the London Underground. They're used to knowing that certain death awaits them!

This thread is full of my people.

41 years of traveling through it and I still need to check every time where I'm going and how on earth to get there. I love platform 18 which is hidden beyond 17 and is about an hour's walk from the main concourse. You can see your train doors closing and the satisfied smirk on the conductor's face as you try to casually jog towards it but you're basically still a mile away and there's no chance.

Waverley with a buggy is a special experience I have been 'enjoying' for nearly 10 years now.

The secret exit and entrance has been a life saver for me for years now. You can get a taxi to take you there, or a mate to collect you and it's never too busy.

I think wacky hat man might be newish. I've only noticed him recently. Or maybe he's only recently started wearing the hat. Maybe a cry for help?

Oh good grief. Really? That’s an extra dimension of planning I hadn’t thought about for when DS and I go to Edinburgh at half term.

What? No... That can't be true, surely. I'm sure there are more there! Though to be fair I can't remember the last time I used those departure boards for actual information. Usually go for the ones outside neros. Because, coffee.

I'm meeting my line manager at waverley later for a development review (not actually at the station, but she's travelling in and doesn't know it well). We've agreed to meet 'outside boots in the main concourse thingy', as I thought that was easy. Am beginning to think I may be marked down at the outset.