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AIBU?

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Original poster

Edinburgh Waverley station needs me.

311 replies

TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 19:37

Here are the facts:

  • I go to many train stations, I never ever get confused elsewhere.
  • I never go to Waverley without walking round in a big loop in a state of confusion.
  • From observation I am not the only one.

I am prepared to provide executive advice. Payment terms are a baguette from upper crust, a bag of percy pigs from M&S and some scottish fudge from, well, somewhere that sells good fudge.

This is not actually an AIBU, because I am not being unreasonable. I am on a train leaving Edinburgh having finally found my platform. See you next time for the same fun again Waverley!

OP posts:
Original poster
TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 22:37

GoBazGo · 08/10/2025 22:33

Does anyone know the usual platform for trains to Preston (Great Western)? And landmarks to look for? TA.

This calls for Wacky Hat Man! Let us know if you find him.

OP posts:
GoBazGo · 08/10/2025 22:33

Does anyone know the usual platform for trains to Preston (Great Western)? And landmarks to look for? TA.

Namechanged555 · 08/10/2025 22:33

This is hilarious. I think it is because i get lost wherever I am. I love that in Waverley everyone else is the same :-)

wertgyhjk · 08/10/2025 22:29

NinjaOfEnnui · 08/10/2025 20:12

I don't find it too bad now, but only tend to use the easy platforms. Platform 7 is an arse though...and it's always the one your train goes from when you're running late, and have too much luggage, a potted plant, 7 bags of percy pigs and a coffee. They make you walk half the way down to holyrood before letting you get on the train.

I recommend the magic secret exit that brings you out by John lewis. To avoid the hell that is waverley steps and the north bridge junction. Obviously only of any use if you want to go to John lewis.

Shhhh, let us not talk of that entrance...it's the one I always use (easiest to get to from my end of town) and I quite like not having to brave the madness that is Princes St. 🤐

NewGirlInTown · 08/10/2025 22:27

HGSurvivor1 · 08/10/2025 19:54

YANBU, it was designed by Escher

Excellent! 👌🏻

BoredZelda · 08/10/2025 22:27

I got off the train at Waverley and could see the next train I was getting on. It was literally 10 seconds walk away. It took me 5 minutes to get there because you had to go aaaaaaaaaalllllll the way along the platform, right down to the bottom, turn back on yourself and walk aaaaallllllll the way back. Then across and down and round and turn 3 times and howl al the moon.

I only just got on it, and even then I had to beg and plead, despite the people on the first train claiming they have phone in our delay and the trains would wait a few minutes.

I hate it with a vengeance.

TalulaHalulah · 08/10/2025 22:27

TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 21:56

I have never seen wacky hat man! Do you have to show a certain level of puzzlement before he appears?

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Either that or he is on platform 13.

i have travelled to and from Waverley many, many times and I have never seen him either.

TheNightingalesStarling · 08/10/2025 22:24

Wavelet is just a representation of the sheer complexity of Edinburgh though. DH says you need to be careful when ordering an user that its not sending one to the point 10m above your head on a different road...
(He works in Edinburgh)

GoBazGo · 08/10/2025 22:24

Womanofcustard · 08/10/2025 20:25

To be fair, Waverley is a combination of Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central. Queen Street trains go north and east, Central goes south and east.
Waverley covers north, south and west, it therefore has many more platforms.
I’ll get my anorak ….

😂

Original poster
TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 22:22

SparklyCardigan · 08/10/2025 21:09

Nope. Say you board a train at Haymarket. If the train is going out of Edinburgh, you're less likely to get a seat, although it's not impossible. If the train is going into Edinburgh, you can sit down for a maximum of four minutes before you arrive at... Waverley.

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So a train that goes through Haymarket never goes beyond Waverley. That is a good fact, I didn’t know that. Ok, I’ll grant you that the seat advantage is therefore limited.

It reminds me of a no go zone like a robovac has. Must not breach the boundary!

OP posts:
Hoardasurass · 08/10/2025 22:21

Yes its true @TallOrLong I give you the image of the new upper level

Edinburgh Waverley station needs me.
OdeToTheNorthWestWind · 08/10/2025 22:19

TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 22:16

This is true, but surely anyone is there only because:
they are walkers (in which case surely they knew the score)
or
came to experience Bronte land, in which case how do they think there were all those billowing gowns in the books?

I’m also not entirely sure we can, in all good faith, put the beauty of Yorkshire against the ladies toilets on platform 2 of Peterborough and think it a fair contest?

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We really, really need the laughing emoji back!

Original poster
TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 22:16

OdeToTheNorthWestWind · 08/10/2025 21:04

You don't know what a windy railway station is until you've been on the Settle/Carlisle line. Standing at Ribblehead Station (N Yorks) with the wind coming at you from all four points of the compass (sometimes all at once!), it can whip a fur-lined Icelandic knitted hat off your head in a nanosecond...

This is true, but surely anyone is there only because:
they are walkers (in which case surely they knew the score)
or
came to experience Bronte land, in which case how do they think there were all those billowing gowns in the books?

I’m also not entirely sure we can, in all good faith, put the beauty of Yorkshire against the ladies toilets on platform 2 of Peterborough and think it a fair contest?

OP posts:
Menapausemum1974 · 08/10/2025 22:15

LegoLandslide · 08/10/2025 20:20

I once tried to meet my sister in Edinburgh Waverley. We gave up and each got on possibly separate but possibly the same train to the other, smaller station (name escapes me?) and found each other there instead.

Pleased it's not just me!

@LegoLandslide hay market

Original poster
TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 22:10

Hoardasurass · 08/10/2025 21:20

@TallOrLong have you seen the plans for the revamped Waverley with super and lower platforms? Yes that's correct its going to be a 2 story train station with trains arriving and leaving from both levels 🫣

This cannot be true. This is a new Scottish style horror genre, surely “ways to make Waverley worse”.

OP posts:
RadiatorDrying · 08/10/2025 22:08

TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 22:06

This doesn’t really count as nobody really truly honestly knows if they need to be at Victoria or Piccadilly, so you start on the back foot. It’s not a true comparison.

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Or Oxford Road. Or Deansgate (which has surprisingly beautiful tiling.) And you can throw Salford Crescent in that mix these days.

Original poster
TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 22:06

RampantIvy · 08/10/2025 21:55

I'll raise you - Manchester Piccadilly

This doesn’t really count as nobody really truly honestly knows if they need to be at Victoria or Piccadilly, so you start on the back foot. It’s not a true comparison.

OP posts:
Hoogieflip · 08/10/2025 22:06

All these years thinking that I was a total eejit because I can't work Waverly out.

TheNightingalesStarling · 08/10/2025 22:05

BoarBrush · 08/10/2025 21:53

Ya know, that's what waverley is really missing, a good pub, Centrals got plenty around it. I'm an absolute genius when I've had a few, so maybe that's all it takes. A bar at the entrance with a bogof offer and 25% rail discount, sold!!

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Isn't that illegal in Scotland?
Or even just mentioning alcohol and a special offer in the same sentence?

Original poster
TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 22:04

RadiatorDrying · 08/10/2025 21:58

I've surprised myself at mentioning Dundee as I try to not allow that station to occupy my mind at all. For two reasons:

  1. The Tay Bridge Disaster. I know it was a million years ago but still, seeing the old bits of the original bridge in the water as you go over the replacement...<shudders>

  2. When Tam Dalyell was MP for that part of Dundee (and Father of the House) he reported to Parliament that bit of the Tay Bridge kept falling off and landing in the gardens of his constituents 😮

Hence Dundee and I are not overly simpatico.

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Point 1: I agree. But is there a better train bridge related view? I’ll even take the Ribblehead lovers on over this.

I was unaware of point 2. I need to read more about this!

OP posts:
RadiatorDrying · 08/10/2025 22:03

OdeToTheNorthWestWind · 08/10/2025 21:56

Please don't. I'm still having nightmares 😳

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I was at Piccadilly on Saturday when Euston was up the wall and anyone going north was told to head for Manchester and try to travel on from there. I do use Man Picc a few times a year and just remembered that platform 14 specifically needs to be added to The List of Draughtiest Train Stations In The World. Near the top.

Also why are the travelators never working there? Are they Man Picc's equivalent of the Bham New St fake Pret I wonder? 🤔

TressiliansStone · 08/10/2025 22:02

BoarBrush · 08/10/2025 21:53

Ya know, that's what waverley is really missing, a good pub, Centrals got plenty around it. I'm an absolute genius when I've had a few, so maybe that's all it takes. A bar at the entrance with a bogof offer and 25% rail discount, sold!!

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The Malt Shovel on Cockburn Street.

The catch is you have to escape from Waverley first.

Hoardasurass · 08/10/2025 22:01

OdeToTheNorthWestWind · 08/10/2025 21:28

It's beginning to sound more like an Escape Room than a railway station. Must go and have a look.

Note to self - take breadcrumbs.........

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Take pebbles the pigeons will eat your breadcrumbs

Original poster
TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 21:58

BoarBrush · 08/10/2025 21:56

My dad was in Perth Royal for months as a kid, I cannot tell you how many times my mum had us in hysterics about being cold. That was 30 year ago, sure it's improved now...

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Nope. They put the V&A museum in, all very nice, but useless as a windbreaker.

OP posts:
RadiatorDrying · 08/10/2025 21:58

TallOrLong · 08/10/2025 21:52

A freshly baked croissant. I’m listening (I mean, I like upper crust baguettes, I’m totally signed up for authentic french goods!)

And now you mention it, Dundee surely the windiest station. I mean the wind is so bad it basically bent the whole platforms into a curve.

Show quote history

I've surprised myself at mentioning Dundee as I try to not allow that station to occupy my mind at all. For two reasons:

  1. The Tay Bridge Disaster. I know it was a million years ago but still, seeing the old bits of the original bridge in the water as you go over the replacement...<shudders>

  2. When Tam Dalyell was MP for that part of Dundee (and Father of the House) he reported to Parliament that bit of the Tay Bridge kept falling off and landing in the gardens of his constituents 😮

Hence Dundee and I are not overly simpatico.