What’s Victoria Coach station like? Can a reasonably savvy 14 year old manage a coach change there without getting overwhelmed/lost/abducted by aliens?

[TheBramley]

I’ve never been there so I don’t know what it’s like, but how difficult can it be to get off one coach and onto another? She’s a bright kid but nervous about ‘getting something wrong’ and hasn’t really had to navigate anything other than local buses thus far. I could do the first half if she insists, but it seems a bit daft.

Yeah but OP is talking about the coach station not the bus station. It’s clean and didn’t seem dodgy to me last time I went through there last year.

My 14yo would struggle to navigate, but she is not super streetwise.

Well for my DD the first stop after Victoria is Stansted - not much help!

I mean the station where you get buses to Bristol and other far off places
certainly 6 months ago it was full of homeless people and lots of pick pocketing.

@Comtesse I think by saying "Bus Station" they mean "Coach Station" because there isn't a bus station at Victoria.
Lots of bus stops - but not a real station as such.

I love a good how to get to somewhere in London thread. I'm 58 and lived in London since I was 18. I frequently miss my stops to and from work. Listening to music, being angry at work emails, listening to audio books. And one memorable occasion such thick fog I thought Canning Town Station was North Greenwich, ended up at West Ham lol.
And asking transport staff for help, that's a laugh. The only time any of them ever spoke nicely to travellers was in 2012 during the London Olympics. I don't mind as they should be focused on their jobs, but I wouldn't advise someone to approach them. I saw a guy at Victoria struggle to get through the barriers a while ago, right in front of a staff member. Passenger asked how the barrier operates and the staff guy laughed and said not like that.
I would change coaches at Victoria myself but I would treat it like a military operation and I have decades of knowledge to guide me.
By the way Waterloo East and Waterloo are next to each other. But Waterloo is massive and Waterloo East is a regular small stop.

There's that bit just outside the station with lots of bus stops - a bus station, essentially. It's not covered but it's a distinct paved area with a run of bus stands. If you Google "Victoria bus station" you'll see that's what it's called, and you'll see a photo.
Different to the coach station.

I'm a Londoner too, and it can be overwhelming when it's busy, which it almost always is.

However, there are illuminated boards which shows which coach is going where.. and there should be staff to ask if she's stuck.

As regards ''safety'', I'd say it's ''safe'' as almost always women around.

@Greenfencebrowntree I've never really thought of it as "Victoria Bus Station" - just lots of bus stops 😂
But yes.... technically it is called that (I have just discovered it seems).

I wouldn't mind attempting it myself (though would prefer the coach station still!), but if I was advising someone who doesn't know London, I'd be wary!

It’s 25 years ago but when I was 11yo my mum packed me off on a national express coach to London to change at Victoria and catch a bus to Lyon. It was a bit scary but I managed it, there was an information office and I just kept asking and checking with people.

Elizabeth Street around the corner from the coach station used to be a place where someone could wait in a car - not sure about it now, though...maybe red lines everywhere.

Ignore..I thought your daughter would be getting off and being met in London, hence saying ''Elizabeth street'' as a pickup point.

Times have changes so much! At 16 I was sent from Victoria Train Station to Dax near the Spanish Border on my own by parents.

I got on the wrong train at Austerlitz station, and had to jump off as it was slowly pulling out, and had to run like the clappers to get the correct one!

Its an edgy and unpleasant environment. I'd say she's a bit young to manage it on her own tbh

This ☝️
It's far worse now than it was, with increasing homelessness.

Did it recently. It's fine once you know how to look at the screens.

I LOATHE Victoria Coach station, and pay extra for the train, simply as find the coach station deeply depressing.

It makes one wonder what it would have been like in days of the Post Chaise, when pulling out of the ''Lad Lane'' Swan with two necks , or the ''Bull and Mouth'' - these were active before the railways- Would there have been unsavoury loiterers? Almost certainly so!-but much more fun- to have been pulled by fast trotting horses while the coachman's guard tootled merrily on his horn as he approached the next ''stage''..

Glad you have found a train solution!

Your DD would be unlikely to be at significant risk at the coach station but it definitely somewhere that feels daunting, especially to a young teen with little experience of London.

Waterloo is much better, though preferable if she isn’t travelling at at rush hour as it is a very busy station. It is very straightforward to get from Waterloo East to Waterloo (in fact it is harder to exit Waterloo East without going through Waterloo!

i dont mind the coach station but in the op's situation it is the arrival and then departure which is the obstacle imo

It makes one wonder what it would have been like in days of the Post Chaise, when pulling out of the ''Lad Lane'' Swan with two necks , or the ''Bull and Mouth

Impossible to get away from unsavoury characters on the mail or stagecoach! And travelling to or from Kent, you might have to get out and walk up Shooters Hill. Plus the threat of highwaymen. See Chapter Two of A Tale of Two Cities.
And here's the Dover Mail: maybe dd would have been catching that 200 years ago.
d3d00swyhr67nd.cloudfront.net/w1200h1200/collection/LNE/BPMA/LNE_BPMA_OB1996_17-001.jpg

waterloo east to Waterloo is very straightforward as there are big signs showing you how to get to the bridge between them - that brings you out onto the escalators down to Waterloo main station right in front of the indicator boards to see which platform the Southampton train goes from.

I realise this is completely beside the point but how do the buses arrive and depart from different places? Do they arrive at arrivals and drop off their passengers then drive to departures to collect new passengers?

I haven't been in a coach station for years. We used to get the overnight bus from Scotland to London regularly as kids but I never paid the station any attention. And in my memories my uncle's car was always waiting right outside for us.

And OP i hope your dd gets where she needs to be without any trouble.

I know! I’d be reported to social services if I let Dd do half of what my parents let me do.

I realise this is completely beside the point but how do the buses arrive and depart from different places? Do they arrive at arrivals and drop off their passengers then drive to departures to collect new passengers?

In between that they often have to be parked up to be cleaned and refuelled, also the drivers may be out of hours and need to be relieved.

When DH was at boarding school, he used to catch the train from his school into Charing Cross. He then caught the tube to Victoria and walked to the coach station to catch a coach to Heathrow. He then checked in and caught a plane home. No mobile phones in those days.

He did this from age 11.