To intensely dislike Birmingham New Street station

[StealthPolarBear]

The train I am on is stopping there because its running too late and its all change. I know (because I did it on the way down) that I will lug my bag down to the platform I am currently told the next train departs from, only to find with a few minutes to spare that the platform has altered. I will race up to the top, try to get from one side of the station to the other which as far as I can tell is near impossible, clatter down to the new platform with my big bag and cram myself on a train where I will no doubt not get a seat.
Great fun.

I haven’t done the Moor Street to Marylebone journey but it would be lovely as both stations are great.
The walk from Moor Street to BNS via the underpass is really grim. I got to where I thought BNS should be and was utterly confused. I nearly asked someone where it was and thank god i didn’t because I was standing right in front of it. I can’t explain why I couldn’t see it but I really couldn’t

Yanbu, it's dirty and it smells - at least the platforms do. The rest of it is fancy pants and over priced.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk will give you the most up to date info on where your train is and which platform it'll come into. It's often updated before the announcements are made so you can beat the crowds. It's also good for knowing which trains are delayed before the train company bothers to tell you.

It's a million times better than it was in the 1970s/1980s - be thankful for small mercies!

I like New Street. Leeds is terrible though, the platform numbering system is weird and some of them are really difficult to find.

I find the new platforms confusing and I'vr used the station quite regularly for over a decade.

But if you are ever bored at New St, go up the escalator to Caffe Concerto where you can have the creamiest loveliest slice if chocolate gateau ever. Small mercies!

YANBU I once lost my friend at BNS for two hours. And this was in the olden days before the station became the behemoth it is now.

I had to catch a train from BNS yesterday, and it was from this weird little platform off on its own after all the others
Upstairs is massive and then the platforms are tiny and poky, and feel odd to walk along as if you'll fall on to the tracks.

4C by any chance?

Just to add insult to injury I spent the last two nights in a travelodge and I am now decidedly itchy

@roundtable Your knowledge of BNS is way out of date. The Palladades is no longer there!

OP, YANBU. They should've put more effort into making it easy to get trains/get into the city/get to Moor St than they did into making it one huge shopping centre.

It doesn't look like this anymore.

It looks like this

The old shopping centre has been revamped and has been 'transformed' into a huge food court.

Tesco remains, as do the shops up the ramp (including HSBC, McDonald's and a Premier Inn).

The station is now a huge, almost circular atrium with shops at first floor level around a balcony which looks down onto a gigantic concourse with food and other retailers.

The ramp up leads to the food court and the 'Link Street' to the Bullring has small 'boutiques' and pop up shops until you hit the entrance to Debenhams.

@roundtable, the basement was filled in yonks ago.

Wow! I knew it had been a while since I'd been to Birmingham since being a student. I need to go and visit again.

Don't suppose you can do the pizza hut buffet for a fiver anymore or go to the Odeon for a couple of pounds either...?

Wow! I knew it had been a while since I'd been to Birmingham since being a student. I need to go and visit again.

I live here, and I wouldn't bother ....

Don't suppose you can do the pizza hut buffet for a fiver anymore or go to the Odeon for a couple of pounds either...?

I think there's cinema discount days with BOGOF offers. And plenty of eaterys around. Pricey and wanky in Grand Central, a little more cheap and cheerful just outside.

Not just me then! I only went through B’ham New St for a trip last year and it was revolting. Really confusing layout and the train into Wales I was catching went from one of those pretty much underground platforms where we were subjected to huge amount of diesel fumes, trains idling next to us cramped on the narrow platform. Yet I’m not allowed a fag down there… Now very thankful I never have to use that station regularly.

Euston, yeah that is a nasty station, the train bit on its own is dismal, but also the entrance/exit to the tube near the front. I’ve seen it so crowded and bottle necked I seriously thought there was going to be a crush and people get hurt. Stopped using it after that, I’d go one stop more and walk back if necessary. And now all the lovely HS2 work will turn it into a building site, what lucky commuters pass through there. And all for 30 mins off the journey to/from Birmingham, soooooo worth the destruction of countryside, people's lives and 80 billion quid.

I adore it because of the shopping!

I find it confusing and used to live half my life there as a student. I go through quite regularly but still get stuck by those stupid great plastic see through barriers. So close, but so far....

Ah, I bought my student pans etc in the original Bull Ring. Gosh, it was a total shit hole.

wasn't it just! You went from the fairly clean lines of the Palisades into this stinky underground hovel, with these incredibly dodgy shops selling knock off alarm clocks and microwaves, then it was Tammy Girl and BeWise before you got out into the open ramp with Mark One down to the Bullring markets. Aah, those days...

I remember having a hungover breakfast in a subterranean greasy spoon cafe in the old bull ring with my friend who went to Birmingham uni. It was sort of in a dodgy market like set-up !

I commute through new street and I love it. It makes me feel alive! (live rurally clearly)

It's bloody awful. Horrible, dark subterrean platforms where you can hardly breathe for the diesel fumes. Everything involves travelling upstairs. The shopping centre is great but it's still a bloody awful station.

Leeds is my station. It's lovely, it's small for a mainline station. The platforms aren't hard to find at all. 8 and above to your left afer going through the barriers and 7 and below to your right.

Barriers everywhere? There are only two sets of barriers. One set at the main exit and another at the south exit.

Don’t like it either, confusing exits all around, and the going down to the platform thing, get more than enough downward escalators into underground darkness in London!

Like Leeds apart from the lairy, boozy blokes outside the pub by the drop off point out back.

Manchester Piccadilly is an annoying long trudge to town.

Edinburgh is cold and windy in the station. Ditto Portsmouth Harbour.

Newcastle station is quite nice! And Liverpool Lime St.

Well yes, it's a Wetherspoons next to the pick up point at Leeds station. I've honestly never had a problem. I've possibly been one of those having a drink outside. I have never, ever witnessed anyone being insulting to anyone waiting for taxis/pick up. And it's usually 50% women.

If you’d posted this a couple of years ago I would have agreed. But the new station is amazing! Fab shops and bars and restaurants. The best John Lewis in the UK I think. And I like the linear nature of the platform structure - also, free toilets! You don’t get that anywhere else...