Edinburgh Waverley station needs me.

[TallOrLong]

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!

I could set up a find your platform role? I travelled so often I guess I find it easy to follow.

I can confirm the John Lewis exit also good for the Playhouse.

Around 20 years ago I used to pass through Waverley twice a week en route between Aberdeen & Englandshire. Or rather I did until one day I decided I’d rather chew my own arm off than deal with the insanity that is Waverley, & chose to pass through Glasgow instead.

I’m now going through Waverley again regularly (& unavoidably) & I’ve learnt that it hasn’t improved. I recently took a photo of a sign there & sent it to my best friend (who is a born & bred Londoner who negotiates multiple train stations daily) asking her which direction I should go in to get to my platform. Given that the sign pointed right she suggested right. Which is fair enough. I had to explain that a) it’s left because b) it’s Waverley 🤷🏼‍♀️

It’s also the draughtiest train station in the UK. It beats both Huddersfield & Berwick-upon-Tweed in this regard, which is a hell of a bar.

Never use Waverley where Haymarket will do, as George Orwell almost said.

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 ….

There should be a fluorescent sign saying

THIS PLATFORM FOR HAYMARKET IF THIS IS ALL JUST TOO MUCH.

Ha! Well, sort of. There's a car park and a hill between them, but yes, you come out by the car park opposite John lewis. It's the exit called Calton road or something, up some stairs. You head to the back of the station, past the mysteriously empty wasteland (having gone past Cafe Nero and the left luggage place on your left). It is sooooo much less manic that way than any of the other exits. Because no one knows it's there.

I am going on a weekend break to Edinburgh over half term.... I am now really excited just to "experience" the station 😀

The fact that your point about right meaning left is spot on. It is so bad it is comical to read it, but it is not in any way a joke.

Huddersfield yes, and not even a nice cat now to provide distraction. Draughty is also Peterborough surely (or is that just that I’ve never had a train be on time from there. If my signage career works out, I might get promotion to overhead wires).

It took me about 15mins and the help of Google maps to get from the train to my bus stop in the summer.

He was a wise mumsnetter, almost.

In all seriousness, this must be the case with many stations? Birmingham, various London ones, Yorkshire ones? And they don’t suffer the same signage affliction?
Please do get your anorak and put it on. I’m intrigued. I hope it has a sturdy hood (with a fleecy tartan lining).

I totally agree, and I’m a local (or at least very nearly so, as long as I can locate the train to Tweedbank!). The long walk to platform 7, the ‘is it 1 or 20’ conundrum, the random barriers. It has it all, and that’s without trying to get a bloody M&S sandwich without being swiped by a tourist’s backpack. Fabulous!

Allow

Extra

Time

My "local" is Doncaster, it has half platforms, trains leaving from one end or the other of the platform, dead platforms... and its impossible to get lost in. Plus an awesome little pub.

And I love that ‘getting off at haymarket’ is a euphemism for coitus interruptus. Only in Edinburgh.

See I find Waverley a doddle. Possibly because I grew up here. Birmingham New Street on the hand has me completely befuddled with all the different locked zones for the same platform numbers . Can I offer my services to guide mumsnetters round Waverley (DH calls me Sherpa no never, so I'll help carry your luggage too) in exchange for someone rescuing me whenever I need to change trains in Birmingham?

I do understand though - MIL once booked tickets for a large number of the extended family from Nottingham to Oban changing at Waverley among other places. Only she booked tickets with only 6 minutes between the two trains because she thought it was sure to be fine, and that after all they were bound to arrange it so the two platforms would be close by. I insisted on meeting them to help because they would have never done it otherwise, and they only managed it then because I spent half an hour before they were due in talking to every single uniformed person I could find, their carriage fortuitously stopped directly opposite the lift from platform 10, where I was standing with luggage trolleys at the ready holding the lift for the less able members of the party and the luggage while one of my new friends raced the rest up the stairs across the bridge and down the stairs to platform 14 where the rest of my new friends were either holding the wider ticket gate open for them to run through or at the door of the train ready to throw all the luggage on after them. One of my finest achievements,🤣

It's definitely a lot quieter, but...

it does also involve going up a set of stairs, across a bridge, and then down again in the hidden drop off/pick up point and then schlepping up a bit of a hill (quite short actually) with no clear indication that John Lewis is there until you get to the top of the hill.

Another word of warning - take ear muffs just in case the only person who can't play the piano is banging away on it. (To be fair that was just the once, the people who play it mostly can play, but it was fairly bad the one time it did happen.)

And when you get to John Lewis it looks as if it's the wrong door because it's the white goods department which doesn't look like it's part of the shop.

As you can see Waverley station has depleted me of all optimism and positive thinking!

Although I did once see a fox walking through the station just as we were coming out of the Covid lockdowns. Came in via the Market Street steps and then went down into the station somehow - via the steps to one of the platforms at that end I think.

I thought York was the draughtiest station in the UK? It’s literally a wind tunnel whereas Waverley has been platform 7 and the wall along it platform 1 to protect us from the elements (and possibly some platform 18 if anyone can tell me where it is!!)
the worst is travelling In first class on the LNER trains when the platform is so long that the first class
carriages at the front / rear of the train are half way to East Lothian and well beyond the roof of Waverley when it’s raining!! #FirstWorldProblems

York is also draughty, I grant you that. As is Carlisle. And Crewe now I come to think of it. It's years since I was there but I wonder if Derby is the same (you can see my railway-connected thinking here.)

I've spent much of the last 30 years of my life on the UK rail network and finally it's coming into play tonight on Mumsnet. Who knew.

I think this is bad advice, to be honest. If you get on at Waverley you are more likely to get a seat.

I do recall seeing a station map somewhere in Waverley recently, although I cannot remember exactly where, maybe on the main concourse. I do know my way around so I didn’t pay too much attention.

I'd definitely agree with Peterborough. It manages to be drafty on a completely still day.

YAB massively U.

Who chooses fudge when you could have tablet?

Birmingham New St is terrible since it was "improved". Used to be grotty but straightforward. Now I wander hopelessly for ages trying to find the right "zone".

Euston, on the other hand, is loathsomely ugly and unpleasant to spend time in, but is very easy to navigate.

Oh ye softies. You don't know know the meaning of lost till you've tried Waverley in a wheelchair.

I swear a little ghost of me is still going up and down in those fecking lifts – including the one that debouches inside the Mor Bakehouse down the ramp from the plaza – because someone mentioned there was a Sainsburys "somewhere in the mall" when the M&S was being refurbished.

Which route do you normally take op?
I use Waverley most days. The more long distance trains tend to leave from the edge platforms at either side of the station, or down the stairs on your way out of side exit at Brewhemia.
The more central ones, Glasgow, Stirling, Fife circle ones tend to leave from the main station bit through the barriers if that’s any help