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!

Do the wacky hats involve badges? Or other embellishments? I'm getting a faint vision of perhaps a blue topper with maybe a feather?

Perhaps I've invoked him in time past. Though I don't feel a sufficiently reliable witness in this matter to appease the sceptical.

I admit my technique now is to throw myself on the mercy of anyone uniformed, gasping, "I have an off-peak ticket so must depart the station in the next 8 minutes. I've been trying for half an hour but the trains keep disappearing off the board."

Staff are usually very unsurprised and very nice about it.

Of course last time I was only running that late because I'd just escaped a near identical experience trapped in the tower annexe of the National Museum of Scotland, the closing announcements sounding around me.

Yep. To get out the back way, walk past M&S, along platform 2 or whatever it's calling itself these days, keep going past the piano and up the steps. It's the best exit. Technically it's also an entrance but I never go in that way.

You can't draw a normal flat map though, Waverley needs a third dimension.

Found this exit once meeting my DD during Covid times. Station was very quiet and we got easily parked by the exit. One of my fondest Waverley memories.

Great western?? It’s TPE or avanti west coast to Preston. often 7, 8 or 9. Never 3, 4, 5, or 6, but sure I’ve taken it from one of 14-17 once. Or just get on at haymarket!

Padders is a nightmare in that regard. At Easter I had cause to go from Penzance to Padders then cross London to travel from Euston to the north west. Mainly because I'd discovered I couldn't overnight in London and travel home the next day as Euston was being closed for the entire bank holiday weekend so the toilets could be replaced 🙄

I almost missed my train and possibly the entire the bank holiday weekend to the task of trying to cross from the main station into the Underground. Frank Pick and Charles Holden must be spinning at the very thought of how that's laid out.

Those were the days when you could drive right into Waverley for drop off or pick up, and even park in there. Seems almost unbelievable now!

whatplatform.co.uk also does the same job.

Finding the actual platform is then another matter 😀

I've been doing that run for over 20 years and it's often platform 8. Which is up and over via the escalators to the left if you're stood with your back to the old main waiting room looking at the departure boards (some of them anyway!) with Costa on your right and Pret on your left. It's Avanti on the WCML though, not Great Western.

I remember when Leeds introduced a new platform around 25 years ago. It used to go platforms 1-13, or 1-17 (can't recall now) so you'd expect it to now be 1-14 or 1-18...but no...it was named platform W. Because it's westerly! Lovely bit of Yorkshire logic there 😀

I love the Piece Hall - used to shop there all the time when I was a kid. I gather it's now a music venue and all sorts!

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.

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.

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?

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.

To be fair, I discovered this departure board fun a long time ago. I ended up asking about it and was assured I was not the only one who had been stumped by this. Perhaps it has changed now, that would be good. Can you report back, I’m now intrigued!

Good luck with your review as well 🙂

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!

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." 😆

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.

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!

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.

I love this. Seasick 😆. But tell us, did they change it back?!

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 😀

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 😀

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..." 😄