If you have tears to shed, look up the photographs of the original entrance hall to Euston Station, and shed them right now. It was the creation of Philip Charles Hardwick, the son of the man who designed the original station building and the grand Euston Arch (the original Gateway to the North).
It was an imposing classical space with a distinctive double flight of stairs and allegorical statues of the cities served by the station – wouldn’t you like to see what Birmingham looked like? Even if you don’t have a penchant for mid Victorian classicism, you would have to admit that the space presented rail travel as an honourable mode of transport to be housed in a dignified fashion rather than a disagreeable, unavoidable necessity reflected in a hideous, shambolic concourse.
The Victorians created the Gateway to the North as a place which reflected the station’s importance both as a place of embarkation and arrival and even in its final years, sooty and diminished, it still conveyed that. The most that can be said of the current station, designed by Robert L. Moorcroft , and executed in the Sixties wrecking fever (as yet unpunished) is that you aren’t sorry to leave it.
The consensus is that Euston is the worst station in London, and there is a lively debate as to whether it is the worst in England. One of the companies whose trains use the station is Avanti; that alone explains some of the delays and cancellations. But if you are to be delayed, must it be in such a grim environment?
It’s the confusion as much as congestion that’s the problem with Euston
To the unattractiveness of the concourse is added the indignity as a passenger of being used as so much fodder for large advertising hoardings, as eloquently described by this paper’s Rachael Burford. One of the grimly satisfying aspects of the Tory conference being held in Birmingham is that at least some of the delegates and bigwigs will have had to travel from Euston…welcome to our world. Now, consider what might happen if the HS2 line terminates at Euston rather than in the wildly improbable terminus of Old Oak Common which, despite its bucolic name, is even less impressive as a point of arrival to the capital. The upshot of HS2 getting into Euston will be a larger station…so more building works, more congestion. And what are the chances of the improvements being finished in advance of the line being completed?
But it’s the confusion as much as congestion that’s the problem with Euston. There’s the phenomenon known as the Boarding Shortly tension, to be followed by the Commuter Sprint. This is a consequence of the platform announcements being made thrillingly close to the actual departure time. The race favours the fit, obviously, which means that those who are elderly or infirm haven’t a hope; ditto the group with heavy suitcases, who are effortlessly outrun by the young men with light rucksacks.
My own solution to the problem catching the Irish boat train to Holyhead would be to get my children, quick runners both, primed and ready to run before the announcement, and once it came, to set them off to occupy the seats while I came behind with a suitcase. What about seat reservations? Well, these only work if you’re train hasn’t been cancelled and rescheduled, and in any event may not always be respected.
Passengers have been told to “avoid Euston” for ten days over Christmas because of engineering work
There are temporary difficulties that beset any train station from terrorism alerts to accidents, but there are also some certainties. One is that, come Christmas and Easter, a great many people will be on the move. Lots and lots of people will go home for the celebrations; lots come into London for the shopping, even now. So, what does Euston, in common with King’s Cross and Paddington do in preparation for this annual phenomenon? It announces that planned engineering works will be taking place over the festive period. Passengers have been told to “avoid Euston” for ten days over Christmas because of engineering works. But you know what? This is a time of year when you can’t “avoid Euston”. Christmas cannot be moved on the sayso of Network Rail which manages the station. Friends and family will not be happy if their absent relations turn up in mid January, at a time convenient for the company. This is, in short, nuts.
I’ve been there before in Euston at Christmas but that time it was because of RMT strikes seemingly planned with unholy malice (thank you, Mick Lynch) to coincide with Christmas. There was a train for Holyhead there somewhere but no one knew if it would be cancelled. By happy chance I stood in a queue for an official behind someone on the same journey and found that there was a train going to Chester and if we were quick, we could get on it and change. We sprinted and stood much of the way. That doesn’t quite match up with the same experience of Paddington (for the Irish boat at Fishguard) when the panic was such that we threw ourselves onto a train on the basis it was going somewhere in the hope that it would be in the right direction. What I’m saying is that Christmas is not a time for planned engineering works at busy stations.
Anyway, this Christmas, please God, I’m fine. Euston and its purgatorial uncertainties and its dismal shops are for others. I’m going by car.
