Given my enthusiasm for other stations of the period -- Harlow Town, Broxbourne, Barking -- you might have expected me to like Euston.
And, it's true, I do like those long external horizontals punctuated by the occasional strong vertical:
But I can't bear the idea of a railway station which is so ashamed of its trains that it pretends to be an airport. In the concourse (even if you can see past all the inappropriate "retail opportunities" which interfere with what should be a calming public open space), there's no sign of a train anywhere:
If you look a bit more closely, you find some signs pointing you down a long, steep ramp into what seems to be a dense cluster of more "retail opportunities":
Eventually, in the darkest pit of your despair, you see a low, claustrophobic slit through which, just, beyond a line of ferocious-looking gates, you can make out what appear to slivers of train-related artefacts:
Once you make it through there things perk up a bit. You'll as often as not find yourself confronted with a perky-looking Siemens Desiro, a Class 350, which will speed you in as much comfort as the latest British trains are likely to offer (that is to say, in considerably less comfort than you would experience on the trains built decades ago by British Rail and which are still running on some of the more fortunate Inter-City routes):
And if you're very lucky you'll see beyond the ends of the platforms, into the light, the sunshine, and there, on this day, rolling towards me, was a London Overground Class 378. The last word in the least comfortable modern trains running on Britain's rails:
But it looks clean enough, and at least it has air-conditioning.
Actually, you could correctly accuse me of underselling Euston because it does have one particularly fine 1960s feature -- the extraordinary ceiling in the ticket office:
One glance up at that and I can forgive a significant proportion of the rest of its design failings.
Though not all of them, obviously.
7 comments:
Perhaps equally depressing are the destinations it serves?
That seems a little harsh. I mean, granted Wolverhampton and Dudley are not my favourite places, but what about the Lake District, or even the rolling green delights of Berkhamsted and Tring?
Well I do have to concede them, and the North Wales coast once Rhyl is safely behind you. But goodness aren't there some hellholes along the WCML!
I think the trent valley route is actually really scenic, and north of preston is nice too. More interesting landscape than much of the ECML. Although I much prefer class 91 Mk4 sets to pendolinos.
Can't have it all I guess.
Yes I agree that the ECML is often rather dull, but it lacks the positively hideous aspects of the WCML: could any landscape be more godforsaken than that from New Street to Wolverhampton, or equally hideous the Sunday route avoiding New Street? And Warrington and Wigan take some beating! As for the cramped discomfort of the Pendolinos and Super Voyagers what can one say?
I always find the landscape between Birmingham and Wolverhampton one of the more interesting sections of the WCML, but part of this is that it's the familiar landscape of home. Hideous maybe, but there's lots to look out for every mile of the way.
Thats a bit much as most lines out of London mainline stations are very depressing, unless you like scrapyards and car lots....
sit tight till Preston then the scenery is far from depressing..
Station wise Id rather head 'home' from Kings Cross, now thats a real Station.
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