London Banter - View Single Post

Stephen Furley · February 2nd 09, 11:57 AM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london

On 2/2/09 12:25, in article , "Andrew Robert
Breen" wrote:

The Great Hall at Euston is a glorious space. With some of the retail
clutter cleared away (as I hear it has been - can't wait to see the
results) it should be the magnificent, uplifting space it should be.
Lovely bit of architecture - and the materials used were superb.

Agree totally; one of the best '60s buildings in London.

It's probably the best circulating area in any station I've come across,
with the probable exception of Grand Central in Washington. Shame they
both share the problem of dark platform spaces, but that doesn't make
either of the head-houses less magnificent.

The Booking Office/Waiting Room at Newark Penn station is rather nice, as is
that at Hoboken Terminal, which reminds me somewhat of the Great Hall at the
old Euston.

Just about every American station I've seen, and I admit I haven't seen very
many, is horrible at track level. At Newark Penn the tracks are at an
elevated level, and the platforms are terrible; the edges are breaking up in
places, and have been roughly repaired by thick plates of some sort of thick
material fixed over the worst places, and providing something for people to
trip over. At EWR airport station, built just a few ears ago, the platforms
are very narrow, I would say dangerously so, where there are buildings on
them. New York Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal are both much worse
than Euston at platform level, though they are nice at concourse level.
Poughkeepsie (I'm not even sure how to pronounce that) is a nice smaller
station.