Britain’s Busiest Railway Stations No 10

Saturday 27th January 2024

A new monthly blog series for 2024 kicks off today, taking a look at Britain’s Top Ten Busiest Railway Stations. Except without giving away any spoilers, as well as being ‘Britain’s Top Ten’ they’re also ‘London’s Top Ten’, as perhaps not surprisingly, that’s where they’re all located.

So let’s begin the count down to Britain’s busiest …. and in tenth place, we find Euston.

Perhaps the most controversial main line railway station of current times for two reasons.

Firstly, the mega millions spent over the last few years preparing the surrounding area for the enlarged station that was to become the London terminus of HS2 only for that work to be paused on 9th Mach 2023 until 2041 “due to inflationary pressure and the need to find a more affordable design”. This was followed by the Prime Minister’s announcement on 4th October 2023 that the Government “will appoint a development company, separate from HS2 Ltd, to manage the delivery of Euston Station and the wider development.”

The station’s surrounds used to be characterised by tall office blocks such as the now demolished building on the western side occupied by Grant Thornton.

Also, until Summer 2019 Euston had 18 platforms but it lost 17 and 18 on its western flank as part of the HS2 works, so the station now gets by with 16, and indeed platform 16 itself feels like it’s on the edge of a building site. Because it is.

The second reason why Euston breeds controversy came to a head just this week. We all knew it was coming, and it’s as awful as everyone feared

The former departure board located very conveniently facing the concourse above the platforms, so it could easily be seen by waiting passengers was removed last year and replaced with a long blank screen.

The departure listings were moved to a pair of smaller back-to-back screens at ninety degrees across the concourse.

At the time Network Rail explained the rationale was to enable waiting passengers to spread themselves out and not block the concourse for passengers arriving from trains on the platforms or others making their way to departing trains. It was a load of poppycock as people still crowded on the concourse in exactly the same way as before, but also, unlike the old display above the platforms, the new screens can’t be read from any of the seating areas….

… including the most popular area which was in direct sight of the old display.

The biggest insult came on Wednesday this week when the new screen was switched on to reveal the most intrusive commercial advertising display possible.

The first company that’s paid handsomely to use the space is OVO Energy. Intrusive displays rotate every few seconds telling us how much energy is being delivered via different methods at that moment “in the UK right now”.

It doesn’t display how much energy it takes to display such irrelevant information to passengers waiting for their trains, and after a few minutes, let alone half an hour or more of waiting, you just want the whole display to disappear.

As Diamond Geezer astutely observed in yesterday’s blogpost: “what have we become when the font size in a pointless advert is umpteen times larger than the number of the platform that’ll take you to Manchester?” 

Spot on. It really is a travesty and doesn’t endear Euston as a London rail terminus at all. But let’s press on with the review, as I’d originally written it, before that monstrosity was empowered on Wednesday.

Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern Railway and London Overground as well as Caledonian Sleeper trains can be found arriving and departing from Euston enabling passengers to reach Scotland, the North West and West Midlands as well as North Wales on long distance trains.

London Northwestern and London Overground use platforms 8, 9, 10 and 11 for local departures to Watford Junction, Tring and Milton Keynes Central while Avanti WestCoast and London Northwestern’s longer distance trains use the other 12 platforms.

If you arrive into Platforms 8 to 11 there’s a handy cut through at subterranean level to the Underground ticket office to save going up the ramps to the main concourse and then back down again.

The Caledonian Sleeper now departs from platform 1 where all sixteen coaches can be accommodated and a recent addition is the company’s own dedicated First Class Lounge on the platform.

During a typical daytime hour Euston sees 19 trains arriving and departing. Eight Avanti West Coast arrivals and departures, seven London Northwestern and four London Overground on three pairs of tracks. The former runs three trains an hour to/from Manchester; two an hour to/from Birmingham with one continuing alternately to/from Glasgow or Edinburg, one to Glasgow direct and finally one an hour to/from Liverpool and another to/from Chester, three of which continue to Holyhead. London Northwestern runs one an hour to/from Crewe and two to/from Birmingham via Northampton as well as four an hour to/from Tring with two continuing to/from Milton Keynes while London Overground run four an hour to/from Watford Junction.

Aside from the shenanigans with the departure displays, steps have been taken over the last few years to make Euston’s concourse easier to navigate for passengers. A number of small retail units have been swept away to create one large waiting area as well as much more seat space than used to apply.

A former retail unit used by Boots in a prominent location on the north west corner of the concourse has been taken away to make room for a buggy park…

… now sited alongside a dedicated area for passengers needing assistance to wait.

The rather uncomfortable seats along the south side of the concourse are still the most popular.

One good thing is the departure displays have also been installed in the ‘smoking area’ outside the station which is also a popular spot for passengers waiting for their train.

There’s a large ticket office on the west side of the concourse which has fewer ticket machines than it used to…

…and very few of the ‘windows’ are now staffed.

But, there’s also fewer passengers buying tickets from such outlets and whenever I’ve visited I’ve never needed to queue for very long and the staff are always helpful.

Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern also have two mini kiosk/desk things on the concourse to help passengers with queries.

In fact the latter has two – another one by platforms 8-11 which is usually staffed (see earlier photo) whereas the other one isn’t.

Euston is well endowed with toilets in the north eastern end of the concourse (by Platforms 1, 2 and 3) and I’ve never seen a queue for the ladies so that must be a positive. I can vouch for the fact the gents are always kept clean too.

There’s a First Class Lounge for Avanti West Coast passengers with access from the first floor balcony which offers fascinating ‘people watching’ views of the concourse below.

Part of the changes to create more space on the concourse and improve passenger flows included repositioning access to the London Underground station so the escalators down to the ticket office are from outside the railway station rather than inside. This also enables access to the Night Tube when Euston station itself is closed.

The three escalators to and from the Underground ticket hall are currently being refurbished one at a time …

… (complete with overpowering OVO Energy imagery once again) ….

… and many passengers without luggage use the stairs (or lifts) which can still be accessed from within the station, in the south western corner of the concourse.

I find the staircase is now the quickest way to access the Underground if alighting a train from high numbered platforms.

As well as one of those escalators being out of action work is also taking place within the Underground station itself refurbishing the escalators which take passengers down to the southbound Victoria and Northern (City branch) platforms…

… meaning passengers have to use a spiral staircase for the next three months with queues at busy times.

Bored out of their minds TfL staff are on hand even at slacker times to provide information and assistance.

The bus station out the front of the railway station is a bit grim, even on a bright sunny day…

… being under one of the office blocks still in situ (others were knocked down as part of the HS2 works).

Alongside the appropriately named Doric Arch pub (after the famous Euston Arch demolished in 1962 amid much outcry) there’s an ‘Information and assistance’ kiosk…

… and amazingly it was actually staffed the day I passed through and took these photos.

The taxi rank was moved some years ago from the basement area to a former green space on the south west frontage of the station facing Euston Road…

.. beyond which it’s a short walk to Euston Square Underground station useful for transfers to Paddington, Farringdon and Liverpool Street.

Back on Euston’s concourse, as you’d expect from a railway station in Britain’s Top Ten Busiest, boasting 31,318,408 passenger entries and exits in 2022/23, there’s a piano for passing passengers to entertain others waiting for trains….

…. and, as you can see, a conveniently placed Royal Mail postbox as well as a bin for the Metro and Standard newspapers.

And despite the elimination of the Tie Rack and Sock Shop type retail kiosks and the aforementioned Boots, there’s still a convenient selection of retailers with M&S Simply Food…

… and Sainsbury’s Local book ending the whole complex with access outside the station concourse…

… while inside there’s the ubiquitous WHSmith …

… and its sibling TheBookshop by WHSmith…

… with a branch of Oliver Bonas, which rather stands out as an exception to the rest of the retail offer on the concourse…

… which mainly comprises the usual selection of places to buy snacks and drinks at railway stations.

On the mezzanine level “Food Terrace” there’s a Leon and Starbucks but I suspect the footfall is not as good as on the concourse itself …

… and the Signal Box restaurant and pub.

There’s a seating area overlooking the concourse, but the view is now spoilt by the aforementioned advertising.

On the lower level again, signs that some retailers not making the grade can also be found.

I always find Euston a bit of a stressful station to use, and I wrote that before the switch on of the new advertising display. There’s no doubt the more open concourse layout has provided much needed extra space but whenever I visit, train departures tend to be displayed close to departure times leading to a rush of passengers down the ramps and although gates have been installed on platforms 1 to 3, long distance trains from 4 to 7 and 12 to 15 are usually subjected to manual ticket checks at the ‘barrier’ leading to more queuing although rarely, I find, on platform 16. Platforms 8 to 11 for more local destinations have long had ticket barriers.

Access to the Underground is also always busy, and the ticket office seems too small to cope with the numbers now using it. There’s always a bottleneck at the bottom of the escalators leading to the Victoria and Northern line platforms with confused passengers consulting wall mounted line diagrams trying to work out which way to head for the four Northern line platforms. I’m now avoiding the station in the late afternoon peak during the temporary use of the spiral staircase, and luckily for me, heading to the Brighton Main Line, it’s as quick to walk across to St Pancras and catch a Thameslink train rather than take the Victoria line to Victoria.

It’ll be interesting to see what develops over the coming years for a solution to the HS2 pause as clearly it would be a nonsense to terminate that permanently at Old Oak Common, but on the other hand, there’s no way the current links to the Underground will cope with the additional passengers HS2 will bring.

Roger French

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