Victoria Coach Station

[Petrushka]

Yesterday!

Do add threads with earthly paradises or alternatively, more hell-holes!

This is what happens when you disappear off to the Proms for three days, the forum suddenly starts sprouting sub-forums. I was accessing it on my mobile phone while in my London hotel but it's such a faff to post anything and the predictive text keeps changing words so you have to be on your toes. Anyway, an interesting sub-forum for me to keep an eye on and hopefully contribute.

[Boilk]

The place was very hot, smelly, intolerably over-crowded, staff were harassed and bad tempered and it cost 30p to go to the loo. In addition, the Arrivals terminal was closed for emergency gas repairs so coaches were arriving in Departures leading to even more overcrowding.

...Anyone else got a horror story about this dump?

I used it in July (departing and arriving) for the first time in years. It was not smelly, nor intolerably over-crowded. It was brighter and with much-improved self-service ticketing facilities to what I had remembered. It did indeed cost 30p to use the loos, but I went for free on the air-conditioned coach some minutes later. There did not appear to be gas repairs that day, probably like most days there aren't. I think P, you just 'picked' a bad day. Maybe there is insufficient waiting space for passengers during peak times, but it was built - just like the Tube - several decades back when traffic volumes were considerably lower.

[Serial_Apologist]

It had become a soulless stinking dump, with cast-off syringes in the gutter, by the time I last frequented it in the early 90s as a starting point to journeying to a girlfriend studing at the University of Glas-gee.

Then clearly it has considerably improved in the meantime, to judge by the opening post.

[Pabmusic]

£3.50 (or £3 10 shillings)...

Shame! Or perhaps you are lucky to be so much younger than I am! - £3 10/-

You'll be pronouncing threepence halfpenny as written next! I can still remember 'thruppunce haypnee' (or even thruppunce 'aypnee).

And a halfpennyworth (an ayputh) of chips? Maybe £3 10/3½d (three-poun-ten-n-thruppunce-aypnee)?

(Fascinating stuff about the inflation-affected fare, though.)

I've only used Victoria Coach Station once - in 1982 - on a day that must have been the annual convention of the Alliance for Public Micturition.

[marthe]

Haven't been inside Viccy Coach Station since the late 70s when we used to travel by coach to and from points north. It was
nothing special then but certainly wasn't dire. Of course, we were younger then and not nearly as bothered by grunge as we are now.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The coach station isn't the real problem. Travelling by coach has to be one of the worst ways of getting from A to B there is.

[teamsaint]

The coach station isn't the real problem. Travelling by coach has to be one of the worst ways of getting from A to B there is.

were you on this trip by any chance, Alps?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxBSOIBOylA:smiley:

[Petrushka]

The coach station isn't the real problem. Travelling by coach has to be one of the worst ways of getting from A to B there is.

My relative wouldn't fly and the train proved stupidly expensive so the coach it had to be. The only time I've taken a long coach journey was when I went to the Normandy beaches 10 years ago. The journey was tedious beyond belief but, as I mentioned on another thread long ago, the Pont du Normandie bridge was unbelievable. Enjoy the ride here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Gonqe94vI

[gurnemanz]

The coach station isn't the real problem. Travelling by coach has to be one of the worst ways of getting from A to B there is.

From North Wilts, it's the best public transport option to Heathrow which has no rail link.

[teamsaint]

From North Wilts, it's the best public transport option to Heathrow which has no rail link.

and its about time the Transwilts line got a proper service, Gurney !

[gurnemanz]

and its about time the Transwilts line got a proper service, Gurney !

.. and Wootton Bassett got its station back.

[teamsaint]

.. and Wootton Bassett got its station back.

and Wylie would be a good spot for an extra stop on the Bristol Southampton line....

lets face it, you and I should be running it !!

[Serial_Apologist]

and Wylie would be a good spot for an extra stop on the Bristol Southampton line....

lets face it, you and I should be running it !!

That would be a wind-up train service then!

[amateur51]

That would be a wind-up train service then!

They've been spotted making preparations, mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD0ZnNQ6GSo

[Nick Armstrong]

They've been spotted making preparations, mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD0ZnNQ6GSo

Perfect!