Helen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heleninwales) wrote2024-08-24 05:20 pm
heleninwales) wrote2024-08-24 05:20 pm
Platform 3
The only thing that didn't go entirely smoothly during our day trip to Shrewsbury was catching the train home. Shrewsbury station has a Platform 3 that is disconnected from the other platforms. (I don't know what happened to platforms 1 & 2. Did they exist once? Who knows? They don't exist now.)
If your destination is Shrewsbury, it doesn't really matter which platform your train comes in on, but if you need to catch a connecting train for your onward travel, then platform 3 is a pain. The problem is that the exit from platform leads down some stairs and then dumps you, via a small door, outside the station. To catch a connecting train you have to run round to the main door, re-enter, go through the ticket barriers, run up the stairs and then find your platform.
We've always found that Shrewsbury is not good at knowing which platform trains will depart from. If your train is scheduled leave from platforms 4 to 7B and they change the platform, then you don't have far to walk. But platform 3?
Anyway, we arrived at the station in good time because our daughter's train was leaving 10 minutes before ours. The display said that our train would depart from platform 5, which is the one it normally goes from. We therefore hung around near platform 5 waiting for an earlier train to depart. Then we noticed that the departure board was flashing a change of platform for our train. It was now departing from platform 3.
There was still plenty of time, but of course we had to go out through the barriers to be able to reach platform 3. We said, we need to get to platform 3. The woman looking after the barrier asked if it was the Aberystwyth train, we said it was and she let us through.
So we waited on platform 3 and for the first time I noticed this war memorial and plaque.
Back in 1938 it seems that Dr Arwel Hughes was waiting for a train and to while away the time he composed a hymn tune. Here's more about the hymn.
And here it is being sung. There are many choral versions, but I rather liked this one.
But just at the moment I was taking the photo, an announcement came over the tannoy saying that there was a platform alteration and the Aberystwyth train would now depart from... platform 5.
This triggered something of a stampede as all the people who had been waiting patiently on platform 3 had to rush down the stairs, out of the station, back in through the barriers (which the staff had opened to let the horde through), up the stairs and back to platform 5 which was where we'd been waiting in the first place.
After that all went smoothly, though the train left at least 10 minutes late due to having to wait for stragglers. It wasn't too bad for us because we didn't have luggage, but we have in the past done the Whitehall farce style running in and out of doors and up and down staircases lugging suitcases. They really need a footbridge to connect platform 3 to the other platforms, but I doubt there is the money to build one.
If your destination is Shrewsbury, it doesn't really matter which platform your train comes in on, but if you need to catch a connecting train for your onward travel, then platform 3 is a pain. The problem is that the exit from platform leads down some stairs and then dumps you, via a small door, outside the station. To catch a connecting train you have to run round to the main door, re-enter, go through the ticket barriers, run up the stairs and then find your platform.
We've always found that Shrewsbury is not good at knowing which platform trains will depart from. If your train is scheduled leave from platforms 4 to 7B and they change the platform, then you don't have far to walk. But platform 3?
Anyway, we arrived at the station in good time because our daughter's train was leaving 10 minutes before ours. The display said that our train would depart from platform 5, which is the one it normally goes from. We therefore hung around near platform 5 waiting for an earlier train to depart. Then we noticed that the departure board was flashing a change of platform for our train. It was now departing from platform 3.
There was still plenty of time, but of course we had to go out through the barriers to be able to reach platform 3. We said, we need to get to platform 3. The woman looking after the barrier asked if it was the Aberystwyth train, we said it was and she let us through.
So we waited on platform 3 and for the first time I noticed this war memorial and plaque.
Back in 1938 it seems that Dr Arwel Hughes was waiting for a train and to while away the time he composed a hymn tune. Here's more about the hymn.
And here it is being sung. There are many choral versions, but I rather liked this one.
But just at the moment I was taking the photo, an announcement came over the tannoy saying that there was a platform alteration and the Aberystwyth train would now depart from... platform 5.
This triggered something of a stampede as all the people who had been waiting patiently on platform 3 had to rush down the stairs, out of the station, back in through the barriers (which the staff had opened to let the horde through), up the stairs and back to platform 5 which was where we'd been waiting in the first place.
After that all went smoothly, though the train left at least 10 minutes late due to having to wait for stragglers. It wasn't too bad for us because we didn't have luggage, but we have in the past done the Whitehall farce style running in and out of doors and up and down staircases lugging suitcases. They really need a footbridge to connect platform 3 to the other platforms, but I doubt there is the money to build one.
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