Chester Railway Station really doesn't do a great, historic town in Chester any justice, Chester…read morewas once a Roman fortress, a battlefield in the North West of England, but the station which is a category B station just doesn't seem that. The walk into the city from the station I agree is poor, I personally ended up getting lost having to go down some sketchy pathways, which really didn't match the city which I found to be really nice overall, a lack of buses going to the station too (Stagecoach Gold do run an irregular service which doesn't seem to be used either as I was the only passenger on the entire bus - maybe it was just because it was a Monday afternoon?) It has 7 platforms and is served by Avanti, Transport for Wales, Northern and Merseyrail. I do find the station pretty hard to navigate too, I ended up using a lift which went to a bridge (between the platforms) after getting off the train, even though it was level access - to make it more confusing they had a gate which you could see the exit out of, but you had to walk all the way around the platform, to go back on yourself just to get in/out which makes little sense. They do have ticket barriers here, I'm not sure if it's the new thing but I noticed 2 or 3 people while at the station trying to get through the station barriers, even jumping through to do anything they could to evade the fare. Some key routes here include Transport for Wales services to many big cities in Wales, and the Avanti service into London, however, if you're going into London Euston, trains here run every hour (but for some reason, there isn't a train at 18:35 when there is at 15:35,16:35,17:35, forcing a two-hour gap with the next service than at 19:35, so you might be best going into Crewe depending on when you want to travel and it takes roughly the same amount of time. Even Manchester services are the same - for my journey to Chester I boarded an Avanti service into Crewe, and then another service from Crewe to Chester which used the London Euston - Chester line, I found this journey to be much more pleasant than other alternatives (It was even better than a direct service provided by Northern or Transport for Wales, the latter I used for my return), this means you spend less time on the train but obviously changing services with a 20-minute wait makes it less worthwhile, but still if you time t right it helps save some money too! There are a WHSmith and a small cafe/shop in a waiting area on Platform 4 but there isn't much else in the station sadly. I'm not sure if it was a problem on my visit but the announcements for train runnings didn't seem to be working very well at the station, for example, I nearly missed my train back into Manchester which arrived in early as I was in the waiting area at the time (luckily it was on Platform 4) It has a good number of services but for the overall consumer passenger experience, it has a long way to go to do justice for the great city that Chester actually is. 2*

A cold station who are not the best organised. It has a WH Smiths and a Costa before the gate but a…read morerandom coffee company after meaning if you haven't got you act together or you miss your train you are left with bad coffee and expensive sandwiches. They like to change platforms at the last minute and it isn't the easiest station to work out where the trains will arrive with split platform numbers (A & B). Good connections to London, Warrington, North Wales, Manchester and Liverpool. The station has that old time chiq look. Unfortunately it is one of the most depressing parts of my journeys.

The Northern end of the Severn Valley Railway nestles below castle hill with its tilting Castle…read moretower keep which leans further than the Tower of Pisa all as a consequence of Cromwell forces not using sufficient gunpowder trying to blow it up . The station itself is a bustling terminus of the steam railway taking you back to the heyday of steam trains . It hosts a great pub serving lovely real ales a great place to relax on a cold winters day with its open fires . There's the engine maintenance sheds to see too on special events .

Perfect for going into Manchester Picc/Oxford Rd and also great for going to the airport. also…read moregreat location being just off the A34 and within walking distance to Gatley village which is rather posh. Ticket machines and ticket office are also quite helpful.

Shrewsbury Railway Station is the busiest station in Shropshire, serving Shrewsbury town centre,…read moreit's a short walk up the hill to the main shops in the town. The station is classed as a C1 station and is managed by Transport For Wales, of which I travelled with on my journey to and from Manchester. While it is also served by Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Railway, it is mainly served by TFW. The majority of services pass through Birmingham New Street which is just over 40 miles from the station OR goes into Wales which is also a short distance from here. Only two trains a day into London, so if you're heading into the capital you might want to go into Crewe or Wolverhampton. Crewe is a pretty decent stop to head too if you are travelling further as this can be the stop along the way if heading to many cities including London, Liverpool or even Edinburgh. The station doesn't have much in terms of facilities, it does have a Starbucks alongside Platform 4 which is shut due to COVID-19 (Most Starbucks' locations in train stations seem to be shut so this is nothing new based on Manchester/Stockport/Liverpool etc), it has a waiting area right next to the lift, where it's a little warmer than the platform. Most of the station staff seemed a little friendly, there was one exception who seemed disinterested when I was struggling to scan my ticket at the barrier, but the platform staff were great. The layout can be a little confusing at first, I did struggle to find the Information Desk and this is one of the few stations to use letters in platforms (such as 4A/4B) FUN FACT: Despite having 5 platforms, it doesn't have a platform 1 or 2, the platform numbering goes between 3 and 7 - would love to find out why! Decent old station providing a useful purpose, satisfactory facilities, certainly not a bad station considering the population of Shrewsbury is just over 70,000. 3*

Twee enough building, but I really wasn't impressed with the staff. Yes, we'd all had a few, but we…read morewere 15 minutes early, and in no way unruly. There was a lot of I am big man from the station guards, and one made a comment on what I was wearing, and "Are you you sure you don't mean "blah" station love because you're friend is getting off at a diffferent one". There were a lot of cancelled trains, so they possibly had a lot of rubbish from annoyed people, but you'd hope it wasn't carried across!

It's an older, large station that is extremely busy but also easy to navigate to get to your…read moretransportation on time. Though it's older, it's clean with several places to grab food or coffee. Signage is really good and makes things easier trying to get through a big crowd to your platform.

Very convenient and effective train station where you can take bullet trains to London from…read moreManchester. Shoppes and what not fill up the area and tickets are very convenient to purchase on the app Trainline. Highly recommended!