Wigan Album
BUS STATION
26 CommentsPhoto: Tom Sutch
Item #: 30960
Looking on, the old one was much more practical and the traffic never used to build up the way it does now. What a terrible, terrible, waste of money.
There isn`t much difference, it`s still a shambles and no buses to catch.
Good photo Tom.
I have to agree a waste of money for a bus station that was still ok. The money should have been spent on our roads.
All the old station needed was a damned good clean up. It was perfectly serviceable as it was.
I do think it is more streamlined. It was better to demolish those shelters spread across the road - they shouldn't have built them in the first place. The question is would it have been cheaper to improve the back shelter and grotty toilets and the demolition - I think not . The bus station now reflects the decline in the town centre for shopping. Not enough people shop now as previously.
I have to say I like the new bus station very much and think it much nicer than the old one.
Still got the same cold metal seats
I think the difference with this building and Wigan’s older buildings was the older buildings were nailed down , this is on a tent peg . I don’t blame Wigan Council or anybody for this , such is how things are these days . It feels like if you don’t keep up to date with modern progress, you will soon be drinking mud water in the trample .
Irene, you've changed your tune, I never thought I'd hear you saying "new is better than old". Remember Wigan Baths, Shops etc etc.
Alan, I love the old buildings and always will, but the last bus-station was NOT an old one ....it was a modern one , as is the new one, and the new one is the better of the two.
At least it's warmer whilst waiting for buses.... I think it's better planned than the old 'new' one of 80's vintage. It's still a fair way from the railway station though.
The new bus station is much safer than the old one. There is something to be said to not have to queue in urine soaked, badly lit shelters. As regards traffic, the buses flow much better than before.
You must be mad if you think the old bus station was better than the new one, in the old one you have to walk past diesel smelly buses and across the crossing to get to your bus then queue up in a cold and and drafty doorway that smelled of urine
Wallgate and Wigan North West station is just round the corner from the bus station.
Alan, is that some kind of plus point or something? The position of the railway stations are completely irrelevant. The point is: has it changed? The simple answer to that is NO, it hasn't.
Jarvo, I think Alan was replying to Veronica, you should read up before venting.
No he isn't. He refers to the railway stations as a plus point to the bus station. Actually, it is a quite a tiresome walk to either station, but that's not the point. The money spent on the bus station, and the time spent building it, could have been used elsewhere.
Yes Alan is very good at stating the obvious - I come to Wigan on the train at least twice a week! ( The bus station is still no nearer to the Railway Station! I was under the impression it was going to be built nearer for some reason!)
The new Wigan bus station is almost identical to the new bus stations in Bolton and Rochdale, but Wigan is built on the same site as the old bus station. Remember when Wigan bus station was located in Hope Street until the mid 1980s, not for every bus service, but mainly Ribble and Lancashire United, while Wigan Corporation started in Market Place, Market Street, Library Street, and Station Road.
Bolton Bus Station is much bigger Mr X ( and its nearer to the railway station) there's a few cafes, information desk etc and steps and walkways., I initially thought Wigan's bus station was going to be like that. It's just as
well,because the way things are,there's not going to be many shops left in Wigan. The new bus station seems fit for purpose.
What should the money have been spent on Jarvo?
NOT on a bus station that only needed new security and a little tidy up. Money could have been spent on generating the Galleries again and making Wigan a shopping town to be proud of.
You can't spend TGFM funding on a shopping centre, but you knew that already.
It was an utter waste of tax payers money. You know it and I know it.
I left Wigan before either were built and always thought the termini around town and the market worked fine.
It reminds me of an airport terminal than a bus station. We are forgetting that nothing is ever for the public's benefit. They change things that we don't want, wasting our money away because they can. The new station is a clone ofBolton and Chorley station (maybe others), and know doubt St Helens will be next. What's different?, well there are pay toilets that charge you 20p and you have go through a turnstile that looks like a prison gate with a CCTV camera above it (no doubt private shareholders are making money from that), the place is very oppressive and soulless with CCTV cameras everywhere, more than what there was before, more restrictive in the way you aren't allowed to walk across the bus lanes, and I've noticed all the bus staff are on the other side in a private, locked off walkway. People should be complaining about the charge to use the toilets as thats outrageous, but as per usual most people aren't bothered.