Sunderland

I've travelled from one end of this country to the other by rail umpteen times and this is undoubtedly the worst big city station in the UK. First it's hard to find as the entrance/exits are just random nondescript door-sized gaps within a larger building. Then the 'concourse' area is tiny, with no facilities save for a vending machine, and the platforms themselves are incredibly dark and dingy with a very low ceiling and no toilets. First impressions count and I could not imagine a worse welcome for visitors to the city. Am giving it 2 stars only because it's smack bang in the centre of town which is convenient.

This station is the combination of railway station and underground station. The waiting area is very small.

They’ve got some new station music that’s so loud. People with sensory problems will have a hard time waiting here. There was a crash into a rail bridge a few weeks ago and no one was informing any of the people waiting for trains going through that bridge that they were all cancelled. The screens just said delayed so people waited for ages. Obviously I’m young so I can check the app to see they’re all cancelled and ran to the bus station to catch the last bus home instead but there were elderly ladies there that didnt know a thing thinking they’re just delayed and the announcements that were made they couldn’t hear through the new blasting elevator music in the station. No one was out letting people know they were cancelled and I still wondered if they got home okay. I got the last bus and they weren’t on there.

Really nice wee seaside city with lots of open bustling shops. Once a bustling industrial centre it has the newer built Sunderland North (of the River Wear) and alot of beautiful 1840's architecture in Sunderland South. The rows and rows of terraced 1840's to 1860's bungalows with their own yards are quite wonderful. (built for it's then shipbuilding workforce). Whilst the city centre (also South of the River Wear), has many huge, ornate, late Georgian, early Victoriana buildings scattered among the newer buildings. Rich in local history of it's coal, glass and shipbuilding industrial past various museums depict these. Plus wonderful Riverside Sculpture Walk East from Wearmouth Bridge to Roker Beach on the North side of the River Wear takes you along a very scenic route. Past The Venerable Bede's St Peter's Church (Sunderland's oldest building), the Glass Museum and a plethora of some really wonderful sculptures, (some of them mahoosive and although static feel very interactive), Sunderland Marina, RNLI building, bobbing boats, and mahoosive ships, and the ever plaintive cry of massive gulls, you suddenly turn the corner away from the delapidated North Pier and there spread stretching into the distance is Roker Beach. Simply wow! Next time I visit I will be walking the Riverside Sculpture Walk West and find Hylton Castle, it's residential "Cauld Lad" (wraith) and it's Wyrm sculpture (of Lambton Wyrm fame) Here Be Dragons...! The locals are wonderfully friendly. Also has a very useful train station 🤣 You come out into it's bustle and everything you want to peruse is literally a walk away. One of the benefits of a wee cityscape.

Given 5* as one of only 3 stations in the country to have the glass wall of moving passengers....other than that a basic underground dark station.