2.

A few days ago I found myself standing at East Didsbury train station in Greater Manchester – which is a small two-platform station operated by Northern Rail, situated 5 miles South of Manchester.

I needed to catch the next train into Manchester Piccadilly, but bizarrely neither platform has any kind of information directing the public which side of the tracks they need to wait on for their destination – the most basic piece of information a train station needs to provide to its users. Both platforms have identical timetables, but no information about which platform is for which direction.

In the end I had to find a local bus stop, which luckily had a decent map of the area in the bus shelter, and I established from there which direction the trains would be going for Manchester Piccadilly. I wasn't alone in my confusion either. As I waited for the train, literally everyone who arrived on the platform was asking me if that was the correct side for Piccadilly. I'd love to know how Northern Rail expect anyone who isn't familiar with the Manchester area to know where to stand.

Once I finally caught the train, the Conductor on the train was working so inefficiently that a number of passengers including myself made it all the way to Piccadilly without buying a ticket – the Conductor had not reached us by that point. This was a small consolation for a miserable experience walking backwards and forwards between the platforms in the freezing rain at East Didsbury.

Photos by Gene Hunt.