The 10 Worst Railway Stations in Europe

From confusing layouts and ugly designs to unsafe surroundings, these are the 10 worst major railway stations in Europe.

Although Europe is home to some magnificent railway stations, the continent also has some passenger-unfriendly rail hubs.

As someone who travels about 20,000 kilometres (12,430 miles) by train each year and has taken train journeys across every European country with a railway network, these are the 10 worst major stations, in my experience.

For what it is worth, the 10 stations listed below are presented in no particular order.

1. Paris Montparnasse

Paris Montparnasse is one of the main terminus stations in the French capital.

It mainly handles high-speed trains on routes towards Brittany in the west and Bordeaux in the south-west.

Built during the 1960s and 1970s, the modern-day Paris Montparnasse consists of ugly concrete slabs and has absolutely no charm whatsoever.

It is also no surprise that Parisians frequently list the adjacent skyscraper built around the same time, the Tour Montparnasse, as the ugliest building in the city.

If the ugliness is not enough, then the lack of actual seating areas where passengers can sit to wait for their train in comfort is another negative.

Indeed, most available seats belong to cafés inside the main concourse and cannot be used without buying something.

This utilitarian station is certainly one of the worst in Europe.

Paris Montparnasse looks totally out of place in a city famous for its fine Belle Époque buildings and the grandeur of Haussmann’s public works.

2. Barcelona Sants

Spain is home to some of the worst stations in all of Europe.

This is primarily because Adif, the Spanish national railway infrastructure company, seems hell-bent on copying the worst aspects of airports into station design and operations.

By far the worst aspect of this is the introduction of an airport-style security check at Spanish stations before you can board a high-speed train.

Although the security queues are much faster than at airports and there are no liquid restrictions on what you can carry with you, it is a major hassle.

This absolutely stupid and completely unnecessary measure makes Spanish railway stations a lot more unpleasant than their European counterparts.

It also adds extra time to your journey, as you do have to arrive quite a bit earlier than normal.

Of all the Spanish railway stations, Barcelona Sants is probably the one I dislike most.

Apart from the annoying security check, the entire station is ugly, crowded, and confusing in terms of signage and layout.

Barcelona deserves so much better than Sants.

Just look at Estació de França, the old railway terminus in the Catalan capital, which used to handle all trains to and from France but nowadays only serves local and regional trains.

Estació de França shows that it is entirely possible to build a beautiful and well-designed station.

3. Brussels-South

Brussels-South, called Bruxelles-Midi in French and Brussel-Zuid in Dutch (Flemish), is the main rail hub of the Belgian capital.

This railway station still oozes the atmosphere of the 1950s, when it last underwent major reconstruction.

Recent modernisation attempts have done little to address its outdated facilities, infrastructure, and decades of neglect.

Even the more modern Eurostar terminal within Brussels-South, from which high-speed trains to London depart, is not much better.

This part of the station is completely utilitarian and has less charm and fewer facilities than your average regional airport.

What is perhaps worst about Brussels-South is how unsafe it feels, as both inside and just outside the station there are plenty of unsavoury characters walking around.

Official Belgian crime statistics acknowledge this lack of safety.

Around 3,500 crimes occur at Brussels-South each year, which is almost as many as at all railway stations in the 13 main cities in the Flanders region combined.

Don’t just take it from me that Brussels-South is one of the worst railway stations in Europe, as many international media publications have reached the same conclusion.

If you think that the other Brussels stations are any better, you are wrong.

The Belgian capital clearly has some major issues that affect almost all of its railway stations.

Brussels Central is rather outdated, while Brussels North is at least as bad as Brussels South in terms of crime.

This is especially noticeable when you visit Brussels North or its adjacent bus terminal right after the evening rush hour.

Once people working in nearby offices have left for home, only homeless people, petty criminals, and violent individuals remain at this railway station.

4. Frankfurt Hbf

Frankfurt Hbf (which stands for “Hauptbahnhof”, meaning “main railway station” in German) is not only the main railway hub in Frankfurt, but also one of the most important stations in Germany.

The station is not actually that bad if you are just making a train connection or hopping onto the city’s metro.

Frankfurt Hbf does not look ugly, as it has an impressive train shed and a fairly attractive façade.

The reason I have included Frankfurt Hbf in my list of Europe’s worst railway stations is the presence of dodgy types and a general sense that it is unsafe.

This particularly applies to the neighbourhood surrounding Frankfurt Hbf, an area infamous for its high crime rate and drug-related problems.

Fortunately, the local and state authorities have at least acknowledged these issues.

The safety situation around Frankfurt Hbf is gradually improving thanks to stronger policing, the use of CCTV, and other measures.

However, if you ever need to book a hotel in Frankfurt, I still would not opt for one in the station neighbourhood.

This is especially true if you arrive late at night by train, when you should really avoid the area.

5. Birmingham New Street

Railway stations in the United Kingdom are often beautiful and generally extremely well kept.

Indeed, the well-maintained and beautiful stations were one of my main impressions of the British rail network as a foreigner.

As always, there are exceptions to the rule, and you can find badly designed and ugly stations in the UK as well.

The worst of the bunch is surely Birmingham New Street, a railway station that leaves a lot to be desired despite its relatively recent redevelopment around a decade ago.

Birmingham New Street is too retail-centred, and the concourse feels more like a shopping centre.

Weirdly enough, that redevelopment did not address the actual platforms one level down from the concourse, which feel dank and dark, with a few platforms being rather narrow as well.

The station layout is also confusing, and it can be challenging to find your way around Birmingham New Street.

This is true both when you arrive at Birmingham New Street by train for the first time and when you walk there from the city centre to catch a train.

The signposting isn’t helping either.

Instead of numbering platforms in a conventional way and creating logical transit routes, Birmingham New Street is divided into three departure zones called Red, Green, and Blue.

Needless to say, this makes very little sense and only adds to the confusion.

What is wrong with simply numbering platforms 1, 2, 3, and so on?

There is absolutely no need to add an extra layer to this by introducing coloured departure zones.

6. Valencia Joaquín Sorrola

As Spanish stations are among the worst in Europe, it is no surprise that a second station from this country has made it onto this list.

Valencia Joaquín Sorolla highlights everything that is wrong with Spanish high-speed railway stations.

It is ugly and utilitarian, with the charm of a bus stop or a regional Ryanair airport.

Moreover, Valencia Joaquín Sorolla station is extremely passenger-unfriendly to use.

Inside this railway station, there are very few facilities for an important station of this size.

Perhaps even worse, there are hardly any places to actually sit and wait for your train at Valencia Joaquín Sorolla station.

Moreover, Joaquín Sorolla station feels cheaply made, and the concourse is vast and open.

If you are unlucky enough to visit it on a rainy winter day, you will feel the wind and cold throughout.

Valencia Joaquín Sorolla feels more like a temporary pop-up structure than a permanent railway station, so it comes as no surprise that the authorities are planning to replace it with a new Valencia Central station in the future.

For now, take a look at Valencia’s historic Estació del Nord, built in magnificent Valencian Art Nouveau style and located just a few blocks north of Joaquín Sorolla, to see what a proper station should look like.

Unfortunately, I do not think Spanish railway officials and architects will ever understand why people love traditional railway stations and dislike airport-like modern stations.

7. Lisbon Oriente

Even railway stations with a beautiful design can still rank among the worst in Europe, and Lisbon Oriente is a clear example of this.

Lisboa Estação do Oriente, as this station is called in Portuguese, is proof that stunning architecture alone does not count for much when the passenger experience is downright appalling.

The elevated platforms and high station canopy of Lisboa Oriente make the station prone to the elements.

Whether it is bright sunshine or rain and cold, you cannot really shelter from the weather at Oriente station.

Besides, the station layout confuses passengers, and poor signposting makes everything difficult to find.

Lisbon Oriente was designed by the famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

Calatrava has since designed many more railway stations in a similar style, such as Liège-Guillemins and Mons, both in Belgium.

Liège-Guillemins shares similar issues with Lisbon Oriente.

Just like Oriente station, Liège-Guillemins exposes passengers to the elements and is not passenger-friendly, although I admit it looks rather striking.

There are some further flaws with Lisbon Oriente, as quite some signs of decay are already visible.

I do not know whether it is coincidence or whether the rapid deterioration is an inherent trait of Calatrava’s showpiece architecture.

Interestingly enough, I get the same feeling when walking around the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias complex Calatrava designed in Valencia.

This architectural showpiece also feels rather worn and weathered compared with when it first opened.

8. Berlin Hbf

Berlin Hbf, the main railway station in the German capital, is another example of a station that looks impressive in images on social media, but where the actual passenger experience leaves a lot to be desired.

This modern, multi-level glass-and-steel railway station is relatively unique in that the main north–south and east–west lines cross each other here.

In the basement of the station, two levels below ground, platforms 1 to 8 serve trains heading north and south.

Two levels above ground, platforms 11 to 16 accommodate trains on the east–west railway line.

In between, on the ground floor as well as the -1 and +1 levels, there are intermediate floors with shops, food outlets, and station facilities such as the ticket office and left-luggage office.

Finding your way around Berlin Hbf can therefore be tricky, especially if it is your first time using this station.

My main point of critique is not even the multi-floor layout.

It is rather how the designers implemented this lay-out and how the authorities maintain the station.

The top-floor platforms feel rather narrow, and the station offers very few places for people to sit in comfort while they wait for their train.

The designers of Berlin Hbf clearly prioritised retail and visual appearance over passenger comfort and usability.

Then there is the lack of maintenance, with escalators often out of use, among other issues.

This is rather unfortunate when you may need to go up or down four floors to connect to another train.

Crime is also an issue at Berlin Hbf, even though the station is not located in a particularly rough part of the city, unlike Frankfurt’s main railway station.

Quite the contrary, Berlin Hbf is a stone’s throw from the Bundestag, the German federal parliament!

Yet Berlin Hbf has the highest number of violent crimes of all stations in Germany.

From my own experience, especially on the ground floor and on the station forecourt, you are likely to encounter a range of dubious individuals.

9. Bologna Centrale

A number of European stations are extremely passenger-unfriendly because they are designed like confusing labyrinths.

The lack of clear signposting only makes these labyrinthine stations even worse.

The worst station in this category must surely be Bologna Centrale.

If I got a euro every time I read a complaint on social media from people who could not find their platform or even missed their train at Bologna Centrale because of the weird station design and unclear signage, I would have earned a small fortune.

Truth be told, I can hardly blame people for getting lost at Bologna Centrale.

Even as a highly experienced train traveller, I have at times struggled to find my way around this station.

Indeed, I often had to retrace my steps to reach the right path to get to the place where I needed to be.

On the ground level of Bologna Centrale, there are both through platforms and dead-end platforms.

These all have a rather nonsensical numbering.

There are the main platforms 1 to 11, which are all on through railway lines, as well as platforms 1 to 4 East and 1 to 4 West, which are bay platforms for lines terminating at Bologna Centrale.

This means that numbers 1 to 4 are all effectively used three times to refer to different platforms.

A couple of floors below ground, there are through platforms 16 to 19 on the high-speed railway line, which are also somewhat tricky to locate.

Even more complicated is finding your way at Bologna Centrale to the Marconi Express, an automated people mover that connects the railway station with Bologna Airport.

The Marconi Express entrance is extremely well hidden.

In many parts of the station there are not even any signs pointing to it!

10. Poznań Główny

Some railway stations in Europe are not just badly designed and confusing but also downright ugly.

Poznań Główny, the main railway station in the Polish city of Poznań, is one such example.

This Polish rail hub wholeheartedly deserves its place on this list of Europe’s worst stations.

Poznań Główny is located right next to a shopping centre and feels as though it is part of it, with the railway tracks and platforms seeming like a mere afterthought, even though the station was there long before the mall.

Because of this, Poznan Glowny can be a rather confusing station to use.

This is especially true if you are arriving in Poznan for the first time ever and try to find your way out of the station.

Integrating shopping centres into a railway station only creates a confusing transit experience for passengers.

Poznań is not the only example of such a station in Poland.

To a lesser extent, the same applies to Kraków Główny, another awkward and ugly blend of station and shopping centre.

Contenders that did not make the final list

There are quite a few more railway stations I considered for this list of the worst stations in Europe but ultimately left out, as they have some redeeming qualities.

Paris Gare du Nord is overcrowded, and offers very few places to sit.

Moreover, it attracts its share of criminals and other dodgy individuals.

However, unlike Paris Montparnasse station, Gare du Nord is at least pleasant to look at.

Besides, there are some good quality grand cafés and restaurants in the surrounding area where you can wait for your train instead.

Spain is a country where I could nominate many more stations for their airport-like feel and poor passenger experience.

Madrid Atocha is one such example, as this railway station is confusing and has very few benches to sit on once you pass the security checkpoint.

However, the old train shed at Madrid Atocha, with its indoor palm garden, is beautiful and was just enough reason for it not to make the list of Europe’s worst railway stations.

London Euston is another European railway station I strongly dislike, as it is rather ugly and chaotic.

At London Euston, extremely late platform announcements cause a mad rush towards the gateline.

Needless to say, this results in a rushed boarding of trains and a lot of stress among passengers.

On the plus side, London Euston has some good places to wait for your train departure.

Whether it is the Indian restaurants around the corner on Drummond Street, The Signal Box pub inside the station itself, or the excellent Euston Tap pub and beer garden in an old Victorian gatehouse at the forecourt, Euston does have its share of great bars and restaurants.

In Central and Eastern Europe, there are a couple of stations I am not particularly fond of.

Bratislava Hlavná Stanica and Sofia Central are two such examples.

However, none of them are bad enough to come close to a nomination for the worst station in Europe.

In this region, Bucharest Gara de Nord came closest to inclusion on this list.

This poorly lit and dilapidated station has very low platforms that make boarding trains difficult for people with mobility issues.

However, Bucharest Gara de Nord does have some undeniably old-fashioned railway charm.

Besides, this station is in fact much safer than it might first appear to people unacquainted with it.

Finally, the main railway stations of Istanbul deserve a dishonourable mention.

Halkalı station, the current terminus on the European side of Istanbul for most west-bound trains, and Söğütlüçeşme on the Asian side for trains heading east into Anatolia, are both ugly and utilitarian.

Moreover, both stations have very basic facilities.

The only reason I did not list Halkalı or Söğütlüçeşme among Europe’s worst stations is that I still have a glimmer of hope that these are just temporary rail hubs.

Turkish authorities should do the only sensible thing by restoring the Istanbul Sirkeci and Haydarpaşa stations to their former glory.

These are Istanbul’s historic terminus stations, although they currently do not see any train traffic.

Sirkeci and Haydarpaşa are among Europe’s most iconic rail hubs, and a magnificent city like Istanbul deserves such stations rather than Halkalı or Söğütlüçeşme.

Why are some railway stations that bad?

Of course, it is largely a matter of personal taste whether a particular railway station is ugly or appealing.

Passenger experience is much less subjective.

People can clearly judge that some railway stations are better designed and easier to use than others.

That raises the question of why architects, rail infrastructure companies, or city authorities accept stations with an awful passenger experience.

After all, it reflects badly on the railways as a whole and on the city in particular.

Besides, many problems with stations are relatively easy to solve if the authorities or designers were willing to acknowledge them.

Proper signposting, shelter for passengers, benches, and enough facilities do not require genius-level planning.

Yet authorities often overlook them.

Similarly, it puzzles me why some local authorities allow railway stations to become hotbeds of crime.

We should never permit all kinds of shady figures to harass passengers in and around railway station.

None of this is inevitable.

With vision, a good redesign, and regular maintenance, even the worst stations can become decent rail hubs.

A great example is Roma Termini, the main railway station in Rome.

The authorities in Rome have done wonders transforming the station and making it genuinely passenger-friendly and safe.

Even the neighbourhood around Termini station, long seen as somewhat dodgy, especially at night, has improved drastically in recent years.

There is no reason why cities like Brussels, Frankfurt, or Paris could not do the same with their railway stations.

It will not happen overnight.

However, with a concerted effort involving both proper policing and improvements to the social environment and the physical appearance of the area, it is possible.

Conclusion

There are some amazing railway stations in Europe, but unfortunately also some badly designed, ugly, or even unsafe ones.

The 10 worst railway stations in Europe are Barcelona Sants, Berlin Hbf, Birmingham New Street, Bologna Centrale, Brussels-South, Frankfurt Hbf, Lisbon Oriente, Paris Montparnasse, Poznań Główny, and Valencia Joaquín Sorolla.

Besides these stations, there are many in Europe more with a poor passenger experience.

Madrid Atocha and London Euston are just two more examples of major railway stations that provide a poor experience.

Why local authorities allow such important railway stations to be so passenger-unfriendly is puzzling.

In many cases, simple measures could already improve the situation.

Active policing and a zero-tolerance stance on crime can improve safety in and around stations.

Proper signposting can turn a confusing station into one that is easy to navigate.

Ensuring there are enough benches and shelter from sun, rain, and wind can greatly improve passenger comfort.

Spanish stations should remove their unnecessary security checks for high-speed trains to improve the passenger experience.

Hopefully, railway infrastructure companies and architects will one day realise that passengers do not want stations to feel like airports.

Passenger comfort should always be prioritised over design gimmicks.

If they built beautiful and well-functioning stations in the Victorian era, we can do the same in modern times!

What do you think are the worst railway stations in Europe? Have I been too harsh on some of the stations I mentioned? Leave a comment with your opinion!