Standing a couple of times recently at Bath Spa station, I am struck by the uneven distribution of people waiting on the platform and the narrow waistline of the stair cases and lifts. They lead to longer station dwell times than neded due to clumping - espcially to join London trains - and congestion at the top of the stairs / queues for lifts to get off the platform. Here are two pictures taken a minute apart last Saturday - and the train approaching in the second picture fills the full length of that platform.
At that quieter London end - of the westbound platform - there is already a slope with a wide access gate. In many ways it seems to be well kept secret; certainly not obvious. On the eastbound side though there is no obvious easy way to get extra access with the station towering above an embankment and buildings, and the remains of a bay platform.
The Bristol end of the platforms is very interesting. One has been extended over the river (to 10 carriages) but the other has not. Once over the river, there are half a dozen arches blocked off and onto waste ground - room for an extrance /exit building with escalators and a staircase on both sides? And with entrances to that building that lead straight to the wide footbridge already there over the river into the "far" end of the bus station. For local traffic / "commuter" flows would this not relieve pressure on the historic bottleneck? There would be a need for shelter on the more exposed platform ends to merge in current and new accessss, something that has been done (
IMHO▸ ) very poorly at places like Newport.
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