Rochdale Interchange

Unfortunately I lost the photo I was going to put here so I’ll have to come back to it sorry for the confusion, this is still a good bus station they have a new Morrison super market just a cross the road also a taxi rank and the metro tram stop the market outside one to facing the bus station its very central toilet, libuary, river., and another café all around it spoiled for choice really very handy for a lot of things
Nice to in good weather to sit by the river , watch the buses going in and out if you like lol what esle ??
There’s the news agents which also sells coffee from machine like
The travel shop to buy tickets and ask for information regarding the times etc, public toilets 20p slot ‚
Lots of seats at each stop, plus TV screens to tell you when your bus is due, free metro newspaper stands, while you wait ‚
There’s a lot going on in this small space if you like to people watch or you can use the free WiFi if you prefer,

It’s all shiny and new and soulless and clinical. It’s a far cry from the urine soaked stairwells of previous bus station incarnations but it’s still full of the usual suspects of this fair town of rochdale all robotically shuffling in lines, heads down waiting for a vehicle to take them to their destinations. A depressing waiting room holding a sad snapshot of a cross section of Northern society. Sigh

Rochdale have recently redeveloped their bus station, it is in a great location in the city centre located near the Library. The new bus station is very nice, it is a glass building and has 13 stands, a travel shop and everything you would expect from a bus station, it even has screens similar to what you are used to at train stations showing the times of the next buses. I think the improvements are fantastic and since the redevelopment it makes it one of the best bus stations in the area for how it looks and location.
UPDATE: (4 stars to 3 — September 2^nd 2015)
This bus station does have a few flaws which means it is only worth 3 stars:
— The services are just above average, and with them coming from a small town, some might take longer, such as National Express services.
— They is metrolink nearby, but making this into more of a transport hub, with metrolink going from here as well as other local travel services could be better.
— The «New» station excitement has all gone now, with most of the hype behind it and I just don’t find this station to be worthy of a higher rating, as it simply is just an above-​average bus station.

Once upon a time Rochdale had a bus station that was the envy of nobody, and it was rumoured that even the blind were seen to weep when they had to walk anywhere near it.
It was a place where used needles and comdoms congregated in the stairwells, hanging around as they are want with puddles of urine and the heady stench of weed (I know this as I had to clean said stairwells when I worked in the multi storey car park that sat a top of the staion, and many a Saturday morning was spent handling the atrocities).
Anyone who viewed the old place was left with the feeling that the Architect either hated his job or his life (Or he was Hieronymus Bosch).
Anyway history lesson over, as late last year we got a new bus station, one that has doors so the wind doesn’t blow through it, one that has screens that tell you when the next bus is (or isn’t) due, one that has a cash machine, and one that at the moment doesn’t smell like a Metal Festivals toilets.
At the end of the day it is only a bus station, but unless you ever had to use the old one, you won’t have a clue what i’m wittering on about, but believe me, it really was as bad as i’ve made out.
Hurrah! For new buildings…