Haymarket Railway Station

Haymarket Station has been redeveloped beyond all recognition in the past few years, thanks to some incredible engineering. Now with a large, light and airy ticket hall, the capacity has been much increased and really is an alternative to Waverley station as a gateway to Edinburgh. If you’re going to watch Hearts or rugby at Murrayfield, this is the stop for you.
Good tip, there’s a big Nicholson’s pub opposite the station which has a vast selection of ales.
Even better tip, walk a bit further down Morrison Street to Thomson’s Bar, which sells some harder to find real ales in a glorious Alexander «Greek» Thomson style bar.

Brr brrr — my most hated train station in the UK. I have nothing but cold thoughts and memories of this place. Bring twelve extra coats if your waiting on the platform in the winter or on a rainy day!
The new station is very swishy and much better than the old set up and it is nice to have a m&s there now.
Still don’t feel like freezing my ass off anytime soon and usually head to the main station.

Haymarket Railway station has had a revamp pretty recently. It’s now much nicer than it was.
It’s now much bigger and there’s an M&S which I approve of.
The organisation is better than it was and the staff are nice (though that was always the case!)

This station was in a great location the tram was right outside which takes you to the airport or to Edinburgh center. They had a marks and Spencer food store which was great to get something to eat for the train journey home. It was really light, bright and clean station.

Quite a small station with only a couple of places to grab a bite to eat or drink. I’d recommend going into Marks and Spencer before going to the platform as they have a decent selection of food and drink. Also, like any other station, the speaker system could do with being a bit clearer!

It is a train station, all shiny and modernised. Big and spacious where the ticket machines are though they can be temperamental and usually when that happens, you have 2 mins till the train comes and the ticket desks have big queues.
No real issues though, fairly well organised now the modernisation works are complete, plus there is an M&S Simply Food for travel snacks. They normally have gluten free goodies too :-)

Much better since the re-​model. It has a little M&S shop and a little coffee conner. Starbucks is just steps outside the station. Bright with lots of windows to let in natural lighting. Well laid out stairs and escalator. Good station. Just wish there was more seating that was covered =)

Hopped off at Haymarket today for the first time since they finished the refurb, and I have to say I was very impressed with how much room there now is in the upstairs concourse area — it’s positively massive!
They’ve managed to retain the old building frontage, but instead of the cramped area with ticket office and too few barriers where you had to fight to get in or out of the door at rush hour, it now opens up into a huge bright glass-​covered space, which at the moment seems to house only the AMT coffee stall and a new M&S Simply Food; but there is the promise (and the room) for more things in here. There’s also a new exit out to the main road where the tram stop is.
After going through the barriers, there is a completely new bridge straddling the platforms, with lifts and escalators as well as stairs.
I’m definitely impressed, even if I did still manage to wind up on the wrong platform for the Glasgow train. If it wasn’t for my Scotrail app telling me that it was on Platform 2 instead of the usual 4, I would have missed it!

I’ve been travelling to and from Haymarket over the past few weeks for work in Edinburgh. As a result, I’ve got pretty familiar with the station. Since the revamp, it’s a whole lot more spacious and it’s certainly impressive in size.
However, in comparison to the plethora of food stands in Glasgow Queen Street and the shops on offer in Glasgow Central, Haymarket does fall a little short on that side of things; with just an M&S Food and an AMT coffee stand. And most of the platforms are outside which isn’t too great for those cold winter mornings. And come to think of it, they could do with a few more ticket barriers considering the size of the station.
But, hey, it’s not all bad! — Credit where credit’s due, it is looking modern, fresh and spacious since the revamp.

After the recent transformation and construction works, The Haymarket Train Station is now a ‘major player’ in the train station league: o)
Whereas the old station was build using stone and wood, and was quite dark on the platforms. The new incarnation uses glass, steel and plenty opportunities for natural light to penetrate throughout!
There are more automatic ticket machines, a few ticket offices and quite a few (still to be occupied) shopping units. It almost feels continental. Almost.
I like it.

I think I’m going to be a bit controversial here and rate this station on what it is quickly becoming… a year ago it was functional, but just grim to put it politely. The new entrance is now open however and suddenly there is a glimmer of hope… it went from being a cramped and dingy place, to something that wouldn’t stand out at as bad at Canary Wharf… great open space for such a small station.
My only real grip at the moment is that there is little in the actual station, but the mini M&S having opened up recently helps with this and they will certainly open a few small shops on the platforms when the renovation completes… lets face it, this isn’t likely a station that you would spend hours in, so I guess it doesn’t need much to be fair.
I like that this is a smaller station, but this lends itself to being busy at peak business times into and out of the city so if you’re travelling at those hours keep that in mind.
The things to look out for are a) faulty self service ticket machines, and b) slippery floors in the lobby when it is raining… that shiny surface looks great for presentation, but not exactly rushing commuter friendly when the floors get a bit wet.
So here’s to you Haymarket, keep up the good work!

Hopped off the train at the new look Haymarket station yesterday, and I’m quite impressed. It’s a lot bigger, very modern, spacious and light and a big improvement on the old cramped space that passed for a major station and an important airport transfer link.
There’s no an escalator up rather than the old rickety stairs, and it’s just a lot nicer to hang about in.
Having said that, I’m not sure if they’ll be using the old frontage of the station or not — I hope so, as it’d be a shame to see it go to waste.

Holy crap. They’ve rebuilt the station. Here is Alex’s 4 point plan to improving the experience
1) Taxis — WTF stop them from queing in stupid places.
2) ticket machines — the screen are designed for people who are about 4 feet tall. Sort this out. It took me 10 minutes to collect 3 pairs of tickets the other day. The screen was so thick that I had to press an inch south of the letter I was trying to push to get it to work. When you;ve got to type in 3 10 character codes this is more frustrating than someone with no man parts going to SXSW.
3) It’s massive — put something in there for me to look at — Whitespace works in websites — not in buildings. Get a coffee kiosk in the middle or something — preferably something artisan.
4) Cost to get to Glasgow. Seriously I want to pay £2 less because I’m not going from Waverly.
K.Thanks.Bye.

In the past I did not think much of this station, however, now it looks amazing. The old has been replaced by a modern architecture of some sort, stone walls turned glass, and its airy and light.
Plenty of ticket machines are available. Some offer credit card payments only. There is also a main ticket office.
The staff is very helpful.
One coffee shop inside (AMT) and another outside (Starbucks very near). Certainly there are plenty of other coffee shops in close proximity. Still, I am looking forward to a few more shops to be opened within the building.
I would hope there are toilets. Have not seen any yet.
The sheltered waiting area is large with limited sitting possibilities. But lets be honest, its better to stand or move around when its cold.
The platforms are clean.
There are barriers and you need a ticket to get through.

An update in my last review, since the improvements have been made. Unfortunatley I wanted to improve my 3 stars… but alas I cant. Yes the improvements have been made and you can see the results, but its still so bleak. Why are train stations always so cold even although they have an indoor waiting area?
This is a well used station, more effort needed !!!

The site of much building just now (October 2013) we seem to be heading towards a new Haymarket before too long. Such is the impact these Edinburgh trams are having on the city that Haymarket is gearing up to be a proud, upstanding transport hub and interchange. I see no reason to doubt that once everything’s in place all will be well: trains, trams, buses and taxis in close proximity, the airport a short ride away.
For now though: two stars for functioning as well as it does through the upheaval but with much room for improvement.

Very possibly the coldest train station I’ve ever been to.
Haymarket station is unfortunately entirely outdoors, even the indoors bits because they’re still not impervious to the wind and cold. It’s a much smaller station than Edinburgh Waverley, but sometimes seems to be just as busy. There’s a pumpkin coffee shop for some half decent food/​drink, but pretty much no other amenities. Toilets I suppose.
I don’t think Haymarket is a bad station even though I’m sounding quite negative about it. I’ve spent a lot of time at the station in the 2 and a half years I’ve been in a relationship with someone from Fife, but it just isn’t a pleasant addition to any travelling experience.

As far as railway stations go, this is one I don’t look forward travelling through. There’s no indoor part to wait, and I get cold easily. There are lots of ‘middle lanes’ between tracks and I don’t like waiting on those parts (fear of someone falling onto the tracks). There’s a wee Starbucks outside for half-​decent coffee, and one wee Pumpkin inside for half decent food. The entrance is small and there are now automatic barriers which make it really tough to get through in rush hour, with all the people. There just isn’t generally much good about this station really. It’s not terrible, just not a very enjoyable part of the train-​travelling experience.

I commute to here every day, so I have become used to the place.
They have barriers, so you can’t get away with a cheeky free ride, and one day when my card wouldn’t work on any of their handheld Chip and Pin machines, one of the women who work here literally came to the ATM with me and stood behind me incase I dodged my fare. Red neck.
The toilets on platform 4, which I often have to use before my one hour commute, stink to hell. Don’t do it if you don’t absolutely have to.
The wee shop on platform 4 is a good asset too, if you’d like to pick up a magazine or an over-​priced snack before your journey. The staff here are very nice and friendly too, especially one of the guys, he is always so cheery!
Wee tip — If you’re commuting to Motherwell or Glasgow Central, get the Cross Country train which only takes 40 mins to Motherwell and about an hour to Glasgow. Much quicker, just make sure you get on first so you can get a seat!

Haymarket is quite a nice train station, if a little small. Although for it’s faults to be perfectly honest it doesn’t really need to be there! Edinburgh Waverly is a mere 3 minutes (on train, about 15 by foot) away and its sphere of influence is practically the same as Waverly! But I must admit I sometimes go to Haymarket rather than Waverly for a quieter, simplier train-​station experience.
The building itself is really nice and traditional, and it’s really easy to navigate around. As there are only 4 platforms, it’s relatively easy to find the one for you. There are some lovely bars in the area and a particularly good Starbucks just outside it.
Whenever the rugby is on, Haymarket gets mobbed. So look out for that!!!