Wakefield Westgate Railway Station

Wakefield Westgate is way better than what it used to be.
It now has those annoying ass ticket barriers that I cannot stand (the ones at Leeds are incredibly annoying), but unfortunately it seems like they’re here to stay and other than that it isn’t too bad.
For a start there’s a better choice of places to eat and drink while you wait for your train. No pub, but there’s a Subway open until 10pm, a costa coffee and a Gregg’s at the moment. Not a fan of either, but hey… It’s an improvement on the crappy newsagent and terrible Pumpkin café in the old Westgate. Would have been nice to have a good café in there that isn’t a chain like the ‘Station Buffet’ on platform 8 in Huddersfield!
There’s also better access for wheelchair users and the less able with lifts, which I bet is amazing news for them as before getting across to the platform to get to Leeds and the north was a right hassle!
The toilets aren’t disgusting and incredibly small either, but it sucks how it seems like toilets are only available to people with tickets to get through the barriers as they are outside on the platforms (there’s also a disabled one just as you get through the barriers). I know train companies are trying to stamp out ticket evasions (while pricing people off the train and onto buses and only caring about the shareholders), but depriving people who are waiting in the main concourse of being able to take a crap is silly. My other peeve is having to go outside in the elements if I need to do my business. I should only have to go outside if my train is here!
Not much seats in the concourse also sucks. There ain’t many ticket machines either come to think of it! Why should you have to talk to one of their jobsworths to get a ticket?
Now Kirkgate needs a refurb!

Wakefield Westgate has pretty much everything you need in a train station, despite being fairly small. There is a huge car park, and the free city bus also stops right outside. There are manned ticket desks as well as self service ticket machines, and a separate desk to purchase tickets for future travel — although be warned, there can be a long wait for this service! There is also a café, a coffee stall and two newsagents as well as a pub quiz machine (handy when the train is inevitably delayed!), toilets, an atm, taxi rank and information desk. The trains are regular, particularly the ones to Leeds and London. Only downside is the lack of a lift, which a previous reviewer mentioned — I have often thought that this might cause difficulties for the less mobile.

A small but surprisingly busy town centre railway station. I guess it’s surprisingly busy because of the fact that it’s the penultimate stop on the main London to Leeds route, so there are big inter-​city trains pulling up all the time. But there are also quite a few local services that pass through here so all in all, it’s not quiet!
There are only two platforms, one northbound and one southbound, with a bridge connecting them. When I used the station I wasn’t overly impressed with the signage — as someone who was very unfamiliar with the place it took me a couple of minutes to work out I needed to cross over to the other side for my train to Leeds.
There were if I recall a number of facilities there but I didn’t use them so I’m afraid I can’t comment on whether they’re any good.

The service at this station is disgusting, i am disabled as were two other members of our party when returning from an holiday, we also had cases and a baby in pram and arrived on stand 2 only to find not only were there no lifts but staff complained and whined about us asking them to cross us over and even suggested it would be quicker and less hassle for them if we attempted to carry the pushchair ourselfs and cases over the three flights of stairs ourselves (bare in mind i am on oxygen too and told them this) when we finally did get help they were very off hand and made us know quite clearly we had disturbed the conversation we had been watching themhold for the last fifteen minutes while we waited. The toilets here are dirty also and very hard to manouve round, this station as no adaptions or consideration for disbled and the staff are lazy ponpus and rude

Wakefield Westgate might be one of my favourite railway stations. It is a small but busy station and reminds me a bit of an airport in that way.
It has got only two platforms that are in use, but there are trains coming and going all the time.
What I really like about Wakefield westgate is that it has a lot of facilities: there is a manned info point, a café, a ticket office and a rather expensive shop where you can buy magazines, drinks (% also) and sandwiches. Outside the station the is a taxi waiting point and an ATM.
There are also toilets, but I must say that they are very small (the mens, dont know about the other one).
I also like the ‘A Light Wave’ artwork created by Charles Quick — makes the station recognisable in a split second.