Letter: Road trip showed me Northampton bus station is not fit for purpose

We have just travelled to Bolton via National Express to stay for a week with our son and have to comment on the wonderful bus interchanges – not like our one in Northampton. I think maybe our hard pressed council should have had a look around before building the lovely Northgate Bus Station and before demolishing the Greyfriars bus station.

Firstly, Bolton has a very bright, spacious and clean interchange – very well organised and a great standard, running smoothly at all times with regular bus services to just about everywhere in the north.

Birmingham has a super bus station/interchange with a lovely waiting area with two cafes and the WC amenities are free of charge and well used and immaculately clean. There are helpful customer service staff making sure that things are running to standard and helping passengers to catch the correct coaches/buses at all times.

Manchester terminal is also a very high standard as is Coventry – they put Northampton to shame, especially where National Express coaches pick up and deliver their passengers.

Our coach last night pulled into Northampton at 8.25 pm with a double decker bus reversing out of Bay 1 or 2 straight at us due to the lack of space there.

Northampton has nowhere near as much to offer in the way of town centres either.

Bolton might seem to come over as a depressed area but the town centre shops leave Northampton in the dark ages; there was an ice rink as well as a wigwam type drinks area for the festive season, streets that were kept free from litter even over the holiday period and friendly and helpful shop assistants – they greet you with a smile as well.

There were plenty of people shopping in this town which proves they do not all shop online.

Northampton, when will we get get our town back to how it used to be? We are not new to Northampton as we were born here and lived here all of our lives.

Sandra Warner, by email