Did London Bridge deserve its award?

I frequently visit Llandudno and always stay at the same hotel, which is consistently the best hotel I have ever used in Britain. ‘Flash in the pan’? Well I have made 70 visits in the past 14 years!

It therefore always amazes me when TripAdvisor has 91% of reviewers agreeing that it’s excellent, yet 3% say it’s ‘poor’ or ‘terrible’. Who are these 3% - the jealous hotels nearby, perhaps?

When it comes to RAIL’s National Rail Awards, I know half the judges and greatly respect their views. But when I read in RAIL 862 that the Class 700 Thameslink train was Train of the Year, and the major station it serves (London Bridge) was Major Station of the Year, I realised I was in the TripAdvisor 3% brigade!

I appreciate the Class 700 is reliable and has a huge capacity, but it tries - and fails - to serve properly the long-distance market. Any train would. Bedford to Brighton in one of those? Appalling. It’s a suburban train - and one of the most uncomfortable ever built. Did the judges actually sit down?

London Bridge is a major redesign with excellent features. But the downsides of insufficient lifts (frequently out of service), one escalator on several platforms, plus toilets being outside the barrier line, should have been heavily criticised and barred it from such an award.