A railway station has been labelled a “shambles” after it was shortlisted in a contest to be Britain’s best station.

Watford Junction is shortlisted in the East of England round of the ‘World Cup of Stations’, in which people can have their say on stations’ architecture, place in the community and the service it provides travellers, in a new three-round twitter tournament.

But the station has since been criticised as poor quality and badly planned.

Melanie Mack, who is from Watford, went as far to say that it was so badly planned it could “put passengers in danger”.

She said: “The car park has horrible car and passenger access, feels unsafe in the dark, is too packed, badly planned and takes up valuable ground level space.

“Cars frequently can’t get out of the car park for an hour and the disabled drop off is in the way of buses getting into the station.

“There is also zero planning for passenger drop off and the short-term car park is miles away.”

Mrs Mack added that “stupid” taxi rank placement adds to the car park congestion, while the traffic light sequence in Station Road makes it hard for buses to get through.

She also felt there are not enough gates or toilets, the lifts are often out of order and there is too little space for the number of passengers.

Mrs Mack continued: “Signage and stupid paid-for charity desks are right where people need to walk to the gates, causing massive obstruction.

“There is also unclear signage for millions of Warner Bros tourists who still run across the bus lane as they don’t know where to go.

“The station is a shambles. Knock the whole thing down and start again.”

However, Philip Lewis, from Nascot Wood, Watford, felt the station was well run and the staff were mainly helpful.

But he felt the train service is “poor”.

He said: “It seems to me that more time and effort is used for cycle users than passengers generally, especially those who are dropped off at the station, where is no drop off point in the immediate vicinity of the station.

“The buses seem to have far too much room to the detriment of the car and taxi users. It seems to me to have been badly planned.”