The station has free access to all kinds of outsiders, vendors, local youth, etc. There seems to be no control in admitting only bonafide users. The facilities are inadequate, not properly maintained, platforms and waiting areas are over-flooded with passengers-in-waiting. The arriving passengers have a hard way to find a proper transport system in place. The pre-paid booth and metered taxi queues are not managed properly giving a very bad impression to visitors to the city. The radio-cabs are parked a while away and very inconvenient for passengers even with reasonable luggage to cross over the bays and reach the parking bay. There ought to be a few facilitation kiosks to help and guide the passengers in need of assistance. The roads leading to Howrah Bridge are in very bad shape and stinks of urine all the time. A planned make-over of this busy station is the need of the hour.
------- Edited on 2015-11-09 -------
The station is too congested at peak hours of the day. However, the traffic management outside the station is horrific and most unsystematic. Unless you are a local person, a passenger will find it very difficult to make his way from Howrah Station to the City of Kolkata, which is just across the River Ganges. The nexus between police and taxi operators is the root cause. Unlike New Delhi and other capitals, why the private taxi operators e.g. Uber, Ola, etc have not been allotted one dedicated lane. It is most annoying to carry luggage with family members across a few lanes of unruly taxi parked outside to reach the parking bay at a distance for this class of taxis.