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Stations far from their town/city centre

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johnnychips

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On another thread, there was an argument that a problem with Dundee's station was that it was too far from the centre of the city. I didn't think it was that far; maybe five minutes or so on foot. Then I started thinking about other stations and their accessibility to the town or city they serve. I'll have to exclude London as the terminals are on the edge then linked by Tube, but the best ones I can think of are:

Doncaster (my home town), out of the station, and straight into the bus station and shopping centre.
Leeds likewise - you seem to be in the centre straight away.

York and Sheffield seem to be a bit of a walk, but not excessive.

The two worst ones I can think of are Cambridge and Gent Sint Pieters (in Belgium), which seem to be a mile from their centres.

Any other good and bad examples?
 
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exile

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I don't see the problem with raising this issue again. There will be new forum members who haven't seen the old thread and may have something original to contribute
 

ex-railwayman

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Yes, us noobs are still catching up on everything. :)

When it re-opened in 1973, Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway was nowhere near Mansfield, in fact, Alfreton is in a different county altogether, I wonder if other stations were in different counties that served a town ??

Cheerz. ex-railwayman
 

starrymarkb

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Yes, us noobs are still catching up on everything. :)

When it re-opened in 1973, Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway was nowhere near Mansfield, in fact, Alfreton is in a different county altogether, I wonder if other stations were in different counties that served a town ??

Cheerz. ex-railwayman

IIRC Yeovil Junction is in Dorset (the County Border runs through the station)
 

Cherry_Picker

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Yes, us noobs are still catching up on everything. :)

When it re-opened in 1973, Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway was nowhere near Mansfield, in fact, Alfreton is in a different county altogether, I wonder if other stations were in different counties that served a town ??

Cheerz. ex-railwayman

Parkway stations by their very nature are a ways off from the town they are named after. As for the county thing? Haddenham & Thame Parkway straddles the border between Buckinghamshire (Haddenham) and Oxfordshire (Thame). The station itself is on the very edge of Haddenham, and about two miles from the larger town of Thame.
 

swcovas

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Yes, us noobs are still catching up on everything. :)

When it re-opened in 1973, Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway was nowhere near Mansfield, in fact, Alfreton is in a different county altogether, I wonder if other stations were in different counties that served a town ??

Cheerz. ex-railwayman

Classic example......Knighton. Town in Wales (Powys), station in England (Salop). Having said that, the town centre is just a 5 minute walk and very pleasant too. Just outside the station is a pub, also in England, which must have provided welcome refreshment for the inhabitants of Knighton when Wales was dry on Sundays. Not to mention the station and engine shed personell up to the mid 60s!
 

Cherry_Picker

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I'd wager that Chirk railway station is as close to the border with England as it is to Chirk town centre. Though in both cases that distance would be a five minute walk.
 

Greenback

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Parkway stations by their very nature are a ways off from the town they are named after. As for the county thing? Haddenham & Thame Parkway straddles the border between Buckinghamshire (Haddenham) and Oxfordshire (Thame). The station itself is on the very edge of Haddenham, and about two miles from the larger town of Thame.

Port Talbot Parkway isn't far from the town centre!

Swansea is quite interesting. As with many places, the city centre has moved over the years. The shopping area is now located much closer to the old Swansea Victoria station, but in the old days High Street, which leads up to the station was a main shopping street. There isn't much on High St now though.

It's also a bit of a walk from Llanelli station to the shopping area. I'm not sure that defining the centre in relatiobn to the shops is necessarily correct though!
 

caliwag

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I think an addition to the thread would be bl++dy dreary walks from stations to the town/city. Here's three examples of how Town Planning is a pathetic prefession...discuss.

Durham...Follow your nose to the Town, and you end up crossing a pathetic curly footbridge to the back of a cr+p shopping centre...a very poor entrance to a delightful city!

Doncaster...what do the planners do...put a fenced off, multi-lane speedway in front of the station, with no obvoius way of following your nose...grim.

Peterborough...each time I've visited this dump, I've ended up in the bus station, going down a narrow width escalator!! WTF is that about? and you know the quality of the environment in your average bus station.

Seem to recall Dundee is similarly divided from where you suppose the City to be. You need to cross a high-speed road on a ghastly wind-swept footbridge, unless 'they' have 'repaired' that ghastly approach to the City. I recall, as a kid, arriving at Dundeed West and entering a bustling urban square...seemed like the big city when you lived in Perth...poor post-war planning again.

There will be many more excuses for urban planning, I welcome all contributions...and ideally from any urban designers, planners, landscape architects out there who have any ideas on how to improve our impoverished urban scene...and the walking routes from station to the bleedin obvious goal...the Town centre!!
 

marks87

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Seem to recall Dundee is similarly divided from where you suppose the City to be. You need to cross a high-speed road on a ghastly wind-swept footbridge, unless 'they' have 'repaired' that ghastly approach to the City.
That's long gone. Although when it was taken down, part of it was left for months afterwards - http://www.flickr.com/photos/adman_as/460390423/ (not my pic).

Anyway, Livingston I think qualifies on both criteria on this thread...twice. Neither of its stations are near the town centre, and both involve dreary walks (mind you, the whole town is pretty depressing).
 

Crossover

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Not massively far from the centre, but one I was discussing with another member the other day was Milton Keynes Central...which isn't particularly central :P

Also, not the most inspiring of walks to get to the centre, either
 

Anon Mouse

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Alnmouth, Brampton (Cumbria) and Levisham
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
add to that Westbury & Castle Cary?
 

D1009

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This thread reminds me of a story dating back to when Pontypool Road was renamed Pontypool. Shortly after this happened a station announcer (can't remember where, I think it was Crewe) was taken to task by his manager for continuing to announce it as Pontypool Road. The announcer then told his manager in no uncertain terms that if he cared to walk from Pontypool Road to Pontypool he would know why the station was called Pontypool Road !!
 

Class172

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Bromsgrove station is quite a distance from the town centre; you have to cross the bypass.
 

caliwag

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Guildford is another classic mess. I had no idea where I was when I landed. Within five minutes I was in a frightening circular underpass, but even when I hit ground level it all seemed an incoherent shambles...(planners??)

Now Cheltenham is indeed a good 30 minute walk but not unpleasent, and little traffic, and you could spend some time trying to retrace the original tramway at that side of town. I understand the original builders were very keen to use the 'country house' which is now the station, which certainly compromised the location. Of coure the old St James's station was perfectly placed but operationally useless. I suppose in the early days all station users would've been met by horse and trap, being Chelters!!

See July and August 1963 Railway World for part 1 and 11 of a nice little illustrated article on Chelteham and Gloucester Railways...available from the usual sources (VCT Ingrow!)
 

12CSVT

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The situation regarding Dent village / Dent station / Garsdale village / Garsdale station is probably unique. As the crow flies, it is 4 miles from Dent village to Dent station, 3 miles from Garsdale village to Garsdale station (straight down the A684 in fact), but less than 2 miles from Garsdale village to Dent station. However you'd probably need crampons and a load of other mountaineering equipment to walk from Garsdale village by the most direct route.
 
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swj99

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Shanklin on the Isle of Wight might be a contender. The reason I say might is that me and a mate were on the island once and got off the train there. We were checking out possible locations for a film. We walked out of the station, and down what appeared to be the main road. We carried on walking for what seemed like ages and eventually gave up and went back to the station.

This experience gave rise to a line of dialogue in the film where one of the actors says "I thought I'd go and have a look round Shanklin, but it was s***, so I turned round and caught the next train back, I'd had enough by then...."

To be fair, Shanklin is quite nice really, you just get a better impression if you go by car.
 

Greenback

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Guildford is another classic mess. I had no idea where I was when I landed. Within five minutes I was in a frightening circular underpass, but even when I hit ground level it all seemed an incoherent shambles...(planners??)

Now Cheltenham is indeed a good 30 minute walk but not unpleasent, and little traffic, and you could spend some time trying to retrace the original tramway at that side of town. I understand the original builders were very keen to use the 'country house' which is now the station, which certainly compromised the location. Of coure the old St James's station was perfectly placed but operationally useless. I suppose in the early days all station users would've been met by horse and trap, being Chelters!!

Cheltenham station is a long way from the centre of the town, but I had no problems whatsoever on my first visit to Guildford. I was in the town centre and located the venue of my meeting within seven minutes! I had plenty of time for a mug of tea and a sandwich!
 
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