So, London obviously, along with Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool to an extent, and i am sure there are others. All have more than one city centre station.
How long till other cities require another major central station, Sheffield? Leeds? Newcastle? Cardiff? Bristol? And again im sure there are others.
And can it actually be done in these cases?
Well lets go through them one at a time.
Sheffield: They used to have two stations the current one Midland, and the former Great Central Railway one called Victoria. This was closed along with the short sighted closure of the Woodhead route. Although having all the services based on one central station is actually beneficial for Sheffield.
Leeds: Well Leeds used to have three stations, the current Leeds Station is actually a merger of two of them. First the main through part which was the LNWR & NER Joint Station, called Leeds New. The current terminal platforms are the reopened and reduced Leeds Wellington Station, which was the Midland Railway station. The third one was a joint station between four railways. It was called Leeds Central, joint between the LYR, LNWR, NER & GNR. The platforma were quite short and it was very cramped.
Yes Leeds does need enlarging, but it would be better if the could run the services through Leeds rather than terminating them there. A reversing platform at East Gorforth would be helpful, plus if there was any money spare, reopening the line to Weatherby would be much better than spending great sums on Leeds City Station for limited return
Newcastle: Basically there has only been one station in Newcstle, it is very central and there is no need for a second station
Cardiff: This city actually has two stations already, Central & Queen Street, although there is a need to enlarge Queen Street, there is no real need for any more main cities stations in Cardiff
Bristol: Well Bristol has only ever had the one station which was joint between the Midland & Great Western Railways. I don't think that it is possible for a more central station to be built without rediculous expense.
I would be too worried about trying to get second stations for these five cities, I am sure that most of us could come up with Cities & Towns which could do with a first station.
Some of my choices are:-
- Frazerburgh
- Peterhead
- St. Andrews
- Hawick
- Kirkcudbright
- Oswestry
- Brecon
- Ilfracombe
- Torrington
- Radstock
- Wells
- Tavistock
- Okehampton
- Market Weighton
- Ripon
I am sure that others will come up with additional places.