I decided to try and settle this question with some number-crunching on the CIF timetable data at
http://data.atoc.org/. My verdict is that if you’re looking for ‘most significant town’ then the answer is arguably either
Chatham or
Harlow (And I don't think anyone suggested either of those!). However, if you’re looking purely at numbers of trains, then - full marks to
Lampshade and
philjo for correctly identifying the top two stations –
Vauxhall and
Waterloo East!
In more detail: I worked it by looking at the total numbers of departures from stations for the week 2-8 July.
First a couple of warnings: Getting this data involved some complicated SQL queries – complicated enough that it’s very possible I’ve done something wrong – so feel free to point out if you notice anything odd. (All the data looks sensible to me though). In particular, I haven’t taken account of train associations, which may distort the figures where you have trains splitting or turning into other trains.
So first – a sanity check. Here’s the top 20 stations by departures (ignoring the non-terminating condition).
1 15353 CLAPHAM JUNCTION
2 10023 LONDON BRIDGE
3 6446 VAUXHALL
4 6001 EAST CROYDON
5 5607 STRATFORD (LONDON)
6 5505 LONDON WATERLOO
7 5031 WIMBLEDON
8 5017 BIRMINGHAM NEW STREET
9 4945 LONDON VICTORIA
10 4753 GLASGOW CENTRAL
11 4711 WILLESDEN JUNCTION
12 4702 LONDON WATERLOO EAST
13 4682 MANCHESTER PICCADILLY
14 4562 LONDON LIVERPOOL STREET
15 4347 READING
16 4169 HAYMARKET
17 4101 WOKING
18 4029 MOORFIELDS
19 3967 EARLSFIELD
20 3826 LEEDS
Now for the answer to the question…. The top 20 by trains calling, where nothing terminates.
1 6446 VAUXHALL
2 4702 LONDON WATERLOO EAST
3 3967 EARLSFIELD
4 3521 CANONBURY
5 3046 BROCKLEY
6 3046 FOREST HILL
7 3046 HONOR OAK PARK
8 3046 SYDENHAM
9 2967 RAYNES PARK
10 2865 JAMES STREET (LIVERPOOL)
11 2860 KENSAL GREEN
12 2859 HARLESDEN
13 2832 HAGGERSTON
14 2832 HOXTON
15 2832 ROTHERHITHE
16 2832 SHOREDITCH HIGH STREET
17 2832 SHADWELL
18 2832 WAPPING
19 2832 CANADA WATER <LUL>
20 2832 WHITECHAPEL <LUL>
Unfortunately that list is a bit uninteresting because all but one of the stations are in London, so it doesn’t really tell you the biggest
places – mostly just which stations or on the most frequent metro-style routes in London. So here’s where it gets subjective. I took the list and removed all the stations that I think are only there because they lie on a single high frequency line of local metro services, with no interchange (I left Vauxhall because it lies on about 10 commuter lines). That leaves this top 20:
1 6446 VAUXHALL
2 4702 LONDON WATERLOO EAST
3 2865 JAMES STREET (LIVERPOOL)
4 2723 PECKHAM RYE
5 2466 FARRINGDON <LUL>(LONDON)
6 2457 TOTTENHAM HALE
7 2442 WEMBLEY CENTRAL
8 2385 PUTNEY
9 2085 TULSE HILL
10 2045 EALING BROADWAY
11 1917 SALFORD CRESCENT (LANCS)
12 1911 CHATHAM
13 1898 PAISLEY GILMOUR STREET
14 1865 SMETHWICK GALTON BRIDGE
15 1825 WOOLWICH ARSENAL
16 1788 HARPENDEN
17 1763 BRENTWOOD
18 1665 LIMEHOUSE
19 1550 CHARING CROSS (GLASGOW)
20 1503 HARLOW TOWN
I think that’s more interesting, but still London-dominated. So I tried another approach: So where a town or city had multiple stations in the list, I allowed only the top station. That left this list – which I think is as close to a definitive answer as we’re ever going to get:
1 6446 VAUXHALL
2 2865 JAMES STREET (LIVERPOOL)
3 1917 SALFORD CRESCENT (LANCS)
4 1911 CHATHAM
5 1898 PAISLEY GILMOUR STREET
6 1865 SMETHWICK GALTON BRIDGE
7 1788 HARPENDEN
8 1763 BRENTWOOD
9 1560 BIRKENHEAD PARK
10 1557 GRANGETOWN (CARDIFF)
11 1550 CHARING CROSS (GLASGOW)
12 1503 HARLOW TOWN
13 1500 ASHTEAD
14 1482 BENFLEET
15 1382 HEWORTH
16 1366 SHOREHAM-BY-SEA
17 1311 HATFIELD (HERTS)
18 1271 POTTERS BAR
19 1269 FORD
20 1258 BURGESS HILL
And I reckon the most significant place is Chatham because it’s the highest placed station where there isn’t a terminus station in the same town. (That does however depend on whether you view the town as ‘Chatham’ or as ‘Medway’. If you view Chatham as part of Medway rather than as a town in its own right, then the next ones are Harpenden, Brentwood and Harlow, but Harlow probably wins on being the biggest town. Birkenhead is also in there but suffers the same ambiguity as Chatham - is it a town in its own right or part of Wirral (or even - part of the Liverpool connurbation?)
