Most Successful New Station

[Starmill]

Calling at Dronfield the other day and reading about it's success on Wikipedia (can be a bit dodgy I know) and looking where it is on satellite imagery (looks like a no-brainier for a place for a station, long way from alternative, far enough to Sheffield/Chesterfield to be competitive with buses and fairly densely surrounded by housing) made me think it must have done really well as a re-opening: imagine if it had never been built? (Though in this specific case I'm not sure if it can be counted as 'open' between 1981 and 2008 - did any trains stop there!?)

Anyway where do you think is the most successful new station, having opened in, say, the last 25 years, excluding moved or 'replacement for' stations but including new stations on new lines (admittedly this may still leave grey areas, I've one in mind, but we'll see what comes up). This could be measured in terms of the busiest 'new' station (will this just be Corby?) at present - or the station which most exceeded it's estimated usage.

By the same token, which new stations have fallen most short of expectations?

 

[Class 92]

East Midlands Parkway is probable the least used new station?

 

[7Pinza]

Mansfield must be up there if you regard this as 'new'.
For years was supposedly the largest town without a station. I guess some on the East London line must be amongst heaviest used 'new-ish' ones.

 

[RichmondCommu]

East Midlands Parkway is probable the least used new station?

I concur! A white elephant if ever there was one! Anything within the LO network has proved to be very successful thanks to the timetable and dare I say it the class 378's.

 

[Starmill]

Mansfield must be up there if you regard this as 'new'.
For years was supposedly the largest town without a station. I guess some on the East London line must be amongst heaviest used 'new-ish' ones.

Interesting! Not familiar with the area to know if any count as not 'replacement' stations. I thought the Robin Hood line was a bit older than it actually is too.

 

[The Planner]

Warwick Parkway

 

[8J]

I've got to say Liverpool South Parkway has been regarded as a success by rail officials, but in my opinion, it is a white elephant.

 

[Metrailway]

Haddenham & Thame Parkway. 27 not 25 years old though...

 

[Starmill]

I've got to say Liverpool South Parkway has been regarded as a success by rail officials, but in my opinion, it is a white elephant.

Haddenham & Thame Parkway. 27 not 25 years old though...

LPY would appear to be busier - and considerably younger than HDM - however it was a replacement for two stations (Allerton and Garston, if memory serves?) so it counts less, I think, than HDM - if the latter was building it's own new passenger base, albeit having had nearly 30 years to do so!

 

[RichmondCommu]

Interesting! Not familiar with the area to know if any count as not 'replacement' stations. I thought the Robin Hood line was a bit older than it actually is too.

starmill as I recall the line was opened to stages, intially only to Newstead.

 

[Qwerty133]

East Midlands Parkway is probable the least used new station?

Coleshill parkway has lower usage figures, much lower than more than 1 station on the same line with half the service level, and this is with free parking to encourage use.

 

[yorksrob]

City Thameslink,

5m entries and exits in 2011/12, and I count it as new because its younger than I am.

 

[Mojo]

Filton Abbey Wood station in Greater Bristol, opened in 1996. May possibly count as a re-siting rather than a totally new station, but the old station barely had any trains call there and was in a different location a bit down the track. 0.852 Million journeys per annum.

 

[Starmill]

...(admittedly this may still leave grey areas, I've one in mind, but we'll see what comes up)....

City Thameslink,

5m entries and exits in 2011/12, and I count it as new because its younger than I am.

You got it!

Was there nothing on NR that served what it serves before?

I thought somebody might try St Pancras too

 

[Philip Elliott]

Does Meadowhall fit into 25 years?

 

[yorksrob]

You got it!

Was there nothing on NR that served what it serves before?

Well, Holborn viaduct, but it was really a Southern terminus in a slightly different location, so I'd say it counts as a different station.

Plus, it went through an official closure I believe.

 

[CallySleeper]

Robin Hood Line was opened in stages between 1993 and 1998, though much of the line existed pre-Beeching.

East Midlands Parkway is a pity, it's a shame the bus link to the airport never made an impact IMO.

 

[Starmill]

Wiki says 1990 for Meadowhall so yes - and it's very busy at 2.1 million. I think Brightside rather closed as a result of Meadowhall didn't it rather than it being an intended replacement? If the closure of anything else between Sheffield and Doncaster wasn't related to it, maybe it could count...

 

[tbtc]

Calling at Dronfield the other day and reading about it's success on Wikipedia (can be a bit dodgy I know) and looking where it is on satellite imagery (looks like a no-brainier for a place for a station, long way from alternative, far enough to Sheffield/Chesterfield to be competitive with buses and fairly densely surrounded by housing) made me think it must have done really well as a re-opening: imagine if it had never been built? (Though in this specific case I'm not sure if it can be counted as 'open' between 1981 and 2008 - did any trains stop there!?)

Don't quote me on BR days, but RRNE/ Northern Spirit/ ATN used to stop a couple of services a day there (officially Sheffield - Chesterfield shorts, but generally ran through onto Leeds services - this was when the local operator filled some of the gaps between the erratic Cross Country services from Sheffield to Leeds - this was pre-Voyagers).

Later on, Northern retrenched to stop serving Chesterfield and the calls were picked up by EMT services (towards Nottingham) and XC services - not that there was much room on a busy Voyager to accommodate all of the commuters.

Basically, Dronfield was a bit like Chester-le-Street - a local station on a line with no local services. Now there's a Northern service from Nottingham to Leeds, which fills that remit (to an extent).

As for local examples of "successful" new stations - would you count Meadowhall? Over two million exits/entrances a year isn't shabby. But then there's the argument about whether it's a "new" station, or a replacement for the lightly used Brightside station (that can still be seen a couple of hundred yards closer to Sheffield)

As for other stations - convention dictates that someone is bound to mention Ebbw Vale as being a success whilst Corby is generally seen as a relative failure - however the two have fairly similar passenger numbers (for one train an hour). Does "success" just depend on passenger numbers, or on expectations (in which case you'd expect Corby to have much higher numbers, so seems a relative "failure", even though they are both around the 200,000 mark)

 

[RichmondCommu]

East Midlands Parkway is a pity, it's a shame the bus link to the airport never made an impact IMO.

But the airport itself was never going to be enough to ensure that East Midlands Parkway would successful. HS2 can learn some valuable lessons from this!

 

[yorksrob]

But the airport itself was never going to be enough to ensure that East Midlands Parkway would successful. HS2 can learn some valuable lessons from this!

Interesting point. Would be interesting to know what sort of passenger usage the original Gatwick Airport station had (note, not Gatwick Racecourse ) when it first opened !

 

[Starmill]

This may be an appropriate time for me to 'reveal my colours' as it were;

Manchester Airport? Opened only in 93, 3m+ passengers, nowt there before?

 

[RichmondCommu]

Interesting point. Would be interesting to know what sort of passenger usage the original Gatwick Airport station had (note, not Gatwick Racecourse ) when it first opened !

I would suggest that Gatwick has always been much busier than the EMA! Outside of the SE and Manchester and Birmingham people are far more likely to drive to the airport. Even then many people from the North Midlands chose to fly from Manchester and yet in reality most seem to drive.

 

[ic250]

East Midlands Parkway is probable the least used new station?

What I cannot understand about East Midlands Parkway is why an earth they built it in Ratcliffe-on-soar? If it was built a few miles to the south, near Kegworth and the campus of Nottingham Uni, surely it would get a much greater footfall? It seems bizarre that they built it in the middle of nowhere.

 

[RichmondCommu]

This may be an appropriate time for me to 'reveal my colours' as it were;

Manchester Airport? Opened only in 93, 3m+ passengers, nowt there before?

Good point but Greater Manchester is a huge connurbation! I don't think this could be compared against East Midlands Parkway.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

What I cannot understand about East Midlands Parkway is why an earth they built it in Ratcliffe-on-soar? If it was built a few miles to the south, near Kegworth and the campus of Nottingham Uni, surely it would get a much greater footfall? It seems bizarre that they built it in the middle of nowhere.

Essentially the location was chosen because of its proximity to the A50, the A453 and the M1.

 

[Starmill]

Good point but Greater Manchester is a huge connurbation! I don't think this could be compared against East Midlands

Totally agree. But in terms of Most Successful Station either outright or versus predictions?

 

[thenorthern]

Corby has been relatively successful yes.

Also 20/21 years ago Manchester Airport station opened which has been very successful, I may be biased though because of who designed it.

 

[Deerfold]

East Midlands Parkway is probable the least used new station?

Mansfield must be up there if you regard this as 'new'.

For all the talk of it being a white elephant, passenger numbers at East Midlands Parkway (0.28 million) are only about 25% below those of Mansfield (0.37 million).

West Yorkshire has some successes -
Steeton and Silsden 0.79 million
Saltaire 0.79 million


Streethouse and Pontefract Tanshelf were less successful (0.03 million, 0.04 million)


(All figures 2012-13)

 

[fowler9]

I've got to say Liverpool South Parkway has been regarded as a success by rail officials, but in my opinion, it is a white elephant.

Sorry mate but I really can't disagree more without frankly being rude. That is bobbins. It has turned in to a proper transport hub. It links up the 3 main bus routes in the south of the city, a bus link to the airport which is used by a lot of people, direct trains to Manchester, Birmingham and beyond. It has all the people who used to use Garston Station,the couple of people a day who used to use Allerton Station plus a hell of a lot more. You should see it in the morning and evening peak. Brian Souters company Stagecoach I believe originally said it was a white elephant, the bus park is now full of Stagecoach buses for most of the day.

 

[cjp]

Not sure how you would measure most succesful but Conon Bridge serves a need and apparently has been a Good Thing