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Inconveniently Sited Stations

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DynamicSpirit

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What stations do you know that would be significantly more useful/convenient if either the station or the station entrance was in a slightly different place?

A couple of bugbear examples of mine:

Charing Cross: The platforms extend right over Embankment tube station, but there's no useful entrance there! There is a morning-peak-only exit, but it is slightly indirect and involves a rather large number of stairs. I imagine a proper entrance there would be very welcome to a lot of station users.
Crayford: The platforms are right behind the Sainsburys and the rest of the town centre, but there's no entrance leading that way out of the station. Result: To get to Crayford Town Centre you have to double back via Station Road, a distance of around 250-300m, even though the town centre is actually much closer than that.

What are other people's favourite bugbears for stations that are much more awkward to get to than they ought to be?

To satisfy pedants, these are the rules for valid suggestions:
  • You can move the entrance of a station, or provide a new entrance.
  • You can move the platforms, or move the entire station any distance along the tracks, provided that makes it better serve substantially the same community it is intended to serve. You can't move a station so far that it ends up serving a completely community instead.
And out of scope for this thread:
  • Awkward design or circulation spaces within a station
  • The benefit needs to be substantial. Moving the entrance to save people 5 metres of walking is not substantial. Moving it so that most passengers are saved 200 metres of walking is fine
  • You can't change where the railway line runs. Yes, I know that Bournemouth, for example, would be a lot better sited for the town centre if it was about 500 metres further South-West. But that's not where the railway is, so it's not a valid suggestion.
 
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Ken H

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Skipton. Too far from the town. Should have built a new station where the old bitumen sidings were, but they built Tesco instead. Would have been close to the bus station.
Carlisle. Built it north of Victoria car park. its feasable, its just car parking. Bit floody tho :(

Of course i could mention Clapham(Yorks) and Dent. But as they say 'Why did they build Dent station so far from Dent Village?' 'Happen they wanted it near t'railway lines' :)
 

MadMac

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Of course i could mention Clapham (Yorks) and Dent. But as they say 'Why did they build Dent station so far from Dent Village?' 'Happen they wanted it near t'railway lines' :)

See also Barrhill and East Kilbride (among others), although in the case of the latter, it could be argued that the town wasn't built near the railway.....
 

Esker-pades

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Crayford: The platforms are right behind the Sainsburys and the rest of the town centre, but there's no entrance leading that way out of the station. Result: To get to Crayford Town Centre you have to double back via Station Road, a distance of around 250-300m, even though the town centre is actually much closer than that.

There is. I commuted to/from Crayford to get to school for 7 years and alway used the gate at the country end of platform 2. That leads through the fairly new-build apartments and out onto the Dartford Road by the ex-Town Hall. This entirely avoids Station Road.
 

Pigeon

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Worcester Shrub Hill - should have a second entrance on the other side so the redundant sidings area can be used as a car park with access from Sherriff Street.

St Pancras - MML platforms should be moved southwards so they have ready access to the Underground, instead of being so far away that it cries out for a wee spur line and a shuttle service to bridge the gap.

Paddington - haven't tried it myself but I've seen posts on here saying that you can't get to the Metropolitan platforms using the bridge at the west end any more. If this is true it needs to be reverted. At one time I used that access route regularly and it must be a really bloody long way round now if you can't.
 

Ianno87

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Paddington - haven't tried it myself but I've seen posts on here saying that you can't get to the Metropolitan platforms using the bridge at the west end any more. If this is true it needs to be reverted. At one time I used that access route regularly and it must be a really bloody long way round now if you can't.

You mean the horrible, narrow, highly congested old footbridge without step free access? That one?

From the main platforms, the new way round isn't that much longer. Plus the Relief Lines will be going straight into Crossrail in the nearish future, reducing the need for interchange.
 

cle

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Worcester Shrub Hill - should have a second entrance on the other side so the redundant sidings area can be used as a car park with access from Sherriff Street.

St Pancras - MML platforms should be moved southwards so they have ready access to the Underground, instead of being so far away that it cries out for a wee spur line and a shuttle service to bridge the gap.

Paddington - haven't tried it myself but I've seen posts on here saying that you can't get to the Metropolitan platforms using the bridge at the west end any more. If this is true it needs to be reverted. At one time I used that access route regularly and it must be a really bloody long way round now if you can't.
You can, but it's a slight loop around (via where the taxis are now) - still at the Paddington Basin end.
 

swt_passenger

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St Pancras - MML platforms should be moved southwards so they have ready access to the Underground, instead of being so far away that it cries out for a wee spur line and a shuttle service to bridge the gap.
Impossible on a tight curve.
Paddington - haven't tried it myself but I've seen posts on here saying that you can't get to the Metropolitan platforms using the bridge at the west end any more. If this is true it needs to be reverted. At one time I used that access route regularly and it must be a really bloody long way round now if you can't.
It isn’t really true. It’s only slightly longer using a different bridge outside the gateline, and there’s now far more space.
 

ld0595

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Stranraer is pretty inconveniently located as it's a 15 minute walk from the town centre. Moreso nowadays given that the ferry terminal has moved.
 

HowardGWR

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Arguably, Salisbury, moved eastwards next to the central car park. I did write 'arguably'. Perhaps a local member could comment?
 

vic-rijrode

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Oxford and Cambridge - both sited well away from the respective city centre because of the Universities' opposition to a more convenient location in case it encouraged loose behaviour from the students.
 

HowardGWR

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Oxford and Cambridge - both sited well away from the respective city centre because of the Universities' opposition to a more convenient location in case it encouraged loose behaviour from the students.
Hang on, the OP said you have to move it along the line or it's not admissable!
 

Ethano92

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Ockendon-station is right at the edge of the town rather we really than in the middle. Might be something to do with it being a passing loop on a single track line.

Leigh on sea for whatever reason is to the west of the town centre. Perhaps it's to fit a large station car park.

Stations like carshalton beeches or lea bridge where there isn't an entrance on the main road that passes over them, but on a side road
 

MadMac

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Stranraer is pretty inconveniently located as it's a 15 minute walk from the town centre. Moreso nowadays given that the ferry terminal has moved.
That crossed my mind, but I've seen it written that the old Town station location is little, if any, better.
 

syorksdeano

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Long Eaton surely has to be on this list. Nowhere near the town centre unless you fancy a long walk, however another line actually runes alongside the town centre.

Crowle - again seems to be nowhere near civilisation, but not quite sure how you could move it.
 

robk23oxf

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Oxford and Cambridge - both sited well away from the respective city centre because of the Universities' opposition to a more convenient location in case it encouraged loose behaviour from the students.

If Oxford station were relocated the short distance to Oxpens it would make a lot more sense.
 

johntea

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Pontefract has always had a bit of a poor deal having three stations...but none of them really that useful to visit the town centre! Tanshelf/Monkhill are both a 15-20 minute steady walk, not sure about Baghill but that doesn’t have a frequent enough service anyway from the key locations!
 

Dryce

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Keith station is a bit out of the way - the Keith and Dufftown's station Keith Town is closer to the village centre.

Dent station is a considerable distance and uphill from Dent.

Alnmouth station might be more accurately renamed Hipsburn.
 

TBY-Paul

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Stockton: Now that Thompson's has closed and planning for housing has been approved on the site, there is enough land to create an island platform station between Bishopton road and Oxbridge lane using the now defunct sidings.

Benefits:
Easy cross platform transfers*.
Land available to the west for a large station car park.
Main entrance would be somewhere in the Dovecot street area, with other entrances to the north & south ends of the platforms (depending on platform lengths).
It would give scope to move, the existing, lines at the present station away from the flats and thus increase the line speed (I believe there is a 30mph speed restriction through the present station because of the flats).
* cross platform transfers would be useful if future services were to use the station e.g Northern connect, TPE, Cross-country(if diverted to free up paths on the ECML.
 

DynamicSpirit

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If Oxford station were relocated the short distance to Oxpens it would make a lot more sense.

Out of interest, how would that work? Looking at Google maps, and assuming it remained on the existing railway line (as specified in the starting post), wouldn't that make it harder, rather than easier, to get to the town centre, and to get any public transport access to the station?
 

DynamicSpirit

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Georgemas Junction: There to serve Halkirk, but misses it entirely. Should be shifted back towards Inverness.

That would certainly be more convenient for Halkirk. It would however mean that trains between Georgemas and Thurso would have to reverse in a siding away from any station. Plus any journeys between Georgemas and Wick would take a lot longer (although I suspect that wouldn't impact that many passengers).
 

Esker-pades

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That would certainly be more convenient for Halkirk. It would however mean that trains between Georgemas and Thurso would have to reverse in a siding away from any station. Plus any journeys between Georgemas and Wick would take a lot longer (although I suspect that wouldn't impact that many passengers).
As part of that re-build, I'd construct a chord that by-passed the former Georgemas Junction meaning that Inverness to Thurso trains wouldn't have to reverse. I'd also cater for cross-platform interchange between the main Inverness to Thurso train and a Wick shuttle.
 

Emyr

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Salford Crescent could be a better station if it was moved 600m northwest to the triangle between Frederick Road and the junction between the Atherton and Bolton lines.

At this point, both lines are double tracked. From what I can see, there is an unused bridge span to the west of the current Atherton alignment, adjacent to Strawberry Rd, so there is space for a platform over there for the westmost line, or that line could be moved to make space for an island platform.

The Bolton lines have less space around them, but possible enough for a platform on the east side.

The triangle in between the lines is about 10 times the area of the street-level part of the current station.
 
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