Trivia: Towns which do not deserve the service they get

[SWRtrainfan]

Haslemere, because it only has a population of 16 000, yet it gets 4 trains per hour northbound and 3 southbound.

 

[Killingworth]

Haslemere, because it only has a population of 16 000, yet it gets 4 trains per hour northbound and 3 southbound.

Yet Haslemere is the one station in Surrey I've used more than twice, many years ago! It has a wide hinterland, which is why it gets 1.8 million passengers pa. Most of them are longer distance commuters going more than one or two stops and a lot pay first class fares. That said, passenger numbers seem to have remained broadly unchanged in recent years.

 

[Yodiethedog]

Westbury

Westbury has only got a population of 15,000 and gets served by 3 or more trains every hour.

However, further down the line at Frome, the population is 26,000 but it only gets served by about 10 trains a day (I think! Please tell me if this is incorrect!)

 

[Mikey C]

Yet Haslemere is the one station in Surrey I've used more than twice, many years ago! It has a wide hinterland, which is why it gets 1.8 million passengers pa. Most of them are longer distance commuters going more than one or two stops and a lot pay first class fares. That said, passenger numbers seem to have remained broadly unchanged in recent years.

Sir Humphrey Appleby (from Yes Minister) lived in Haslemere, I'm sure he used First Class to come to London

 

[cactustwirly]

Reading - due to the attitude of a large minority of its commuters

Wondered when this one would come up?

Going abroad Campiglia Marritima, is in the middle of basically nowhere, but has IC and FB services from Rome stopping there, as well as RV (Regional Express) services stopping there, meanwhile the nearby San Vincenzo serves a much larger population, has no IC or FB services.

 

[cactustwirly]

Not a town, but Kintbury (population 2,534) must be up there? Off peak hourly service but it does get intercity services in the morning and evening peak.

But that isn't a Intercity service, it's just a peak time crowbuster that uses IC stock, it's effectively just an extension of the Paddington - Bedwyn service

 

[yorkie]

Haslemere, because it only has a population of 16 000, yet it gets 4 trains per hour northbound and 3 southbound.

In that case, Croy because it only has a population of 1,390 yet gets 4 trains per hour in each direction

 

[Horizon22]

Knockholt really doesn't need a half-hourly service.

 

[PTR 444]

Brockenhurst is the obvious contender down south. A village of around 1,000 people served each hour by 4 trains towards Dorset, 3 to London, 1 to Manchester and 2 on the branch line to Lymington. Mind you, the service is a lifeline for those students commuting to college.

 

[swt_passenger]

Brockenhurst is the obvious contender down south. A village of around 1,000 people served each hour by 4 trains towards Dorset, 3 to London, 1 to Manchester and 2 on the branch line to Lymington. Mind you, the service is a lifeline for those students commuting to college.

It’s also where you change from fast to stopping trains. Not that long ago SWT operated a Brockenhurst to Wareham all stations stopper every hour, and Brockenhurst was the change station for anyone wanting many of the minor shacks between there and Bournemouth.

 

[Busaholic]

Sir Humphrey Appleby (from Yes Minister) lived in Haslemere, I'm sure he used First Class to come to London

Being fictional, his journeys presumably weren't recorded though

 

[Ianno87]

Yet Haslemere is the one station in Surrey I've used more than twice, many years ago! It has a wide hinterland, which is why it gets 1.8 million passengers pa. Most of them are longer distance commuters going more than one or two stops and a lot pay first class fares. That said, passenger numbers seem to have remained broadly unchanged in recent years.

I wonder how many of the 1.8 million/year are driving from (say) the Portsmouth area, but use Haslemere as the parking/access is much easier than the Portsmouth area stations?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I wonder how many of the 1.8 million/year are driving from (say) the Portsmouth area, but use Haslemere as the parking/access is much easier than the Portsmouth area stations?

I don't know the area that well, but... if you are coming from the Portsmouth area and avoiding the Portsmouth stations, wouldn't you be more likely to go to Petersfield?

 

[Djgr]

Brockenhurst is the obvious contender down south. A village of around 1,000 people served each hour by 4 trains towards Dorset, 3 to London, 1 to Manchester and 2 on the branch line to Lymington. Mind you, the service is a lifeline for those students commuting to college.

When I was at Brockenhurst you could smell the tumbleweed, and yet the Cross-Country stops there!

 

[ValleyLines142]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Stoke Gifford yet.

Although it is (I believe) a church parish in the southern extremity of Gloucestershire, Bristol Parkway station is close to the motorway and also provides interchange between the London trains and the Intercity Crosscountry network as well as local trains to Filton Abbey Wood and various Avon and Somerset destinations.

Difference with Bristol Parkway though as that it serves Bradley Stoke, which has a population of just over 20,000 as well as UWE which has just over 25,000 students at Frenchay.

 

[chefchenko]

4 tph and we in Congleton only get 1!

Yes true and our Sunday service is horrific , macc though is well used especially northbound into Manchester

 

[CompactDstrxion]

I would challenge some of the assertions further up the thread that Dewsbury doesn't deserve 4 tph each way. Dewsbury is a town of about 70,000. It is also the main railhead for Heckmondwike and any Ossett passengers who are going East/West with good bus and cycle links to both. Each of these towns adds about 20,000 to the population served.

 

[agbrs_Jack]

Yes true and our Sunday service is horrific , macc though is well used especially northbound into Manchester

Maybe it’s so well used as a result of the good service frequency and direct links though!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

When I was at Brockenhurst you could smell the tumbleweed, and yet the Cross-Country stops there!

In (good old) BR days , it had the highest rate of 1st class season ticket holders to that there London ...but then , so did Forest Gate in East London pre 1914.

 

[Alanko]

Linlithgow has received a raw deal from Scotrail's timetable shake up. I know somebody who commutes to Stirling from there, and they have to take a two-part journey to get there. Presumably they take an Edinburgh - Glasgow-via-Cumbernauld train to Grahamston and then jump on an Edinburgh - Dunblane train from there.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

In (good old) BR days , it had the highest rate of 1st class season ticket holders to that there London ...but then , so did Forest Gate in East London pre 1914.

Sorry - I meant Haslemere not Brockenhurst

 

[Bald Rick]

I wonder how many of the 1.8 million/year are driving from (say) the Portsmouth area, but use Haslemere as the parking/access is much easier than the Portsmouth area stations?

I don't know the area that well, but... if you are coming from the Portsmouth area and avoiding the Portsmouth stations, wouldn't you be more likely to go to Petersfield?

Yes you’d go to Petersfield. Much easier to get to. Haslemere isn’t particularly easy from the A3; by the time you’re off at Hindhead and got there you can be most of the way to the Farnham Road car park in Guildford.

Haslemere does, however, attract people from Midhurst and even Chichester.

 

[Tomos y Tanc]

I'd say the most over-served place in a few years time will be Rhymney when the current 1tph service is replaced by a 4tph one. Traffic on the Rhymney Valley line is very light north of Bargoed as it stands and unless there are major developments in the pipeline it's hard to see how 4tph can be justified. Even 2tph would be pushing it for a town of 8,000 people.

 

[HowardGWR]

I don't understand the comments about 'not deserving 4 tph'. For a local service (any public transport) to be a contender to compete with the car between two points, it has to be frequent enough that one can almost forget the timetable. Thus it depends what is the object of that service.

 

[trainophile]

Less than 4tph is okay if the timings fit in with the buses to get you to the station. This is often not the case though, and it's annoying to have to get a bus that means you wait around at the station for ages.

 

[Tomos y Tanc]

I don't understand the comments about 'not deserving 4 tph'. For a local service (any public transport) to be a contender to compete with the car between two points, it has to be frequent enough that one can almost forget the timetable. Thus it depends what is the object of that service.

In an ideal world, sure, but politics is about priorities. The Rhymney Valley line as far as Bargoed certainly derserves 4tph. After that it's running through a pretty sparsely populated area. Meanwhile the Ebbw Vale and Maesteg lines which serve far larger populations will get 2 tph services instead of the current 1tph.

Now, I understand why that is. Increasing the frequency of services on lines which are owned by TfW is easier than increasing them on track owned by Network Rail. The disparity is still pretty startling though.

 

[snookertam]

In that case, Croy because it only has a population of 1,390 yet gets 4 trains per hour in each direction

Or Corrour, because it gets any service...

 

[Jonny]

Carlisle, Darlington, Doncaster, Huddersfield

You forgot Durham. Durham station is bang the middle of a constant traffic nightmare.

 

[work-traveller]

Corrour, Falls of Cruachan, Loch Eil OB and Locheilside all do remarkably well in terms of service relative to population, if I'm not mistaken, none of them have a house within a mile.

Corrour has a restaurant and B&B next to the station, whilst there's a youth hostel about 1/2 mile away.

 

[al78]

Corrour has a restaurant and B&B next to the station, whilst there's a youth hostel about 1/2 mile away.

And is very convenient for access the hills around Rannoch moor, even the Ben Alder group at a pinch.