Every weekday, there is a SWR service that arrives in Branksome at 09:02am, only to terminate there. 13 minutes later, another service starts from that station heading in the opposite direction. That may seem normal to you but the point I am trying to make is that Branksome is not an obvious place to terminate a passenger service given that it is sandwiched between two larger and much more important towns (Bournemouth and Poole). The traincare depot nearby could have something to do with it though.
It’s not just Branksome though. St James’s Park in Exeter now has the Barnstaple trains terminating there (they used to continue to Exmouth before that line gained an additional train to Paignton), yet it would make more sense to terminate them at Exeter Central until the time comes to extend it properly to Axminster. I can’t imagine an awful lot of people are willing to travel between these two stations while those that do already have the half-hourly Exmouth service at hand.
Are there any other stations like these across the country? I mean one on a through route that is inferior to another nearby station in terms of size and passenger numbers, yet has services terminating there.
It’s not just Branksome though. St James’s Park in Exeter now has the Barnstaple trains terminating there (they used to continue to Exmouth before that line gained an additional train to Paignton), yet it would make more sense to terminate them at Exeter Central until the time comes to extend it properly to Axminster. I can’t imagine an awful lot of people are willing to travel between these two stations while those that do already have the half-hourly Exmouth service at hand.
Are there any other stations like these across the country? I mean one on a through route that is inferior to another nearby station in terms of size and passenger numbers, yet has services terminating there.