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Trivia: Less obvious stations on a through route where passenger services terminate/start

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Kite159

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That's right. A couple start from there now. During autumn I noticed a service terminating at Exhibition Centre, I think to keep it away from the Partick/Hyndland corridor.

If a Milngavie service is running late, they get turned at Anderston due to losing the path on the single track branch.
 
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tsr

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West Ealing and Greenford are quite random places to have a shuttle between, whatever the history of the route.

OK, I appreciate there will now be comment about “Greenford not being on a through route”...
 

transmanche

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What about Danby on the line to Whitby?

And there is a Battersby terminator too.
And between the two, there's Castleton Moor. 2N20, the 10:56 from Hexham, terminates at Castleton Moor before heading back to Hexham as 2W39.

Prudhoe. There's one train a day (1N73) which terminates at Prudhoe instead of continuing to Hexham or Carlisle. It then forms a service to Morpeth (2A44).
 

MadMac

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Quite a few in Scotland.

New Cumnock has one daily terminating service (0912 from Glasgow Central). It doesn't even return from there, instead running ECS back to Auchinleck to start from there.

The signalling at New Cumnock can’t do a passenger train starting back from there. On a related note, there was talk of New Cumnock being the limit of electrification on the G&SW as it’s the last station in the former Strathclyde Region/PTE area.
 

daveshah

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No trains terminating, but Southampton Airport Parkway has just one train starting there every day, as far as I know (the new morning 442 service to Waterloo).
 

PTR 444

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Edited the thread title to take into account starting services where none terminate as well.
 

roadierway77

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There is an early morning commuter service into Edinburgh that starts at Dunfermline Queen Margaret on the Fife Circle. The train that operates this service runs ECS from Perth and turns into the 0706 service upon arrival at Dunfermline QM.

Likewise, at 0735 on a weekday, a service starts at Cardenden, also on the Fife Circle, and travels into Edinburgh. This service is usually a Class 68 with Mk2s and runs ECS from Mossend Yard to Cardenden via Kirkcaldy. In the evening, the same thing happens in reverse - a loco hauled service from Edinburgh terminates at Cardenden at 1823 before running ECS back to Mossend.

One service a day terminates at Ardrossan South Beach. 2F87 starts from Glasgow Central at 2347 and terminates at South Beach at 0032 before running ECS to Ayr.
 

Deepgreen

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Shalford, which is one of the larger villages on the North Downs line, has what are, effectively, commuter short workings for Guildford, with one morning and two evening workings (from/to Reading).

Looking back to the 60s, there used to be workings that started/terminated at Holmwood (to Waterloo) and Worcester Park to Waterloo (the latter non-stop!).
 

Djgr

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Hazel Grove (just seems a random place, but obviously it's where the OHLE ends), Ribblehead (very random, only because the run round loop is just after it), Barnsley (only a very small number of services), Adwick (again a very random place).

Hazel Grove is (almost) the last station in Greater Manchester, which is probably why the electrification finishes there.

(Hooton was another example for some years for similar reasons although pedantically it is just across the "Cheshire border".)
 

gg1

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Stepping outside the OPs definition a little would be stations which see plenty of starting/terminating services in one direction but hardly any in another.

The 07:42 from Birmingham International to Euston is the only service starting here heading towards Coventry with none terminating from the same direction. There are of course numerous starting/terminating service to/from New Street and stations beyond.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Adwick is the last station in South Yorkshire, coming from Doncaster. Also there's a cross-over beyond and I believe the train waits on the Stainforth line.
There used to be more of these when the PTEs had more teeth: for years Marsden had terminating services from Leeds on evenings and sundays as there was no PTE support for the section in Greater Manchester. The latter turning into an economic powerhouse led to improvements, meaning that eventually West of Huddersfield had an hourly Sunday service through to Victoria but to the East was only bi-hourly.
 

A Challenge

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2J90 0710 Esher to London Waterloo. Seems an odd place to start it, given it comes in ECS from Clapham via Staines and Weybridge, and to be even more odd used to leave one minute later and skip Surbiton. Why it doesn't start back at Weybridge (4 minutes path allowance) or even Staines (staffing stop, though there's a long wait at Addlestone Junction) I don't know.
 

High Dyke

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For many years Bingham used to have an evening service terminate from Nottingham and return, but never had a similar working in a morning. Equally it never had a service terminate from Grantham and return.

I would mention the current Peterborough - Spalding shuttles, more because the TOC can't really be arsed to provide an earlier service (or evening service) between Sleaford & Peterborough.
 
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xotGD

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Chathill must be the most dubious place for services to originate and terminate. The teatime all stations used to go to Berwick, and before that carry on to Edinburgh.

I remember there being a Durham - Kings Cross back in the early 80s.
 

Ted633

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Ribblehead. Operationally it makes sense, but it does seem odd to terminate a train in what is essentially the middle of nowhere with no onward connection!
 

swt_passenger

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2J90 0710 Esher to London Waterloo. Seems an odd place to start it, given it comes in ECS from Clapham via Staines and Weybridge, and to be even more odd used to leave one minute later and skip Surbiton. Why it doesn't start back at Weybridge (4 minutes path allowance) or even Staines (staffing stop, though there's a long wait at Addlestone Junction) I don't know.
Perhaps it’s done just to provide a train from Esher that people can actually get on?
 
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DanNCL

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Here's a few in the North East that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Metro Centre:
Formerly the terminus of two trains per hour, services now don't terminate at Metro Centre at all during the daytime on a weekday. The ones left are:
2W43 15:20 Nunthorpe - Metro Centre, which then forms 2N40 17:13 Metro Centre - Stockton
2E55 17:42 Battersby - Metro Centre, which then forms 2A46 20:08 Metro Centre - Morpeth
2W59 19:20 Nunthorpe - Metro Centre, which then forms 2A48 21:11 Metro Centre - Morpeth
2W63 20:20 Nunthorpe - Metro Centre, which then forms 2A50 22:13 Metro Centre - Morpeth
2W49 21:57 Morpeth - Metro Centre, which then forms 2A52 23:00 Metro Centre - Newcastle

Sunderland:
5x daily Grand Central services and a daily LNER return service to/from London start from/terminate at Sunderland, and one daily Metro service terminates at Sunderland instead of South Hylton:
1Y08 05:40 Sunderland - London Kings Cross (arrives empty from Heaton depot)
1A60 06:43 Sunderland - London Kings Cross (arrives empty from Heaton depot)
1A61 08:44 Sunderland - London Kings Cross (arrives empty from Heaton depot)
1N90 08:27 London Kings Cross - Sunderland, which then forms 1A65 12:30 Sunderland - London Kings Cross
1N92 11:27 London Kings Cross - Sunderland, which then forms 1A66 15:30 Sunderland - London Kings Cross
1N93 12:57 London Kings Cross - Sunderland, which then forms 1A69 17:30 Sunderland - London Kings Cross
1N94 16:48 London Kings Cross - Sunderland, which then goes empty to Heaton depot
1N96 19:27 London Kings Cross - Sunderland, which then goes empty to Heaton depot
1N33 20:00 London Kings Cross - Sunderland, which then goes empty to Heaton depot
2I05 22:54 Newcastle Airport - Sunderland, which then forms 2I05 23:52 Sunderland - Regent Centre

Hartlepool:
In addition to the Teesside Airport parliamentary service on a Sunday, Hartlepool get's the following starting/terminating services on a weekday:
2N07 06:53 Hartlepool - Hexham (arrives attached to the rear of 2N02 06:00 Newcastle - Saltburn)
2N62 21:07 Carlisle - Hartlepool, which then goes empty to Heaton depot

Stockton:
One daily service terminates at Stockton:
2N40 17:13 Metro Centre - Stockton, which then goes empty to Darlington

Berwick-upon-Tweed:
One daily service starts at Berwick:
1Y14 06:00 Berwick-upon-Tweed - London Kings Cross (arrives empty from Heaton depot)

There's also a few through stations on Metro that are used to start/terminate a limited number of services early morning, during the peaks and late evening:
Longbenton (early morning and late evening)
Benton (early morning and late evening)
Monkseaton (peak hours)
Tynemouth (early morning)
Manors (early morning and late evening)
Monument (early morning and late evening)
Regent Centre (early morning, peak hours and late evening)
Pelaw (early morning, peak hours and late evening)
Park Lane (one early morning service)
In addition North Shields was formerly used to start/terminate trains during peak hours, but is now only used as a turnback point during disruption.
 

Esker-pades

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Perhaps it’s done just to provide a train from Esher that people can actually get on?
As far as I'm aware, that's pretty much it. It was originally introduced as a Raynes Park - Waterloo 'peak buster'. It was then extended back to Esher because commuters there found it was difficult to board trains (being the penultimate stop on the peak Woking - Waterloo services).
 

scrapy

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Chinley always seems an odd place to terminate a service.
 

Springs Branch

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There's a Saturday evening service terminating/starting at St.Annes-on-the-Sea on the Blackpool South line. This used to operate M-F too. Obviously turns here for operational convenience on single line beyond Kirkham.

There used to be more of these when the PTEs had more teeth: for years Marsden had terminating services from Leeds on evenings and sundays as there was no PTE support for the section in Greater Manchester.......
Used to be the same thing west side of the Pennines - hourly stopping trains between Man Victoria and Greenfield in the daytime supported by GMPTE, but pretty much impossible to get a local train through Standedge Tunnel to Marsden.

In similar vein, Merseyside PTE at one time funded an hourly Lime St to Garswood DMU, which fitted in between the hourly Lime St/Wigan NW trains (in an era when Garswood was very quiet in the off-peak)
 
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