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Are Portsmouth & Guildford cities?

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pompeyfan

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You’re reopening a popular can of worms there. City status really has no relevance to service names.

Guildford is a city, and yet Waterloo to Guildford would NEVER be classed as inter-city.

the Weymouth line isn’t particularly city-like after Southampton and yet that is classed as intercity. I don’t think Bournemouth has a cathedral.
 

HamworthyGoods

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Portsmouth to London is not, never has been and never will be, an inter city journey. I do agree though that 3+2 isn't suitable for that distance.

Intercity Map tends to disagree with that statement.
 

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Meerkat

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Guildford is a city, and yet Waterloo to Guildford would NEVER be classed as inter-city.

Whatever they like to think Guildford is most certainly not a city! It takes more than building an ugly cathedral and a university.....
 

Wolfie

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Whatever they like to think Guildford is most certainly not a city! It takes more than building an ugly cathedral and a university.....
You are entitled to your opinion/rant delete as appropriate. That does not mean that others have to agree.
 

dctraindriver

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Guildford is a city, and yet Waterloo to Guildford would NEVER be classed as inter-city.

the Weymouth line isn’t particularly city-like after Southampton and yet that is classed as intercity. I don’t think Bournemouth has a cathedral.
No it’s not. It a town. And a town which has far too high regard of itself. Nothing special and I live in it....
 

SWTCommuter

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Which train service stops at the most cities?

Norwich to Liverpool is six I think.

How about Southampton to Manchester at nine: Southampton, Winchester, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Stockport, Manchester

or Southampton to Edinburgh at twelve: Southampton, Winchester, Oxford, Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield, Wakefield, Leeds, York, Durham, Newcastle, Edinburgh.
 
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Ianno87

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Whatever they like to think Guildford is most certainly not a city! It takes more than building an ugly cathedral and a university.....

Seems to be a common misconception that having a cathedral makes a place a city. It doesn't.

Blackburn being another example of havimg a cathedral but not being a city.

And don't get me started on places like Milton Keynes and Reading that think referring to 'city centre' on road sign self-grants them city status....
 

Bald Rick

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I learnt on these very pages a few years back that Guildford wasn’t a city. (Which I then verified).

That was despite growing up in the place and swimming for Guildford City. I felt decidedly robbed!
 

southern442

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Portsmouth is a city, Guildford is not yet a city (but I suspect it's only a matter of time before it gets city status).
 

Grecian 1998

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Technically the vast majority of London is a county - Greater London - rather than a city. Only the City of London and the City of Westminster are actually cities. That is a technicality though.

The 1982 Intercity map is an interesting one. I doubt many people have ever thought of London-Canterbury and London-Harwich as Intercity...
 

infobleep

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Guildford applied for City status, along with. Brighton & Hove and maybe some others, shortly before 2000,. Brighton & Hove won the competition.
 

Meerkat

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Portsmouth is a city, Guildford is not yet a city (but I suspect it's only a matter of time before it gets city status).

There is a long old list of places more deserving of city status than Guildford - it’s just a big town.
Reading should definitely be a city though. Maybe we need relegation - up your game or you lose your city status to be replaced by a rising newcomer!
 

infobleep

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There is a long old list of places more deserving of city status than Guildford - it’s just a big town.
Reading should definitely be a city though. Maybe we need relegation - up your game or you lose your city status to be replaced by a rising newcomer!
According to Google, Guildford is 270km and Reading is just 61km. Of course the borough of Guildford doesn't just include the town, so land mass isn't a good enough indicator.

If we based it on population then we get 218,705 for Reading vers 147,889 for Guildford. Incidentally Oxford is only 154,600, so not that much larger than Guildford.

For comparison Brighton & Hove is 229,700.There again St David's was just 1,841in 2011 so size alone clearly isn't an indicator or it's a good indicator that once a city, always a city.

Note bar St David's, Google doesn't date these population figures, so I assume they are all relative. The Reading one is from the United Nations and St David's one, Wikiedpia (no doubt themselves quoting the UK census). No idea where the others are from.
 

Meerkat

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Guildford town has a population of around 80k
Reading urban area is much bigger.
 

Snow1964

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Regarding Guildford, if it ever becomes a city, I feel the same should happen for Kingston upon Thames being as the functions of Surrey County Council are shared between the two.

Except Surrey CC are planning to relocate everything to Woking in couple of years time
 

Whistler40145

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How about Southampton to Manchester at nine: Southampton, Winchester, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Stockport, Manchester

or Southampton to Edinburgh at twelve: Southampton, Winchester, Oxford, Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield, Wakefield, Leeds, York, Durham, Newcastle, Edinburgh.
I wasn’t aware of Stockport being a city
 
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