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Under/Over-Served areas in the network.

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bramling

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I thought Ellesmere Port only had 2 trains an hour to Liverpool.

Yes it does. The normal timetable has 4tph to Chester, with 2tph to Ellesmere Port on top of that. At peak times there’s extra trains to Ellesmere Port, though at least some of these are in the peak flow direction only IIRC.
 
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BeijingDave

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My mistake. It still seems over-served for its size. And the interchange for Chester - Ellesmere Port is a red herring really, I think the bus is probably so much less hassle that not many would do that train journey.
 

317 forever

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I'm surprised that Pontefract has 3 train stations. Admittedly the one on the Sheffield - York has an infrequent service, and the other 2 only have trains to Leeds/Wakefield and Knottingley. I understand the limited service to Goole is still suspended.
 

Tractor37

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I'm surprised that Pontefract has 3 train stations. Admittedly the one on the Sheffield - York has an infrequent service, and the other 2 only have trains to Leeds/Wakefield and Knottingley. I understand the limited service to Goole is still suspended.
Goole began running again on Monday.
 

61653 HTAFC

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I'm surprised that Pontefract has 3 train stations. Admittedly the one on the Sheffield - York has an infrequent service, and the other 2 only have trains to Leeds/Wakefield and Knottingley. I understand the limited service to Goole is still suspended.
Goole began running again on Monday.
Also most of the Grand Central services to London and Bradford call at Monkhill (some at weekends previously didn't serve Pontefract due to diversion, not sure of the current situation).
 

Horizon22

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A few London and SE ones:

- Knockholt (doesn't really serve anywhere not better connected) has 2tph - with more in the peak
- Whyteleafe / Warlingham area has 3 stations which combined normally equals about 6tph.

A 12-car turnback was one of my projects at NR. Both platforms are bidirectional, and a 12-car can call (perhaps with one or two doors isolated by SDO, not sure), but because the train doesn't quite fit between the signals, it can't be reversed there as desired. For some years, TOCs ran shorter 11-car formations on the terminators to overcome this limitation, and NR looked at various options to move the signals at one or both ends a short distance into the tunnels to create more standage. There were many practical problems with that approach, however (very tight clearance, safe maintenance access, lack of an approved tunnel signal product for use so close to the portal), so eventually the idea of a turnback siding was suggested by the TOC. In some respects, that's better than turning back in a platform, as the platform can be used by another train while the reversing one shunts, and the driver changes ends. While the whole procedure clearly takes longer via the siding, it was a TOC suggestion and fitted with their diagrams so was an acceptable solution for all parties.

It certainly does help as the signalling is rather restrictive at Tunbridge W and you have single line tunnels on either side - clearing a platform is definitely an operational benefit. The timetable broadly works well and when the Hastings line fails (as it frequently does due to landslips or animals on the line) there is an additional ability to turnback. I'd say it was the best acceptable compromise.
 

JamesRowden

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Tunbridge Wells is a large town, about 120,000 population, with a very cramped station in a cutting, just 2 platforms between tunnels at both ends, a 12-car train completely fills them. Doesn't even have any points. No scope for expansion at all. Its service effectively has to be all run from Hastings, way to the south.
That's the population of the district which is mainly rural and 20 miles wide. The population of the town is about half of that.
 

mikeg

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Hate to say it, but my current town of Northallerton is almost certainly over served in comparison to towns of similar sizes.
 

Grecian 1998

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I've always found the discrepancy between Chesterfield and Mansfield interesting. Two similar sized nearby towns, whose football clubs regard each other as their number one rivals (usually a size of relative parity).

Chesterfield: two services an hour to London / Sheffield, one to Penzance or Plymouth / Edinburgh or Aberdeen (normally), one to Liverpool / Norwich, and one to Nottingham / Leeds. 5 tph each way. I remember seeing on the departure boards successive services to Aberdeen, Norwich and Penzance - can't get much more diverse than that.

Mansfield: one Nottingham - Worksop service, one Nottingham - Mansfield Woodhouse service and vice versa. 2tph each way and no services outside the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire. Still better than the 0 services which ran between 1964 and 1995 mind.

Granted this is because one is on the mainline and one isn't, but still a bit of a difference.

Tiverton Parkway does quite well with an hourly service to Paddington / Plymouth or Penzance and one to Edinburgh or Aberdeen / Plymouth or Penzance give it's in the middle of nowhere, Admittedly Parkway stations are to encourage motorists to use them, in this case Mid and North Devon, but most Parkway stations seem to have (or to create) some population within in walking distance e.g. Bristol Parkway. Tiverton Parkway has the village of Sampford Peverell and that's pretty much it.

Newton Abbot (population approx. 25,000) also does pretty well compared to Dawlish (pop approx. 16,000) or Teignmouth (pop approx. 15,000) purely because it acts as a junction / railhead for Torquay. All trains bar one sporadic Sunday XC service stop at N Abbot whereas only a handful of Paddington or XC services stop at Dawlish or Teignmouth. It is larger than either of those but is generally considered to have a lot less to recommend it than either of those towns. TBF that might be my own bias though.
 
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jfisher21

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Clydebank has 4 stations, Clydebank, Drumry, Singer, Dalmuir. And Dalmuir has 3 routes into Queen Street. Good provision for a quoted population of 26k according to Wikipedia
 

Acfb

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Clydebank has 4 stations, Clydebank, Drumry, Singer, Dalmuir. And Dalmuir has 3 routes into Queen Street. Good provision for a quoted population of 26k according to Wikipedia

Coatbridge has Coatbridge Sunnyside, Coatbridge Central, Coatdyke, Bargeddie, Whifflet, Blairhill and Kirkwood which has always struck me as quite a lot.

I would have thought Coatbridge Sunnyside is the most convenient with the best service although other stations must be convenient for people in the Coatbridge suburbs.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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I was going to mention Crewe, so I'm glad you did! The only reason I thought I'd give it a pass, was because of its utility as an interchange.

Crewe, Chester, Wrexham and Shrewsbury are all very similar in population (60K-80K), but have very different levels of service and connectivity.
Telford is at least twice the size of any of these places but has a limited service for its size.
Of course, it was a relatively small place when the railway was built.
There are many towns which have doubled in size in the last 50 years, while others have been static or have even shrunk in population.

The WCML was not initially built as a through route, and for a long time through trains had to follow the sharp dog-leg from Warrington to Wigan via Earlestown and Newton-le-Willows/Parkside.
Even the later connecting line from Winwick to Golborne has restrictive sharp curves and junctions.
The railway in general was built for freight and local passenger services, not so much for fast long-distance travel.
 
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unlevel42

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Crewe*, Chester, Wrexham and Shrewsbury are/were significant and nodal points of a developing regional and national transport network which has evolved from the Roman occupation through to the end of industrialization. Telford is the product of the post railway world and like many similar developments little thought was given to be part of railway grid with lines in several directions.

*Crewe is less than eight miles from the Roman Junction of Middlewich
 
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People always say that they are surprised by Brockenhurst. I have a story about one of the longest train journeys of my life and my change station was Brockenhurst! Lol
 

BeijingDave

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Chester is also probably the second most visited historic tourist city in the north, after York (possibly ahead of Harrogate), so its relatively small population isn't everything.
 

Eloise

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Mansfield: one Nottingham - Worksop service, one Nottingham - Mansfield Woodhouse service and vice versa. 2tph each way and no services outside the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire. Still better than the 0 services which ran between 1964 and 1995 mind.
Sorry, only just spotted this. Trains call at Shirebrook which is in Derbyshire. And one train goes through to Norwich which is very much not Nottinghamshire.

I've always thought services north of York and Newcastle to be on the plentiful side. Serving differing markets I know.
 

BayPaul

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Tiverton Parkway does quite well with an hourly service to Paddington / Plymouth or Penzance and one to Edinburgh or Aberdeen / Plymouth or Penzance give it's in the middle of nowhere, Admittedly Parkway stations are to encourage motorists to use them, in this case Mid and North Devon, but most Parkway stations seem to have (or to create) some population within in walking distance e.g. Bristol Parkway. Tiverton Parkway has the village of Sampford Peverell and that's pretty much it.

Newton Abbot (population approx. 25,000) also does pretty well compared to Dawlish (pop approx. 16,000) or Teignmouth (pop approx. 15,000) purely because it acts as a junction / railhead for Torquay. All trains bar one sporadic Sunday XC service stop at N Abbot whereas only a handful of Paddington or XC services stop at Dawlish or Teignmouth. It is larger than either of those but is generally considered to have a lot less to recommend it than either of those towns. TBF that might be my own bias though.
Tiverton Parkway serves Tiverton Town pretty well, even though it isn't walking distance, as well as a huge area of Devon - because it is so well located on the motorway it can even make sense for parts of Exeter rather than driving into the city.

Newton Abbot also has a large hinterland, and again is well located for easy access by road - even from Brixham is can be better to get the bus all the way to NA rather than just to Paignton, whereas Dawlish does only serve the town centre, and as Dawlish has 2 stations, you could reasonably argue that it is over-provisioned compared to NA.
 

miami

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Congleton (pop 26k) gets an hourly local stopper to Manchester and Stoke, and an occasional extra in the peak.

Wilmslow (pop 24k) gets 5 trains an hour to Manchester, one via airport. Four head south to Crewe, with one extending to London, and one to Cardiff
 

fairysdad

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Tiverton Parkway serves Tiverton Town pretty well, even though it isn't walking distance, as well as a huge area of Devon - because it is so well located on the motorway it can even make sense for parts of Exeter rather than driving into the city.
It's quite telling that when Dawlish got a bit damp a few years back, the coaches for travel beyond the breach started at Tiverton Parkway (TVP) and not Exeter. (I believe (but will no doubt be corrected!) that often if there is engineering/disruption beyond Plymouth, TVP is used as the rail replacement bus switchover point as well.)
 
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Not via London from Stoke on Trent to Weymouth itinerary usually routes you via Castle Cary or Brockenhurst
 

37424

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Not really surprising that many junction stations have a service out of proportion to the towns which surround them. Brockenhurst also had the branch off to Ringwood of course before it closed as well as the Lymington Branch.
 

317 forever

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Congleton (pop 26k) gets an hourly local stopper to Manchester and Stoke, and an occasional extra in the peak.

Wilmslow (pop 24k) gets 5 trains an hour to Manchester, one via airport. Four head south to Crewe, with one extending to London, and one to Cardiff

In the case of Congleton, plenty of trains of course pass through without stopping.
 

bspahh

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People always say that they are surprised by Brockenhurst. I have a story about one of the longest train journeys of my life and my change station was Brockenhurst! Lol
Was it a brief encounter?

EkH4fVHWsAAEM78
Richard Burton and Sophia Loren on set at Brockenhurst Station making the remake of Brief Encounter from https://twitter.com/Quizbritain/status/1315605787536953344
 

sk688

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Swindon and Didcot Parkway are both overserved imo in terms of the number of high speed services that stop there

I'd personally remove the Didcot call from one of the Bristol trains , especially as Didcot also has the trains from Oxford and the stoppers to Paddington.

For towns of their size, both stations have very frequent London services
 

The Planner

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Swindon and Didcot Parkway are both overserved imo in terms of the number of high speed services that stop there

I'd personally remove the Didcot call from one of the Bristol trains , especially as Didcot also has the trains from Oxford and the stoppers to Paddington.

For towns of their size, both stations have very frequent London services
Look at Didcot's growth in terms of population though, 20% or so in the last 20 years and I suspect it will carry on growing. You also have to consider the railhead affect in that people travel to the station, you cannot just assume its only people that live there.
 

CW2

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Look at Didcot's growth in terms of population though, 20% or so in the last 20 years and I suspect it will carry on growing. You also have to consider the railhead affect in that people travel to the station, you cannot just assume its only people that live there.
There is probably scope to consider reopening of some of the intermediate stations between Didcot and Swindon that were closed in the 1960s. That might reduce some of the pressure on Didcot.
 

MedwayValiant

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Congleton (pop 26k) gets an hourly local stopper to Manchester and Stoke, and an occasional extra in the peak.

Wilmslow (pop 24k) gets 5 trains an hour to Manchester, one via airport. Four head south to Crewe, with one extending to London, and one to Cardiff

I see two major reasons for that. One is that Wilmslow is in the so-called "Golden Triangle". Manchester United footballers, actors from Coronation Street, and business people with quite a lot of money live there, and those people need to travel to Manchester and London on a regular basis. Congleton, on the other hand, is a former mill town with a fairly low profile. When my late mother lived in Congleton as a girl, "going to the match" meant Port Vale rather than Manchester United, and you went on the bus (which you pronounced "buzz").

The other is that Congleton station is awkwardly located a mile east of the town centre. If you live the other side of town, you can probably be in Macclesfield via bus quicker than you can walk to the station.
 
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