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Under/Over-Served areas in the network.

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JKF

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I take my sons to Filton Abbey Wood quite often to watch trains and it seems to have barely any passengers despite lots of regional and local services stopping there. It’s not very well connected to the nearby residential area with no drop-off point by road and quite a convoluted walk to get there from the west. I guess it will get a lot in the mornings for the neighbouring MOD offices but is very quiet in the day. I see far more people using Stapleton Rd to the south, which only gets local trains.
 

Djgr

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Also very difficult and expensive (in terms of price to distance) to get to by rail from neighbouring towns - for example Warrington. As the rugby crowd have always known. Saints is probably the one traditional rugby fixture I would never do by rail.

Arguably many on the Merseyrail network are over-served, particularly some of the villages like Hooton.

Hooton's service is justified because of its massive Park and Ride (500+)
 
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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
Ahah no it wasn’t, Though i did help an elderly lady with her luggage, don’t think it was Sophia Loren though. it was a 10 hour journey from Weymouth to SOT - I was due to change at Brockenhurst but the train from Bournemouth to MAN came in and failed. We were told to get on the SWT train to Southampton central as it was a better place to wait at, we were then told to get back on the same train to Southampton airport Parkway as coaches had been booked. One direct and one via Winchester and Basingstoke, I ended up on the latter which took three hours to get to reading , then and hours wait at reading for the next to SOT...
 

NorthOxonian

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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 Didcot call is important for Bristol trains - not just for Didcot but because of the interchange from Oxford to the West Country. This is a very important connection which sees lots of demand, and much of this is leisure demand which is likely to be resilient going forwards. If an Oxford - Bristol direct service ever relaunches, then you could maybe reduce those calls.

Re Swindon, this is a major town, and is also growing quickly (and if the plans for the eastern fringes of town go through, I think the population is supposed to hit 250k). It also has demand both east to London, and west to Bath/Bristol - so the only calls you could really remove are services to Wales.
 

43096

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The Didcot call is important for Bristol trains - not just for Didcot but because of the interchange from Oxford to the West Country. This is a very important connection which sees lots of demand, and much of this is leisure demand which is likely to be resilient going forwards. If an Oxford - Bristol direct service ever relaunches, then you could maybe reduce those calls.

Re Swindon, this is a major town, and is also growing quickly (and if the plans for the eastern fringes of town go through, I think the population is supposed to hit 250k). It also has demand both east to London, and west to Bath/Bristol - so the only calls you could really remove are services to Wales.
Swindon has always had a disproportionately good service because of railway management located there.
 

bspahh

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Ahah no it wasn’t, Though i did help an elderly lady with her luggage, don’t think it was Sophia Loren though. it was a 10 hour journey from Weymouth to SOT - I was due to change at Brockenhurst but the train from Bournemouth to MAN came in and failed. We were told to get on the SWT train to Southampton central as it was a better place to wait at, we were then told to get back on the same train to Southampton airport Parkway as coaches had been booked. One direct and one via Winchester and Basingstoke, I ended up on the latter which took three hours to get to reading , then and hours wait at reading for the next to SOT...

Perhaps not "Brief Encounter" then. Perhaps they could make a followup, with 3 hours on a rail replacement bus
 

Skipness

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Nunthorpe (population <5000) a suburb of Middlesbrough benefits from an hourly service (to Newcastle) for operational simplicity. Trains start/terminate there rather than cluttering up two platformed Middlesbrough which also has services Saltburn to Darlington and Redcar to York/Manchester Airport.
 

Eloise

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Nunthorpe (population <5000) a suburb of Middlesbrough benefits from an hourly service (to Newcastle) for operational simplicity. Trains start/terminate there rather than cluttering up two platformed Middlesbrough which also has services Saltburn to Darlington and Redcar to York/Manchester Airport.
Serves James Cook hospital betwixt the two. Albeit doesn't look too handy.
 

bearhugger

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Nunthorpe (population <5000) a suburb of Middlesbrough benefits from an hourly service (to Newcastle) for operational simplicity. Trains start/terminate there rather than cluttering up two platformed Middlesbrough which also has services Saltburn to Darlington and Redcar to York/Manchester Airport.
Serves James Cook hospital betwixt the two. Albeit doesn't look too handy.
The hourly services all day only started once James Cook was built, and quite a few passengers use the station for the hospital from my observations. I've been asked many times how to get to the hospital from the platform.
Before James Cook was built, there was a few commutor services in the morning & evening to/from Nunthorpe plus the Whitby trains.
Middlesbrough, as a whole, has a population of over 138K so it's one of the largerst towns in the northeast so probably deserves the routes it has got.
 

Mac2812

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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.)

When Dawlish got a bit damp .... Cracked me up

Unsure if you're correct regards TVP, but it would make sense, given its right next to the motorway, rather than in a built up area
 

agbrs_Jack

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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.

However the bus is only hourly to Macclesfield and parking costs more there.
The walk from the town centre takes no more than 30 minutes, it's not THAT bad.

Congleton should have 2 tph with LONG overdue 1 tph on Sundays.
 

The Planner

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However the bus is only hourly to Macclesfield and parking costs more there.
The walk from the town centre takes no more than 30 minutes, it's not THAT bad.

Congleton should have 2 tph with LONG overdue 1 tph on Sundays.
That 30 minutes is going to put a substantial amount of people off.
 

agbrs_Jack

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That 30 minutes is going to put a substantial amount of people off.

With respect, I live in the area, and know for a fact that many people make that walk, even daily.
Yes it is likely to put people off, however many also drive to the station.

I would argue that only having 1 tph and an abysmal sunday service is more of an issue than the walk.
 

Purple Orange

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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.

What would serve the “golden triangle” better is more stoppers, rather than fast services to Manchester. Wilmslow can justify a London connection, but the population you attribute to Wilmslow can be found from Alderley Edge through Handforth, Bramhall & Prestbury, even in Cheadle too. It is prime commuter market and rather than 1 or 2 stoppers per hour, their is certainly a market for 6 stoppers per hour from Cheadle Hulme onwards.
 

agbrs_Jack

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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.

Currently, I am highly confident that there are a vast amount more supporters of the two Manchester clubs in Congleton than Port Vale supporters.
Manchester is the primary commuting destination too with Macclesfield, Stoke, Stafford, Birmingham and London also being commuter destinations from Congleton.
 

MarkyT

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Unsure if you're correct regards TVP, but it would make sense, given its right next to the motorway, rather than in a built up area
As well as the express ones from TVP to Plymouth, I think they ran fast buses from Exeter St Davids to various destinations. From Exeter St Davids in the rush hour, it can take up to 30 minutes just to get out to the A38 junction. From TVP the journey time is shorter and more reliable no doubt. Probably also reduced crowding problems at Exeter. The rather embarrassing fact is a non-stop coach from TVP to Plymouth can potentially get there quicker than the direct train.
 

stuu

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The rather embarrassing fact is a non-stop coach from TVP to Plymouth can potentially get there quicker than the direct train.
And pretty much every other station west of Exeter!
 
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Cross country used to have regular stops at Congleton, this was reduced to Northern hourly stops and XC only in the peak.
 

Yodiethedog

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Westbury. 4 platform station for a 16,000 population, just happens that a junction between many lines occurs there. Great for trainspotting though!
 

ANDREW_D_WEBB

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Westbury. 4 platform station for a 16,000 population, just happens that a junction between many lines occurs there. Great for trainspotting though!
Is Westbury not a three platform station? The fourth face always used to be a freight line set away from the platform.

Probably not over served as it provides connections between a wide range of services and also serves a large rural hinterland.

Avoncliff, with a roughly hourly daytime service, is probably overserved for a few houses and a pub.
 
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scrapy

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Cross country used to have regular stops at Congleton, this was reduced to Northern hourly stops and XC only in the peak.
They only stopped every 2 hours though (none on Sundays), Northern then only stopped in the peak (2 southbound/3 northbound in a morning and one each way in an afternoon, and 3 late afternoon/evening services each way on a Sunday).meaning Congleton had a worse service than now.
 

jayah

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Over provision must happen more in the SE. There will be plenty of similar cases, but Bat & Ball has 4tph off peak and 130k annual footfall.

Emsworth on the West Coastway manages 8tph off peak for 350k footfall.
 

swt_passenger

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Over provision must happen more in the SE. There will be plenty of similar cases, but Bat & Ball has 4tph off peak and 130k annual footfall.

Emsworth on the West Coastway manages 8tph off peak for 350k footfall.
That’s only by adding the up and down trains though, those frequencies would normally be described as 2 tph and 4 tph respectively...
 

Timmyd

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The level of service at Ford is incredible for a station in the middle of nowhere. I know there is interchange potential there but seems to me most people change at Barnham
 
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