Trivia: Towns which do not deserve the service they get

LeeLivery · 3 Apr 2019

Harlington. 4tph for a village of ~2k (Toddington isn't too far away).

Mugby said:
Corby has been lucky to get it's hourly service to London. I imagine some departures carry only penny numbers of pax.

I don't think it's enough. Yes, Harlington manages a higher usage, however, not having direct services to Leicester and Nottingham must be a big reason for the low figures. One hourly service to Kettering, Welly, Bedford, Luton and London only isn't good enough for a town of 70,000. It needs a service north.

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gazzaa2 · 4 Apr 2019

Didcot

Parallel · 4 Apr 2019

Westbury does very well and receives more services than both the nearby larger Trowbridge and Warminster, though that’s mainly down to geography, but it does also have a train crew depot. Back in the days of Wessex, some services skipped Trowbridge and Westbury but now even in times of disruption, other stations are omitted but never Westbury.

Essexman · 4 Apr 2019

gnolife said:
Corrour, Falls of Cruachan, Loch Eil OB and Locheilside all do remarkably well in terms of service relative to population, if I'm not mistaken, none of them have a house within a mile.

Locheilside has a few houses just down the road from the station.

Essexman · 4 Apr 2019

There are really several categories for this -

Stations serving mainly the town / village
Stations acting as rail-head for a wider area
Junction / interchange stations.

Many in the last two categories have a far better service than their size deserves. Dovey Junction is another.

Mag_seven · 4 Apr 2019

gazzaa2 said:
Didcot

I think we should exclude Parkway stations such as Didcot, Bristol and Tiverton from this as their prime purpose is not to specifically to serve the actual town they are located in but the surrounding towns as well by providing large parking facilities.

Clansman · 4 Apr 2019

Montrose and Ladybank

ValleyLines142 · 4 Apr 2019

In South Wales, I do find it baffling that Merthyr Tydfil (with a population of 63,546) has a half hourly service all day, when Barry (54,673) has a fifteen minute service. Just along the coast then is Penarth (which only has a population of 22,083) which also has a fifteen minute service!

Bletchleyite · 4 Apr 2019

Talking of Merseyrail, I note that for the Grand National they have reduced Aughton Park and Town Green to 2tph. Given that this franchise seem to be far more willing to lop stops out of things than the previous ones who always ran all stations regardless of the situation (but did very occasionally turn trains short at Maghull) could this actually be the thin end of the wedge?

CaptainHaddock · 4 Apr 2019

Gainsborough from May 20!

Glenn1969 · 4 Apr 2019

Not sure Huddersfield- which has a catchment area of 200,000 people and is the 11th largest TOWN in England but has no inter city North South service- really deserves to be on this list

Jamiescott1 · 4 Apr 2019

Ingatestone - not frequency but the type of train it gets

Gerrards cross

swt_passenger · 4 Apr 2019

Schweir said:
I'll add Brockenhurst...

Interchange. Not just for Lymington and IOW, but between fast and all stations stopping services.

61653 HTAFC · 4 Apr 2019

Glenn1969 said:
Not sure Huddersfield- which has a catchment area of 200,000 people and is the 11th largest TOWN in England but has no inter city North South service- really deserves to be on this list

I agree obviously (!) but Dewsbury should be on in its place- it's a ghost town.

I'm not sure Wakefield quite deserves the level of intercity service it gets, but being on the main line from London to Leeds means it does well. The twisty and slow viaduct to the south also means there's little to be gained by not stopping, which perhaps helps explain why so few services do skip it.

Because it gets the service it does, it then gets used as a railhead for surrounding towns, which then justifies the initial overprovision!

Kite159 · 4 Apr 2019

LeeLivery said:
Harlington. 4tph for a village of ~2k (Toddington isn't too far away).

I don't think it's enough. Yes, Harlington manages a higher usage, however, not having direct services to Leicester and Nottingham must be a big reason for the low figures. One hourly service to Kettering, Welly, Bedford, Luton and London only isn't good enough for a town of 70,000. It needs a service north.

One hourly service southbound which before last May mostly didn't connect with the Nottingham service heading north, something silly like a +1

Likewise the service from Nottingham sometimes didn't give much of a connection to the Corby train, so any Corby passengers were better off jumping in their cars to travel to Kettering or Market Harborough if they wanted to go north, and once in their car depending on the final destination they might have stayed in their cars.

Kite159 · 4 Apr 2019

Jamiescott1 said:
Ingatestone - not frequency but the type of train it gets

Gerrards cross

Commuter EMUs for Ingatestone (321s & 360s), what type of train do you think it should get?

Bletchleyite said:
Talking of Merseyrail, I note that for the Grand National they have reduced Aughton Park and Town Green to 2tph. Given that this franchise seem to be far more willing to lop stops out of things than the previous ones who always ran all stations regardless of the situation (but did very occasionally turn trains short at Maghull) could this actually be the thin end of the wedge?

The old franchise being Arriva Trains Merseyside which ceased in 2003?

Is it Merseyrail pulling the shots or is it someone within Merseytravel telling them to cut down the frequency at the edges of the network/smaller stations to allow them to run more 6 coach trains to cater for the expected crowds for the horsey event?

Bletchleyite · 4 Apr 2019

Kite159 said:
The old franchise being Arriva Trains Merseyside which ceased in 2003?

Is it Merseyrail pulling the shots or is it someone within Merseytravel telling them to cut down the frequency at the edges of the network/smaller stations to allow them to run more 6 coach trains to cater for the expected crowds for the horsey event?

I'm not sure to be honest. But yes, skip stopping in any form is a new thing - ATM and BR before them never, ever did it.

mrbouffant · 4 Apr 2019

Dormans.
2tph (4tph in rush hour) for what is effectively a millionaire's housing estate. Both East Grinstead and Lingfield have stations on the same line are about 1.5 miles away in either direction.
An example of a station which should be closed but is maintained simply because money always gets its way!

bionic · 4 Apr 2019

Shoreham (Kent), Bat & Ball, Dunton Green, Swanscombe, Northfleet, Stone Crossing. All punching well above their weight. Most of the people who do use those stations outside rush hour don't tend to bother paying either!

dk1 · 4 Apr 2019

Jamiescott1 said:
Ingatestone - not frequency but the type of train it gets

I would say the 321/360s and sooner or later 720s are perfect. Gets plenty of IC action weekends & Bank Holidays.

FenMan · 4 Apr 2019

Watlington has 24 direct trains a day to London. Not bad for a village with a pop. of 2,500 that is over 90 miles from London.

Ianno87 · 4 Apr 2019

Ely. Obviously gets the service and direct links it does because of where it happens to fall in rail geography terms. Useful for all the interchanges it provides, but arguably overkill of the town itself.

Esker-pades · 4 Apr 2019

Practically every request stop on the West Highland, Far North and Kyle Lines.

Stone Crossing, Swanscombe and Northfleet don't need 4tph off peak.

agbrs_Jack · 4 Apr 2019

Mojo said:
Macclesfield

4 tph and we in Congleton only get 1!

Glenn1969 · 4 Apr 2019

Kidsgrove gets a London service

nickswift99 · 4 Apr 2019

Not a town, but Kintbury (population 2,534) must be up there? Off peak hourly service but it does get intercity services in the morning and evening peak.

73001 · 4 Apr 2019

Some of these stretch the definition of "town" somewhat as per the OP. Lots of places get more trains than they probably should but as part of an overall service pattern, such as Dovey Junction, Aughton Park etc.

dk1 · 4 Apr 2019

Ianno87 said:
Ely. Obviously gets the service and direct links it does because of where it happens to fall in rail geography terms. Useful for all the interchanges it provides, but arguably overkill of the town itself.

Although you say that it does have almost 2.3milion passengers who actually start/end their journeys here so deserves a good service in its own right. It has a fairly large catchment area too.

xc170 · 4 Apr 2019

Mojo said:
Tamworth

What?

Ianno87 · 4 Apr 2019

dk1 said:
Although you say that it does have almost 2.3milion passengers who actually start/end their journeys here so deserves a good service in its own right. It has a fairly large catchment area too.

How dominant is the 2.3 million solely for Cambridge/London-bound journeys, I wonder?

Trivia: Towns which do not deserve the service they get

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