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

Old Yard Dog · 23 Jan 2020

TheSel said:
Hooton
Also terminating at Hooton is the 2330 (daily, including Sundays) from Chester - but that's really just a short working of what would otherwise be the standard clock-face xx00 / xx30 evening service to Liverpool. This one, (the last of the day) terminates public service at Hooton, then runs empty to Birkenhead Central carriage sidings.

** 'track micro spotters' might like to note this train is booked to use the cross-over just north of Hooton station, so as to terminate at Hooton platform 3 - nominally the Liverpool-bound one.

I can claim some credit for this short working. When I was a passenger representative on the long gone Ellesmere Port & Neston Public Transport Liaison committee, I persuaded the aforesaid body to lobby for this train to run to Hooton in service instead of ECS in order to connect with the last Liverpool - Ellesmere Port train.

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TheSel · 24 Jan 2020

Old Yard Dog said:
I can claim some credit for this short working. When I was a passenger representative on the long gone Ellesmere Port & Neston Public Transport Liaison committee, I persuaded the aforesaid body to lobby for this train to run to Hooton in service instead of ECS in order to connect with the last Liverpool - Ellesmere Port train.

Well done, that man! (No sexism implied). An eminently worthwhile use of resources to provide a potentially valuable connection. Wonder whether there are any more examples?

scotrail158713 · 24 Jan 2020

It’s always surprised me 1tph terminates at Cowdenbeath instead of continuing round the Fife Circle

Kite159 · 24 Jan 2020

scotrail158713 said:
It’s always surprised me 1tph terminates at Cowdenbeath instead of continuing round the Fife Circle

I reckon you would only need one more unit to extend the Cowdenbeath terminator to Glenrothes, and extend the hourly Glenrothes turnback service around the circle, giving 2tph both ways. That probably gives a reasonable turnaround at Edinburgh as well.

Dr Hoo · 24 Jan 2020

A Challenge said:
Monday to Friday only there's an 0648 Chinley to Manchester Piccadilly, and an 1819 Manchester Piccadilly to Chinley. Links for tomorrow.

Right. Thanks. So, shoulder peak tweaks when the service is 'stepping up' (or down) that can squeeze an extra bit of usefulness out of a diagram without 'costing' a unit or crew. Also fortuitously when a unit can be reversed without spoiling freight paths.

MadMac · 24 Jan 2020

One that isn't in this category yet but will be is Wishaw. Trains off the R&C which terminate at Whifflet now run to Wishaw ECS to turn back (previously, they went to Mossend). I believe the signalling at Wishaw has been altered to permit a passenger service to depart back towards Holytown (or indeed, Shieldmuir).

route101 · 24 Jan 2020

Any trains still start or terminate at Partick?

MadMac · 24 Jan 2020

route101 said:
Any trains still start or terminate at Partick?

See page 1 of this thread. Apparently there are some on Sundays.

Ianigsy · 24 Jan 2020

The Far North line seems to have a few truncated workings from Inverness to Dingwall, Tain, Invergordon and Ardgay.

richard1976 · 25 Jan 2020

There is one service on a Sunday that terminates at Meadowhall

2B85 0912 Retford to Meadowhall
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y28100/2020-01-26/detailed

alangla · 26 Jan 2020

richard1976 said:
There is one service on a Sunday that terminates at Meadowhall

2B85 0912 Retford to Meadowhall
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y28100/2020-01-26/detailed

Runs back to Sheffield empty directly from P4. Route knowledge retainer for something? Can’t see it filling a timetable gap as there’s a Doncaster train 5 mins behind

thenorthern · 29 Jan 2020

One that I have always found odd is MetroCentre as given it's an unstaffed halt I never understood why trains used to terminate there.

transmanche · 29 Jan 2020

thenorthern said:
One that I have always found odd is MetroCentre as given it's an unstaffed halt I never understood why trains used to terminate there.

The fact that it's located right next door to the UK's second-largest shopping centre? (It was the largest until Westfield London opened.) And there was insufficient demand to need a 4tph service any further west.

gg1 · 29 Jan 2020

thenorthern said:
One that I have always found odd is MetroCentre as given it's an unstaffed halt I never understood why trains used to terminate there.

Odd choice of words, I think of a halt as a station with annual passenger usage measured in the hundreds, not 300,000 as is the case here.

davetheguard · 30 Jan 2020

I've always thought that Bedwyn was an odd place to terminate the outer suburban service from Paddington.

A Reading driver told me in the late 70's that it was historical, and said that in the 60's it had been intended to end the service at the town of Hungerford rather than the village of (Great) Bedwyn. The smaller stations west of Hungerford on the Berks & Hants line would close (e.g. Savernake, Wootton Rivers, Woodborough etc.) as indeed duly happened in most cases, but because the crossover at Hungerford had been damaged, trains terminated and crossed over at Bedwyn instead, and the station at Bedwyn survived. I've no idea if this version of events is correct, but it certainly sounds plausible to me.

matchmaker · 30 Jan 2020

Invergordon and Ardgay.

Cricketer8for9 · 30 Jan 2020

For a while, but not in the current timetable South Croydon hosted regular terminating and starting trains and for a long while Sanderstead had a lone 06:41 starter.

anti-pacer · 30 Jan 2020

Castleford now, thanks to the extension of the Huddersfield-Wakefield service.

imagination · 31 Jan 2020

Staines, perhaps? Especially when you consider that the trains terminating there are coming from Reading, not from London.

Mag_seven said:
If the departure boards at Paddington are to be believed, some services from there terminate at Twyford or Cholsey.

The quoted post is tongue-in-cheek, but there used to actually be one (or was it two?) in the morning out of Paddington that terminated at Twyford before running empty through Reading to the depot.

Leaving aside the fact that both Twyford and Cholsey see terminating trains for other reasons, of course.

Far more bizarre would have been if the handful of trains that were advertised at Reading as terminating at Acton Main Line had actually done so.

alangla · 31 Jan 2020

Or Foxton or Finsbury Park...

30907 · 31 Jan 2020

imagination said:
Staines, perhaps? Especially when you consider that the trains terminating there are coming from Reading, not from London.

Not when you consider the sidings just East of the ststion.

53703 · 1 Feb 2020

Grimsby Town - Only a handful of EMR services run through to Cleethorpes
Horsforth - Is there still a couple of peak time journeys to/from Leeds?

Kite159 · 1 Feb 2020

53703 said:
Grimsby Town - Only a handful of EMR services run through to Cleethorpes
Horsforth - Is there still a couple of peak time journeys to/from Leeds?

Remember Grimsby - Cleethorpes is single track and Grimsby Town has the bay platform.

Horsforth I would imagine is down to being the last West Yorkshire station so the PTE funding probably runs out

D365 · 1 Feb 2020

Does Huntingdon still have an early morning starting service?

111-111-1 · 1 Feb 2020

Cherry_Picker said:
There's a 19:12 Stratford upon Avon to Warwick. The stock then runs ECS to Banbury because there isn't a path at that time which allows it to call in the platform loop at Leamington Spa. Until last year the service used to terminate at Hatton.

Chiltern used to have in morning a Warwick Parkway - Marylbone and a King Sutton - Marylbone services.

Cherry_Picker · 1 Feb 2020

For a couple of timetables between Warwick Parkway opening and Operation Princess starting there was pretty much an hourly Marylebone - Warwick Parkway (and Warwick Parkway - Marylebone) service. The trains would spin at Hatton.

scotrail170407 · 9 Feb 2020

Inverkeithing gets a single terminating service a week from Edinburgh on Sundays

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G61873/2020-02-09/detailed

DMN42 · 9 Feb 2020

Haslemere on the Waterloo-Portsmouth line.

Quakers Yard · 9 Feb 2020

First city line train of day goes from Taffs Well. Radyr's 3 platforms are through routes but no 3 is terminus for city line.
Barry used as a morning terminus too at platform 1 and also no 2 when the 4 car Bridgend and Barry service is just a 2 car unit.
Abercynon too in the timetable and several others ad hoc when running late are pulled to make up lost time. Like leaving peak commuters stranded and turn round in Troedyrhiw or similar instead.

Kite159 · 9 Feb 2020

Quakers Yard said:
First city line train of day goes from Taffs Well. Radyr's 3 platforms are through routes but no 3 is terminus for city line.
Barry used as a morning terminus too at platform 1 and also no 2 when the 4 car Bridgend and Barry service is just a 2 car unit.
Abercynon too in the timetable and several others ad hoc when running late are pulled to make up lost time. Like leaving peak commuters stranded and turn round in Troedyrhiw or similar instead.

Isn't Abercynon used for a few Aberdare bound services due to there being freight paths towards the long closed tower colliery?

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

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