Biggest town/city in UK with no station?

[bnm]

What about Newport? That's a fairly large town and catchment area without a rail station.

....

 

[Gwenllian2001]

What about Newport? That's a fairly large town and catchment area without a rail station.

....

Which Newport?

 

[HH]

unless you count Charing Cross, Marylebone, Paddington and Victoria

source: http://www.westminster.gov.uk/ (on the interactive map)

Oops. But you get the point.

 

[bnm]

Which Newport?

Er. The one on an island in the English Channel.

 

[ng1980]

Thank you very much for all your replies.

There are have been some good suggestions, and the point wasn't to get too hung up on ceremonial boundaries, but to use a more subjective test of whether it was deemed to be "served" by the railway.

Anyway, it's been an interesting discussion. Thanks, guys.

 

[MK Tom]

Er. The one on an island in the English Channel.

There aren't a whole lot of places that Newport can be linked too... it'd be nice if the IOWSR extended back closer to it though. Maybe a Newport-Cowes tram could happen...

I'd say there's a bigger case for Newport, Shropshire really. Reopen the line from Stafford to Donnington, although what with Telford being there now we'd need a reversal at Wellington or a new curve to offer a useful service. Glad to see other new towns [cities in all but name] causing the same headaches for rail schemes that MK does.

 

[merlodlliw]

In Wales it would have to be Caernarfon with no rail connection. A royal borough, plus the county of Gwynedd.

I agree it no longer as a Mainline station,but the population is under 10K,as for the County of Gwynedd its largest town is on the Mainline plus a vast number of other towns & villages.

Bob

 

[glenn2001]

Hi All

I came to this site as I am trying to find out which UK Cities (note that they must be cities) do not have a train station.

One for starters is Ripon in North Yorkshire, but I was hoping to get a definitive list from somewhere so that I can use this in a quiz I will be hosting next year.

I believe the city criteria would rule out Dudley?

 

[tbtc]

Hi All

I came to this site as I am trying to find out which UK Cities (note that they must be cities) do not have a train station.

One for starters is Ripon in North Yorkshire, but I was hoping to get a definitive list from somewhere so that I can use this in a quiz I will be hosting next year.

I believe the city criteria would rule out Dudley?

It depends on what your definition of a city is - not meant to sound like a negative answer, but are St Davids and St Asaph "cities" in any meaningful sense?

 

[radamfi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_the_United_Kingdom

has the list of towns/districts with city status.

Out of that list only

Ripon
Wells
Armagh
St Asaph
St David's

have no station.

Ripon slightly edges Armagh on population.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

It depends on what your definition of a city is - not meant to sound like a negative answer, but are St Davids and St Asaph "cities" in any meaningful sense?

I assumed he meant city status by his exclusion of Dudley.

 

[glenn2001]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_the_United_Kingdom

has the list of towns/districts with city status.

Out of that list only

Ripon
Wells
Armagh
St Asaph
St David's

have no station.

Ripon slightly edges Armagh on population.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


I assumed he meant city status by his exclusion of Dudley.

That list above is exactly what I was looking for!
Thanks for the quick response guys.

 

[sheff'd victoria]

How about Louth in Lincolnshire ?

 

[Eagle]

How about Louth in Lincolnshire ?

Is that a city now? :P

If you mean any town without a rail station it doesn't even break the top 20 in terms of population (Louth population around 16,000).

 

[Roverman]

A lot of these towns cities settlements etc all have SOME kind of railway connection within a few miles. What about a town that had a railway and now suffers because it hasn't got one and the nearest station is over 10 miles away?

When you take all that into consideration you're left with places like Leek that really could do with a station!

 

[robertclark125]

Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire is a good example. The old station is now a car park, right near the town centre. Must be 10 miles away from Grimsby or Skegness. Then what about Forfar, again fair bit away from Arbroath or Dundee. And Kinross, whose station and line closed in 1970, is over 10 miles away from some stations, though I don't think it's 10 to Cowdenbeath.

 

[Eagle]

What about a town that had a railway and now suffers because it hasn't got one and the nearest station is over 10 miles away?

My hometown springs to mind. Nearest station (Poole) is 14 miles or 35 minutes by road. The old station is now a council estate.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

this is one of those questions that need to be set out as very specific as it does seem to keep cropping up.
(1. Largest town as a known seperate entity
(2. Largest borough or district
(3. Largest town with no station in or near it's centre (as opposed to one on it's periphery)
(4. Largest town population wise
(5. Largest town area wise
(6. Largest town that is furthest from the rail network
(7. All the above not including metro, tram or light rail

 

[Cheds]

OK Mutant Lemmings post gives the opportunity to point out that there is one entire region of Britain without a single working railway station. Most of you will know the answer, but let's leave it out there for the quiz oers/compilers for a while, eh?..........

 

[Eagle]

The Western Isles.

 

[Ivo]

The Western Isles.

Do Orkney and Shetland come under Highland (or maybe even Western Isles, which seems daft), or do they form a second such region?

 

[Eagle]

They are both counties in their own right, and have been since counties were established in Scotland.

The Western Isles (Lewis, Harris, Uist etc) only became a county in 1996; before that they were part of the Highland region, and before that split between Inverness-shire and Ross & Cromarty.

 

[Cheds]

Cheds points out that the word used is 'region' not county..............

 

[Francis]

Leigh (43,000) and Tyldesley (36,000) both now subjugated by the Metropolitan Borough of Bigwiggin (Wigan), lost their rail service in 1969 with the closure of the Leigh loop. While Greater Manchester spends millions upon millions with its Metrolink system, these towns remain neglected. It takes an hour by bus to Manchester from Leigh (12 miles), and the roads are chokka in the rush hour.
They've been talking about a guided busway for years, but nothing has come of it yet. The real motive behind shutting the line was to save £500k on the M602 bridge at Monton.
It would be possible to build a new link down from the direct Salford-Wigan (via Daisy Hill) line, just west of Walkden, to join Tyldesley and Leigh back into the network. Alternatively/ additionally, reopen a station at Glazebury, between Newton-le-Willows and Patricroft, which could serve much of Leigh and Culcheth (park and ride). The latter is prime commuter territory. Unfortunately Glazebury now falls just within the new expanded Cheshire boundaries, and they don't seem interested in doing anything to help Leigh, or GMPTE won't do anything outside their frontiers.

 

[eastdyke]

Newcastle under Lyme would rate up there. Population of around 75,000, old railway station closed circa 1964.

Makes do with Stoke these days.

 

[radamfi]

They've been talking about a guided busway for years, but nothing has come of it yet.

They are building it as we speak!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Newcastle under Lyme would rate up there. Population of around 75,000, old railway station closed circa 1964.

Makes do with Stoke these days.

Newcastle is about as near to Stoke station as many parts of the City of Stoke-on-Trent, including parts of Hanley etc.

 

[Eagle]

Gosport is the usual answer nowadays, isn't it? Population 82,700.

Of course Gosport town centre is a five-minute boat ride from a station.

 

[Cheds]

this was posted 24 hours ago:

"OK Mutant Lemmings post gives the opportunity to point out that there is one entire region of Britain without a single working railway station. Most of you will know the answer, but let's leave it out there for the quiz oers/compilers for a while, eh?.........."

Less bites than I thought! so perhaps it's not as widely known as I thought...

The Borders region (region, note) has not a single operating station.

It contains metrpoles such as Selkirk, Hawick, Jedburgh, Galashiels, Kelso, Peebles, Melrose and Tweedbank. Several of these were on the old 'Waverley' route from Carlisle to Edinburgh, part of which is/may be reinstated by 2013/2015/eventually/perhaps.

One for quiz nights, cheds thinks......

 

[ATW Alex 101]

What about:
Louth population of 15,930 (2001)
Ripon population of 15,922 (2001) (I believe Ripon holds city status as well)
Consett population of 27,394 (2001)
Leek poulation of 18,768 (2001 Census)

 

[sheff'd victoria]

Anyway, my question:
Which is the biggest town/city in Great Britain (by population figures) not to be served by a railway station on the National Rail network?

How about Louth in Lincolnshire ?

Is that a city now? :P

If you mean any town without a rail station it doesn't even break the top 20 in terms of population (Louth population around 16,000).

My friends in the South West may help me here, but did Wells once have a railway station ?

 

[Ivo]

Try three!

East Somerset (1862 - 1878)
Priory Road (1859 - 1951)
Tucker Street (1870 - 1963; known as "Wells" for much of its existence)

On this evidence it doesn't take a genius to see why the railway didn't really work there