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Bleakest / loneliest mainline station

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I've spent a fair few cold,rainy,wind swept nights on bank Quay in the late 80s early 90s, were the wind bites straight through you but it was that busy with freight it didn't bother me. when I go there now I find the smell of soap quite reminiscent of happy days and nights coping loads of locos passing through.
 

kermit

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Another plus 1 for Warrington Bank Quay. It’s dismal.

I have some very happy memories of Warrington Bank Quay with double headed Class 50s (or D400s as they were then known) blasting through on Glasgow expresses!
 
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Theale always seems very bleak, even in the best of weather. Taunton too, especially at the far ends of the platforms.
I think the bleakest station I’ve been to is Barnetby, although it’s not really on a mainline.
 

CC 72100

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Tiverton Parkway. The drone of the motorway in the background a subtle reminder that plenty of other people are heading towards where they want to go whilst you stand on the Down/Westbound platform without so much as a bus shelter.

Thankfully it's been a good couple of years since I last had any length of time at TVP on a winter's night!
 

ivorytoast28

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Interesting question,

I'm going to go with Worplesdon. Roughly 1tph stopping in each direction with another 3tph passing through in each direction. The station itself is in the middle of a forest. Despite being just 30 miles from London on a major commuter route, the station is in the middle of nowhere and I don't think anyone walks to the station at all as only a few large mansions are nearby. Yet with a large and cheap carpark and situated on a fast road between Guildford and Woking it is well used and well kept. In the early morning it is therefore bustling and even has a manned ticket office, but after about 11am it becomes eerily silent for most of the day, with virtually no passengers and packed trains stopping each hour just for passengers to observe its emptiness and wish to get on with their journey to London
 

306024

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Interesting question,

I'm going to go with Worplesdon. Roughly 1tph stopping in each direction with another 3tph passing through in each direction. The station itself is in the middle of a forest. Despite being just 30 miles from London on a major commuter route, the station is in the middle of nowhere and I don't think anyone walks to the station at all as only a few large mansions are nearby. Yet with a large and cheap carpark and situated on a fast road between Guildford and Woking it is well used and well kept. In the early morning it is therefore bustling and even has a manned ticket office, but after about 11am it becomes eerily silent for most of the day, with virtually no passengers and packed trains stopping each hour just for passengers to observe its emptiness and wish to get on with their journey to London

Not totally dissimilar to Hatfield Peverel on the GEML. Nothing there to keep you entertained.
 

Bald Rick

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Bletchley is pretty bleak. Grey, grey, grey, with an aggregate factory in the background providing the scenery.

If we’re talking that neck of the woods, Cheddington surely trumps any other.

Interesting question,

I'm going to go with Worplesdon. Roughly 1tph stopping in each direction with another 3tph passing through in each direction. The station itself is in the middle of a forest. Despite being just 30 miles from London on a major commuter route, the station is in the middle of nowhere and I don't think anyone walks to the station at all as only a few large mansions are nearby. Yet with a large and cheap carpark and situated on a fast road between Guildford and Woking it is well used and well kept. In the early morning it is therefore bustling and even has a manned ticket office, but after about 11am it becomes eerily silent for most of the day, with virtually no passengers and packed trains stopping each hour just for passengers to observe its emptiness and wish to get on with their journey to London

No!! Lovely station. I have a copy of the original drawings on my wall! Quiet, yes, but not bleak or lonely, there’s always wildlife around.
 

C J Snarzell

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I actually think Wigan North Western is a little bleak, especially in winter. The station concourse feels draughty and uninviting - the toilets speak for themselves. However, I wouldn't class it as 'lonely'.

Warrington Bank Quay probably ranks as both bleak & lonely - it's a bit of a treck from the town centre and is not in a picturesque location.

CJ
 

221101 Voyager

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Wolverton. When it rains it's awful, you see the awful platform surface, the leaky shelters, the ticket office that's closed more than it's open and a footbridge that's leaks and is rather rusty, then you have the awful rattle of window panels in the shelter whenever a train passes which is about every 2-3 mins.

It may be my local station, but it is pretty rubbish and needs work! :rolleyes:
 

johntea

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75 minutes and nobody’s mentioned Wakefield Kirkgate? Now with a record of a brass band playing ‘Jerusalem’ on a never ending loop!

I'm going to be controversial here and chuck Wakefield Westgate in the mix...it always just feels very 'empty', 2.5 million passengers a year is a drop in the ocean compared to other mainline stations in the area I suppose (even Doncaster gets 4 million!)
 

Flange Squeal

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Upper Halliford? It's got a half-hourly London commuter service, but has a motorway and industrial estate parallel to it, a dual carriageway running over it, and old concrete platforms. Not particularly busy in my experience either.

 

Philip Phlopp

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Carstairs - just the state hospital and if visiting on the right day, the escaped axe murderer air raid sirens for company (they assure me they were just testing them...)
 

ScotRail158725

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East Midlands Parkway when its dark. Its very bleak especually due to the fact those loud cooling towers looming over the station gives a very ominous feel
 

Bletchleyite

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At least with Penrith you can have a wander around town plus theirs McDonald's next door plus superstores & of course the Agricultural hotel for a pint when things are in normal times of course.

Penrith station is a fair way from the town centre, but yes, the Maccies is a useful feature!

<Bletchley>

Windy and often wet.

Particularly platform 6, on which they cheaped out and didn't provide a canopy (or lift), presumably due to an expectation that the Marston Vale wouldn't have long to live. The steps down are incredibly exposed in bad weather. Though because of the long layovers the lack of shelter isn't *that* much of an issue as you can shelter on board.

I completely agree, It's a huge station and I've been the only one on the platform a few times.

Preston can be like that late at night, though it's also in some ways quite atmospheric. Was even more so when announcements were done manually, one who often did the evening shift was a woman who used to sort-of sing the announcements with a real charm.

Manc Picc 13/14 can be pretty bleak in bad weather if you're there at a quiet time (they do exist).

Tring is another one - huge platforms, few passengers (outside of the peak) and almost no decent shelter. Cheddington is probably more windswept but at least it has a nice view of the Chilterns.

And one more - Crewe in the late evening once everything has shut, particularly if it's tipping it down and cold.
 
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PeterY

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Rugby was a bit grim one February evening back in 2012 (during the height of London Midland's traincrew woes), cold and absolutely nothing open.
Rugby is the bleakest station I've got off of a train. The 4 car 350's seem so small, in the vastness of nothingness.
Second must be Nuneaton.
 

Bletchleyite

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Rugby is the bleakest station I've got off of a train. The 4 car 350's seem so small, in the vastness of nothingness.
Second must be Nuneaton.

Actually the Trent Valley reminds me - Rugeley TV must surely be up there. Had to wait half an hour for a connection there in early July. I wasn't feeling well which didn't help (no, not COVID), it was cold and wet despite being July, there's a run-down factory in the background, a poxy windswept bus shelter, an open footbridge, no booking office and nothing of any consequence nearby enough to be worth popping out (I seem to recall a Tesco Express/Sainsbury's Local not *that* far away, but there, round and back would have been more than half an hour). Like Bletchley, but ten times grimmer - like a whole station made up with repeats of Bletchley platform 6.

Lichfield is barely better but at least it has indoor space.
 

Bletchleyite

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Paul Simon would probably vote for Widnes. (see Wikipedia: Homeward Bound)

Doesn't that allegedly refer to a different Widnes station which was on the now disused (for passengers) line from Ditton Junction, and not the current Widnes station which was originally called Farnworth (Widnes)?
 

Gloster

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Doesn't that allegedly refer to a different Widnes station which was on the now disused (for passengers) line from Ditton Junction, and not the current Widnes station which was originally called Farnworth (Widnes)?

...or Warrington Bank Quay or even Runcorn.
 

alangla

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Newton & Coatbridge Central both seemed like utter dumps the last time I visited either of them. Newton may well have improved though, lots of new housing around there & a big new car park
 

Bletchleyite

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...or Warrington Bank Quay or even Runcorn.

Or Ditton Junction itself, according to the Wiki article about Widnes. Now that was a bleak station. Edge Hill is too - a sad shadow of its former self, and to be honest if you step outside the area it's in is pretty bleak too.

Another Merseyside one - Sandhills, at least in its former guise, at least now it's got a decent canopy etc. Before the Eldonian Village went up, it also had utterly grim "scenery" of run-down abandoned dockland and vast swathes of concrete bases from once major factories.
 

DerekC

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Interesting question,

I'm going to go with Worplesdon. Roughly 1tph stopping in each direction with another 3tph passing through in each direction. The station itself is in the middle of a forest. Despite being just 30 miles from London on a major commuter route, the station is in the middle of nowhere and I don't think anyone walks to the station at all as only a few large mansions are nearby. Yet with a large and cheap carpark and situated on a fast road between Guildford and Woking it is well used and well kept. In the early morning it is therefore bustling and even has a manned ticket office, but after about 11am it becomes eerily silent for most of the day, with virtually no passengers and packed trains stopping each hour just for passengers to observe its emptiness and wish to get on with their journey to London

Off topic, I am afraid, but I was once on an up 12 car Class 450 that got snowbound at Worplesdon at about 08:30. The station suddenly had about 400 people on it. The guy in the coffee shop couldn't believe his luck! Had to send out to Sainsburys for more coffee and milk!! We were finally rescued by an empty Class 455 which took us back to Guildford for another try via the New Line.
 
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