Favourite Town or City not served by rail

[mikeg]

The beauty of rail travel is you get to view vast swathes of the UK's towns and cities and many smaller places. However, despite my suspicion of towns not served by rail, there are some that are very worth of a visit. To us who use the train primarily, they can be either hidden gems or like the pole of inaccessibility if the bus service is poor... However there are plenty of places I'm sure without a station that are worth a visit.

I recently holidayed in Caernarfon and found it to be one of my favourite towns in the UK, possibly the favourite of its size. It has however got very good bus connections, including a TrawsCymru service and a frequent service from Arriva Cymru to Bangor, which provides for rail connections. I can't quite put my finger on why I liked Caernarfon so much but it did seem a lovely place to visit and not possessing a car was not a problem, despite its lack of a railway station (the Ffestiniog railway excluded - heritage railways don't count for the purposes of this thread).

Anyone else have any favourite places to visit not served by the railway?

Of course, there are grey areas, another favourite town is Newcastle-under-Lyme, an affection for this place since I was a Keelite but it's got a station within the borough and is part of the Stoke-on-Trent built up area, but the town itself does not have a station so I'd say this'd count. Further grey area are places served only by tram or light rail. I'd say these semi-count.

 

[Trainguy34]

Ripon. Lovely city, one of 2 in England without a rail connection.

 

[D6130]

Ripon. Lovely city, one of 2 in England without a rail connection.

The other presumably being Wells.

I would offer:

St Andrews

Anstruther

Crail

Pittenweem

Bishop's Castle (really only a large village....so maybe O/T?)

Kirkcudbright

Inveraray

Campbeltown

Brecon

Barnard Castle (other branches of Specsavers are available!)

Kirkby Lonsdale

Brechin (Heritage Railway only....not on national network)

Dartmouth

Lynton/Lynmouth

 

[zero]

I would be interested in a list of people's favourite places that have never been served by rail.

 

[AlterEgo]

Wells is beautiful. It’s England’s smallest city (other than the City of London) and well worth a day trip in the summer.

 

[Whistler40145]

Keswick

 

[deltic]

St David's in Wales

 

[Trainguy34]

Minehead (WSR Only) and Ilfracombe are very nice, Minehead can be quite touristy however.

 

[Sun Chariot]

+1 for Ripon and Wells (posts #2, #3 and #5)
I'll add Midhurst, West Sussex. The lines to Petersfield and to Chichester are both long closed.
It's still a charning town centre, with the impressive Cowdray Estate ruins at the lower end.

 

[Falcon1200]

Various towns on the long-closed Banbury/Cheltenham line; Chipping Norton, Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water, the last-named being a major tourist draw.

(I have always thought that Kingham/Chipping Norton would have made an ideal preserved line).

 

[dangie]

Keswick

Talking of Lake District tourist towns there’s also Ambleside, although Windermere station is less than five miles away.

 

[Whistler40145]

Talking of Lake District tourist towns there’s also Ambleside, although Windermere station is less than five miles away.

That's one place which hasn't ever been rail connected, either from Windermere or Keswick

 

[D6130]

Second instalment:

Dalbeattie

Selkirk

Jedburgh

Kelso

Melrose

Grantown-on-Spey

Blairgowrie

Aberfeldy

Newton Stewart

Gatehouse of Fleet

Alston

Grassington

Pateley Bridge

Helmsley

Pickering (Heritage rail only....although that is connected to the national network in a roundabout way)

Market Weighton

Pocklington

Longridge

 

[ChrisC]

I also agree about Ripon.

Some of the towns now being suggested are not quite so large so I will add
Southwell
Ashbourne
Bakewell
Leek
Louth
I could almost suggest Brigg!

 

[EUC]

Abingdon. A town of 40,000 souls, but no rail connection.

 

[DelW]

Having visited friends living there, I've found Shaftesbury to be a very pleasant and attractive small town, as well as being famous for Gold Hill, the steep cobbled lane featured in the one time Hovis adverts.

If the nearby west of England line had been built by the Great Western rather than the South Western, Semley station (on the main road a couple of miles north of Shaftesbury) would probably have been called Shaftesbury Road instead. That seems to have been its main purpose, since it was a good mile away from Semley village, despite the line passing almost through that.

 

[CastlebarKeith]

SOUTHWATER and STEYNING in West Sussex
They WERE served by rail, (Shoreham-By-Sea to Horsham), but the line was closed, sold for housing
Population of Steyning has quadrupled and Southwater about tenfold. They now desperately need rail connection again

 

[Acfb]

Probably St Andrews, Hawick, Haddington and Blairgowrie. Ripon is nice too, I agree. If we're counting smaller places I'd also say Culross, Gullane, St Boswells and the villages around Chatsworth.

Blairgowrie is most difficult town to get to by public transport from Edinburgh as you can't go directly on one bus ride unlike the others.

 

[deltic]

Buckingham - how many other county towns lost their station
Alnwick

 

[Acey]

Tenterden in Kent

 

[Jon_jpwh]

St. Davids in Wales, also Southwold in Suffolk and Dartmouth in Devon. It's interesting that Dartmouth had a station but no railway.

 

[RT4038]

Buckingham - how many other county towns lost their station
Alnwick

I believe that the County town of Buckinghamshire is Aylesbury, which has two or three stations in its town and environs.

 

[deltic]

I believe that the County town of Buckinghamshire is Aylesbury, which has two or three stations in its town and environs.

Buckingham was the county town of Buckinghamshire from the 10th century until the 18th century, when Aylesbury took over - so I was just a couple of hundred years behind the times!

 

[Howardh]

Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale, think Sedbergh was once served by train as it contains a "Station Road"? Probably too small to be called a "town" (how is a "town" defined??) but Chipping, lovely place and off the tourist track. Bury has a smashing town centre, trams replaced the trains years ago although the East Lancs Railway does serve the town so not sure if that counts?

Tongue-in-cheek shout for Dent - might have a station but it's a seriously long way away!

 

[The exile]

Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale, think Sedbergh was once served by train as it contains a "Station Road"? Probably too small to be called a "town" (how is a "town" defined??)

Possession of a market charter, I believe.

 

[Howardh]

Possession of a market charter, I believe.

Thanks, both my choices are towns then!

 

[Haywain]

Tenterden in Kent

Tenterden is served by rail...

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Pretty much any place on Thameslink, for long periods on most days?

In the 'never had a railway' category, Clun. There's also Bishop's Castle, terminus of the famous and infamous Bishop's Castle Light Railway, which succumbed in 1936.

 

[Acey]

Tenterden is served by rail...

Well, technically if your counting heritage railways I suppose it is !

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Well, technically if your counting heritage railways I suppose it is !

Think the OP specifically excluded heritage railways (such as the Welsh Highland Railway at Caernarfon) in their opening post.