Most deserving town to be reconnected to Rail Network

[swcovas]

Gorseinon.......relay track from Swansea district line and connect on to west wales main line at Gowerton. Run Central Wales line trains more directly into Swansea and reconnect one of the larger towns in Wales without rail link. Driving into Swansea is a nightmare!

Porthcawl would be a good one too.

 

[The Ham]

Some excellent suggestions here. Even if only 10% of commuters ditched their cars for the trains on these suggested routes it would do the roads a world of good.

You'd probably find that many of the "new" train users would just switch from an existing station (especially for journeys into major cities).

Also a 10% drop in commuter traffic would be very noticeable - basicly school holiday traffic levels or turning the clock back about 10 years (normally less but the economic climate has had a big impact on motor traffic levels over the last few years).

 

[jonty14]

Peterlee and other stations between Hartlepool and Seaham.

 

[Roverman]

You'd probably find that many of the "new" train users would just switch from an existing station (especially for journeys into major cities).

Also a 10% drop in commuter traffic would be very noticeable - basicly school holiday traffic levels or turning the clock back about 10 years (normally less but the economic climate has had a big impact on motor traffic levels over the last few years).

It certainly has, 4 years ago I was commuting from Stafford to Wellington and when the crunch happened traffic levels dropped very quickly on the M6/M54 route I used to take. Highways decided however to still push through their mad scheme of fitting Traffic Lights on M54 J2 roundabout which made it worse than before!

You have a good point about existing commuters switching to a more local station should one open and its one I hadn't previously considered. It would be interesting to know for example how many existing commuters switched from LIV to LPY when it opened.

 

[tbtc]

You'd probably find that many of the "new" train users would just switch from an existing station (especially for journeys into major cities)

This is a good point, often overlooked when a new station opens on a line between two existing ones - people get excited about the number using the new station but may not spot a decrease in passenger numbers at the stations either side.

For example, when the figures are announced for Buckshaw Parkway railway station, will we see Chorley/ Leyland's figures going down? (or not going up in line with the general rise in passenger numbers)

As far as this thread goes, I'd suggest different categories for stations (as there are big differences in cost!):

• A new station on an existing line (like Wormit at the southern end of the Tay Bridge)
• A new station on a re-opened line (like St Andrews)
• A new station on a brand new alignment/line (like a station in the middle of Glenrothes)

(to use three Fife examples)

 

[Eagle]

(no-one's said Kenilworth yet!)

 

[Buttsy]

(no-one's said Kenilworth yet!)

That's 'cos it's not deserving enough...

 

[70F]

Haverhill. A small town when it was disconnected, now has a population of 25,000 of mainly commuters.

As a daily user of the A1307, I couldn't agree more.

 

[NHG66]

You are right, there is unlikely to be much demand for Wintey/Oxford with the number of buses which run that route, but if you where to use the old route, it would be poissible to use the roling stock which is normally left at Oxford when the train splits to head through Moreton-In-Marsh. Making it pratical for London bound trips, which is likely to be more attractive than a bus to Oxford and then a train.

You are kidding aren't you. Rush hour drive to Oxford centre from Witney takes nigh on an hour by road. I think there would be a huge demand for a rail service if the station were conveniently located. Witney is growing, the A40 is not, any additional travel infrastructure would be a huge boost and I bet a direct London service would be fairly well utilised notwithstanding path issues closer to Paddington.

I doubt it will ever happen though.

 

[John55]

It certainly has, 4 years ago I was commuting from Stafford to Wellington and when the crunch happened traffic levels dropped very quickly on the M6/M54 route I used to take. Highways decided however to still push through their mad scheme of fitting Traffic Lights on M54 J2 roundabout which made it worse than before!

You have a good point about existing commuters switching to a more local station should one open and its one I hadn't previously considered. It would be interesting to know for example how many existing commuters switched from LIV to LPY when it opened.

I am puzzled by your comment, Parkway station is a suburban station not a city centre station. Commuters to Liverpool are hardly likely to use Lime St as the start of their journey. There was an expectation that journeys from Hunts Cross might decline when Parkway opened but it has been reported this didn't happen.

If referring to commuting to Manchester the switch would be from Hunts Cross more than Lime St.

 

[Roverman]

Apologies if I've confused anyone there. I don't know Liverpool all that well and just assumed Lime Street would have been the station people used before the Parkway opened!

 

[reb0118]

You'd probably find that many of the "new" train users would just switch from an existing station (especially for journeys into major cities).

This is a good point, often overlooked when a new station opens.......

Lots of passengers from the Livingston/Bathgate conurbation used to use Linlithgow station for commuting purposes when travelling to Glasgow & points west. There was a significant drop in these passengers when the direct Airdrie - Bathgate section reopened - and it was also a lot easier to get parked in the mornings at Linlithgow for a while.

Not so now!! possibly the re-availability of parking (which can seriously suppress demand at a railway station) has allowed former commuters to return.

 

[tbtc]

Lots of passengers from the Livingston/Bathgate conurbation used to use Linlithgow station for commuting purposes when travelling to Glasgow & points west. There was a significant drop in these passengers when the direct Airdrie - Bathgate section reopened - and it was also a lot easier to get parked in the mornings at Linlithgow for a while.

Not so now!! possibly the re-availability of parking (which can seriously suppress demand at a railway station) has allowed former commuters to return.

Interesting example - one I hadn't considered (I was only thinking of stations on that line), but I could see the logic in people in the Bathgate/ Livingston area driving to Linlithgow for a regular Glasgow service (in the days before the Airdrie line re-opened).

 

[Eagle]

That's 'cos it's not deserving enough...

A 25,000-population town of mainly commuters (to Coventry and Birmingham)? Not like no one's suggested anything like that before in this thread...

 

[Buttsy]

A 25,000-population town of mainly commuters (to Coventry and Birmingham)? Not like no one's suggested anything like that before in this thread...

Just kidding, but doubling the whole route would be needed as XC are slow enough as it is...

 

[yorksrob]

Alnwick.

To think there's a regional service terminating so near for want of such a short single track branch.

 

[Eagle]

Just kidding, but doubling the whole route would be needed as XC are slow enough as it is...

Well it's getting wires in the next few years, so I'm optimistic about that. (Although the current approved plan for the station extends the Kenilworth loop down to the station site anyway which might be enough.)

Alnwick.

To think there's a regional service terminating so near for want of such a short single track branch.

Define "so near". Morpeth is 22 miles away from Alnwick, Chathill is about 14 (and is only served twice a day anyway).

I'm assuming the branch to be about 2.5 miles long to calculate those.

 

[yorksrob]

Well it's getting wires in the next few years, so I'm optimistic about that. (Although the current approved plan for the station extends the Kenilworth loop down to the station site anyway which might be enough.)



Define "so near". Morpeth is 22 miles away from Alnwick, Chathill is about 14 (and is only served twice a day anyway).

I'm assuming the branch to be about 2.5 miles long to calculate those.

Alnmouth is very near indeed. (I'd have all the stoppers go there and stop a couple of cross country's for Chathill).

 

[The Planner]

Well it's getting wires in the next few years, so I'm optimistic about that. (Although the current approved plan for the station extends the Kenilworth loop down to the station site anyway which might be enough.)

Plan is to double Kenilworth to Milverton, not the best of ideas in my opinion as it bins a 775m loop.

 

[Eagle]

In that case there'll only be about a mile of single left, between Gibbet Hill and Crackley-ish.

 

[D365]

PPM shuttle between Huntingdon Platform 1 (and Huntingdon Mill Road) and Godmanchester Bridge Place Car Park for the new town. Or even better, extend to St. Ives along the A14/Hemingfords and bolt some rails onto the MisGuided Bustway!

Would be expensive, but surely less than The St. Ives-Cambridge Busway in toto - a fun way to get people between schools and such, I reckon! Would put the blank tarmac in Goddy to some use

 

[tbtc]

Alnmouth is very near indeed. (I'd have all the stoppers go there and stop a couple of cross country's for Chathill).

You'd stop Cross Country services at Chathill?

 

[yorksrob]

You'd stop Cross Country services at Chathill?

Compromise. No point closing it. No point having a huge gap in the timeable to a large settlement like Alnwick. May as well stop one of the slower InterCity's for the sake of two trains a day.

 

[Eagle]

Platforms would need lengthening at Chathill if XC were to stop there, for a start.

 

[yorksrob]

I'm guessing their aren't huge numbers of passengers at Chathill. Presumably they could let them in/out through the guards door.

 

[Eagle]

I'm guessing their aren't huge numbers of passengers at Chathill.

2,642 in 2010/11. (Not low enough to warrant closing, IMO, but it is a very awkward place for a station.)

 

[yorksrob]

2,642 in 2010/11. (Not low enough to warrant closing, IMO, but it is a very awkward place for a station.)

Indeed. There must be some reason why it's survived.

 

[billio]

Indeed. There must be some reason why it (Chathill) has survived.

It was the junction for Seahouses perhaps ?. I think at some time in the past it had a function in the Postal Network.

If you wanted to have a station in that area I would have thought Belford was a much better location: a much larger village, roads to Bamburgh and Wooler.

 

[yorksrob]

It was the junction for Seahouses perhaps ?. I think at some time in the past it had a function in the Postal Network.

If you wanted to have a station in that area I would have thought Belford was a much better location: a much larger village, roads to Bamburgh and Wooler.

Ah thanks, that could be it. Also, I notice from Google Earth there seems to be a large airfield nearby, so maybe that had something to do with it. These are the facts of which railway history is made

 

[Eagle]

If you wanted to have a station in that area I would have thought Belford was a much better location: a much larger village, roads to Bamburgh and Wooler.

And the Northern trains continue ECS to Belford anyway as it's the only reversing opportunity between Alnmouth and Berwick.