Places on existing lines where new stations could be built.

[swt class 450]

What places (excluding those that are already planning to have a station built) on existing lines would be good placed to have new stations built?

I am personally thinking of the following:

• Artington (a very useful location for a Park & Ride station for Guildford).
• Barns Green (between Christs Hospital and Horsham).
• Bolnore (just South of Haywards Heath as there is especially a lot of hosing development in this area).
• Brockley (a new station to enable Southeastern services to call here and offer interchanges with the current Southern services).
• Burpham (a joint station could be built to serve both Burpham and Merrow).
• East Clandon (i am aware there is already a station in West Clandon but one in East Horsley would be very useful as they are a fair distance apart).
• Fetcham (between Bookham and Leatherhead).
• Guildford (a station to the West to serve the Hospital and the surrounding area).
• Merrow (a joint station could be built to serve both Burpham and Merrow)
• Patcham (just North of Brighton and would also serve as an excellent Park & Ride station)
• Stoughton (just North of Guildford).
• West Horsley (i am aware there is already a station in East Horsley but one in West Horsley would be very useful as they are a fair distance apart).
• Westergate (Between Barnham and Chichester).

Can anyone think of any other cities / towns / villages / suburbs in the UK on existing lines that would be good useful places for new stations to be built?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Prepare for a thread 37,961 pages long as everyone inevitably suggests any conurbation larger than the size of a singular farm within 5 miles of an operational railway is worthy of a station.

Of yours, I don't know enough detailed geography of Surrey and Sussex to comment on most of them, but I'd suggest any on the Brighton Main Line wouldn't get anywhere as they'd obliterate capacity. I tend to be quite sceptical of many new station proposals, especially those espoused by councils and user groups (Worcestershire Parkway for example), however there is the odd decent idea knocking about. Peterlee on the hugely under-utilised Durham Coast line is one.

 

[SodTheDrummer]

Prepare for a thread 37,961 pages long as everyone inevitably suggests any conurbation larger than the size of a singular farm within 5 miles of an operational railway is worthy of a station.

Haha!

I would like a station near(er) to my house please!

Or perhaps I should just buy a house near an existing one?

 

[SwindonBert]

There's talk of a second station in Swindon, on the Kemble route which would make sense
Royal Wotton Bassett wants a station, but as it's on the GWML it would cause too many issues

 

[shredder1]

Stakehill/Slattocks Middleton, Manchester on the Calder Valley line, its been talked about for years,

 

[Ash Bridge]

Cheadle between Stockport and Navigation Road, served by Mid Cheshire Line services, as above it's been considered for many years.

 

[jopsuk]

Cambridge South is a real proposal- land safeguarded, bridges built with a suitable span.

 

[Spankthemonkey]

Caerleon.

 

[ExRes]

What places (excluding those that are already planning to have a station built) on existing lines would be good placed to have new stations built?

I am personally thinking of the following:

• Bolnore (just South of Haywards Heath as there is especially a lot of hosing development in this area).

They'll never build that one, too much likelihood of flooding

 

[ajdunlop]

A station for Golcar, Milnsbridge and Longwood in Huddersfield. Used to be 2 stations to serve this area. Probably would need a solution that would keep stopping trains out of the way of the TransPennine 'fast' trains.

 

[Bantamzen]

Haha!

I would like a station near(er) to my house please!

Or perhaps I should just buy a house near an existing one?

He he, I was just thinking the same. If one could be built just west of the Thackley Tunnel close to Shipley, preferably with a bridge over the canal to be able to access Buck Lane Baildon that would be just great. No more having to change trains at Shipley or Guiseley to commute to Leeds........

Seriously though, once the wires are up east of Leeds towards York / Selby, what about a station somewhere around Marsh Lane to service the east part of Leeds city centre, and the surrounding businesses? (This would also be useful for my commue BTW )

 

[The Ham]

There are a few I can think of:
- Watchmoor Park (between Frimley and Camberley Stations), would serve a large business park and supermarket (Sainsburys) with residential properties nearby.
- Farnborough Gate (Between Farnborough North and Blackwater stations), would serve a retail park with lots of residential properties nearby. Also would provide a relatively short walk to change to Frimley station)
- Southwood (Between Farnborough Main and Fleet), would serve a lot of business and residential properties in an area where there is limited public transport.
- Elverton Heath (between Fleet and Winchfield), would serve two new large housing developments as well as the western part of Fleet where significant numbers of people travel to Winchfield rather than Fleet for rail services.
- Oakley (West of Basingstoke on the WofE line), reopens a previously closed station. With a short section of electrification could be the terminus point for the Basingstoke stoppers to reduce the number of conflicting movements at the flat junction at Basingstoke.

Some would be fairly easy to fit into the existing timetable, such as Watchmoor Park where there is a lot of passing. Farnborough Gate would require the electrification of the North Downs Line.

The two either side of Fleet would be a bit harder, but by having them only on the stopping services at most they would allow journey times to London by 6 minutes for those in Hook and Winchfield and would require 12 of the 25 minutes that the trains wait at Basingstoke. To minimise the impact it could be that each of the two new stations was served by a different train, so in one half an hour the Basingstoke stoppers call at one whilst in the other gets served in the other half an hour.

Oakley could (assuming that neither of the two stations near Fleet are built before electrification allows the extension of the Basingstoke stoppers to Salisbury, which could then allow other stations i.e. Porton and Bishops Down) could just use up the spare time that the train normally did at Basingstoke. However, in times of disruption the services could just turn back at Basingstoke as they do now.

 

[David Andrews]

One that is quite likely to be built is Mirehouse on the Cumbrian coast line in the south of Whitehaven. The proposed Moorside nuclear power station (next door to Sellafield) includes this in its plans to get most of its workers on site by rail. Though there was a case for it in the 1950s when the estate was built for around 7000 people.

 

[DarloRich]

Prepare for a thread 37,961 pages long as everyone inevitably suggests any conurbation larger than the size of a singular farm within 5 miles of an operational railway is worthy of a station.

This!

Of yours, I don't know enough detailed geography of Surrey and Sussex to comment on most of them, but I'd suggest any on the Brighton Main Line wouldn't get anywhere as they'd obliterate capacity. .

Exactly - it is all well and good crayoning a map but there has to be some contemplation of the effect on the existing services and where both the passenger flows and money go.

 

[Envy123]

Prepare for a thread 37,961 pages long as everyone inevitably suggests any conurbation larger than the size of a singular farm within 5 miles of an operational railway is worthy of a station.

Beaconsfield Road station, between Oakleigh Park and New Southgate, would be nice but is very unlikely to happen.

 

[30907]

Brockley (on the Nunhead-Lewisham line) would be feasible operationally and useful as an Interchange, but would it be a great deal of use to the locals? Been suggested before!

Crosshills on the Airedale line would also be popular - except, that is, with motorists at the adjacent level crossing who would face longer delays....

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Exactly - it is all well and good crayoning a map but there has to be some contemplation of the effect on the existing services and where both the passenger flows and money go.

Indeed. As someone above said, Wootton Bassett is a prime example. A fair-sized town built right by the railway that anywhere else would be a no-brainer for building. Sadly, the GWML west of Swindon only has nine local trains a day!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The obvious ones that haven't yet been mentioned are Elland in West Yorkshire and Wellington in Somerset. Though if you were building Wellington it might also help make a case for Cullompton, as you'd ideally introduce an hourly local DMU service between Taunton and Exeter.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Where Swindon most needs a station is to the east of the town, by the South Marston roundabout on the A419. Given the masses of housing both existing and planned on this side of the town, plus the rural catchment area (Marlborough, Shrivenham, Faringdon), I'd expect a parkway here would be pretty full from day 1. The drive into Swindon town centre for the main station is slow, congested and offputting.

You'd need to extend the current four-track railway from Greenbridge to the new station, which would mean bridge replacement, upgrading the existing goods loop, and some significant earthworks... oh, and moving the big metal posts that are being installed at the moment. I suspect the time to have done it was five years ago, rather than tearing up all the electrification work again. But hey.

 

[Spankthemonkey]

Soham

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Where Swindon most needs a station is to the east of the town, by the South Marston roundabout on the A419. Given the masses of housing both existing and planned on this side of the town, plus the rural catchment area (Marlborough, Shrivenham, Faringdon), I'd expect a parkway here would be pretty full from day 1. The drive into Swindon town centre for the main station is slow, congested and offputting.

You'd need to extend the current four-track railway from Greenbridge to the new station, which would mean replacing Greenbridge and Roman Road bridges (I think the A419 bridge is already wide enough - not sure); upgrading the existing tracks west of Greenbridge to passenger use; and some significant civils in the cutting. Oh, and moving the big metal posts that are being installed at the moment. It would be a big task, but I genuinely can't think of anywhere else on the network where a station would make such a difference.

To bring it back to what was discussed before though, what would serve it? East of Swindon is bereft of any local service, and I can't imagine GWR would be keen on serving both there and then five minutes later making a stop in the actual town on inter-city services; it would also impact the much-heralded journey time improvements that IEP brings.

That said mind, I can also see the case for the old Grove Road / Wantage station on the same stretch. Ideally you could build both then have some form of local service from Swindon eastward. Alas, I just can't see the justification or capacity for it.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

There's been intermittent talk of a peak-hour 387 service from Swindon. Perhaps a semi-fast (Swindon, Swindon Parkway, Wantage, Didcot, Reading, Maidenhead, Slough, Paddington) could be threaded in between the IEPs, just as post-privatisation MML introduced a semi-fast among their HSTs.

But this is getting into serious crayonista territory, and given that (Stratton) Greenbridge has just been rebuilt as a brand new two-track structure, I don't see any likelihood it'll happen.

 

[59CosG95]

Corsham's one that looks very likely to be built. (probably old hat on here though!)
Not sure if one's planned for Wilton, but a 4-platform station at the junction between the Wessex & West of England Main Lines (near the Park & Ride) would be a very good shout.
Definitely wouldn't mind one for Shaftesbury as well (doesn't matter whether it's on the old Semley station site or not).

 

[TheDavibob]

Birmingham Curzon Street on the Cross City/Walsall line - I can dream, right? (Yes, I know it's been discounted as an option).

 

[NorthernSpirit]

I would say one at Raskelf for Easingwold, but who would serve it? Another is Pool Parkway (for Otley & to some extent Wetherby). I'd love to see one at Portsmouth and Cornholme (as do two of my mates who have to double back to Tod).

The obvious ones would be Henbury, Caistor, Finningley, Askern and around a few thousand others.

There is this, which is on the TransWilts site which shows proposed stations in brown:
https://transwilts.org/tw/index.php

 

[northwichcat]

Prepare for a thread 37,961 pages long as everyone inevitably suggests any conurbation larger than the size of a singular farm within 5 miles of an operational railway is worthy of a station.

Well yes there will be a lot even if we only at options which appear sensible even to people outside the local area. There's also potential for new interchanges where lines cross and there's no existing interchange and also for more parkway style stations in an attempt to get more people to park & rail rather than drive in to large towns and cities.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Well yes there will be a lot even if we only at options which appear sensible even to people outside the local area. There's also potential for new interchanges where lines cross and there's no existing interchange and also for more parkway style stations in an attempt to get more people to park & rail rather than drive in to large towns and cities.

The problem I was alluding to is that some on this forum, much like many councils and users groups across the UK, go all guns blazing Olympic standard wibble when topics like this arise; god only knows how many stations we'd have in the UK if everyone got their wish. I concur thoroughly that we should be looking at more interchanges either between railway lines or the traditional parkway / park and ride concept; integrated transport is something this country falls flat on its face attempting but plenty of examples exist to show as stations they can work: the Parkways at Warwick, Horwich and of course Bristol for starters are all great successes. Stations every 500 yards for each village however wouldn't be.

 

[Deepgreen]

What places (excluding those that are already planning to have a station built) on existing lines would be good placed to have new stations built?

I am personally thinking of the following:

• Artington (a very useful location for a Park & Ride station for Guildford).
• Barns Green (between Christs Hospital and Horsham).
• Bolnore (just South of Haywards Heath as there is especially a lot of hosing development in this area).
• Brockley (a new station to enable Southeastern services to call here and offer interchanges with the current Southern services).
• Burpham (a joint station could be built to serve both Burpham and Merrow).
• East Clandon (i am aware there is already a station in West Clandon but one in East Horsley would be very useful as they are a fair distance apart).
• Fetcham (between Bookham and Leatherhead).
• Guildford (a station to the West to serve the Hospital and the surrounding area).
• Merrow (a joint station could be built to serve both Burpham and Merrow)
• Patcham (just North of Brighton and would also serve as an excellent Park & Ride station)
• Stoughton (just North of Guildford).
• West Horsley (i am aware there is already a station in East Horsley but one in West Horsley would be very useful as they are a fair distance apart).
• Westergate (Between Barnham and Chichester).

Can anyone think of any other cities / towns / villages / suburbs in the UK on existing lines that would be good useful places for new stations to be built?

Self-contradicting!

Your wish-list for the Guildford area would give a metro-style density of stations! Bear in mind how long it took to provide the station at Mitcham Eastfields, which has long been a huge gap in a very densely-populated area. The new station had been suggested for decades, and only came to fruition a few years ago. Its value seems to have been justified by the fact that it sees semi-fast trains from the Epsom corridor stopping there but not at Carshalton, Mitcham Junction, etc.

 

[PR1Berske]

I am reminded of this thread discussing the reopening of stations and the feasibility thereof

 

[Deepgreen]

I am reminded of this thread discussing the reopening of stations and the feasibility thereof

I'm frequently tempted to start a thread along the lines of:

"Where would you like trains to go to and how would the timetable look?"