Railways that loop away from town then back in

[Gordon]

I decided to start this thread but had great difficulty finding a concise title!

But the question is:

Last week I went on the Ipswich - Felixstowe branch, I think for the first time ever.

It leaves Ipswich main station and describes a huge arc northwest and north of the town before turning south then east passing through Derby Road station, which is back in town again.

I can think of a few lines across Europe that loop round staying within the confines of a town or city, but few if any like the Felixstowe line, ie passing through a station (Westerfield in this case) firmly out in the country and surrounded by green fields and very much a 'country' station - before going back through the eastern side of Ipswich.

My favourite example, Limoges the line to Angouleme is similar but the line doesn't quite leave the confines of eastern Limoges as it does its about turn to the west, serving Limoges Montjovis station. Bordeaux might have come close until recently, but again did not really leave the city suburbs

Of course as with every topic there are variables - for example here I want to stick to what happens today, not what was the case when the lines were built, up to 100+ years ago.

.


.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

I don't exactly if that's what you mean, but when travelling by train from Prague city centre to Praha-Čakovice, it's often just as fast to take the metro and the bus, because the railway takes huge detour and goes behind the airport before it comes to Čakovice.

 

[John Webb]

If I may refer to a UK situation, we have the reverse situation on the Midland Railway's "London Extension" where the line loops closer to St Albans city centre for the station. Originally designed to be some quarter-mile or more further East, after the City Fathers had built their new city gaol in the early 1860s they realised that this would the first thing that people getting off the train would see as they headed for the city centre! After talking with the Midland Railway and arranging some land exchanges - including a corner of the gaol yard - the MR was persuaded to insert a significant deviation, bringing their station to the city centre side of the gaol. We hold maps at St Albans South signal box on which this deviation can be seen.
(Regarding Ipswich, there were probably topographical features such as the river and town centre, or more likely anti-railway land owners who wouldn't sell off land to the railway!)

 

[ikcdab]

Leaving Solotvino in western Ukraine the line goes South then describes virtually a 360 degree bend before it heads north west towards Teresva.

 

[edwin_m]

The move of all Rome's principal train services into Termini created some contorted routes. Going by the map, trains from the north-west pass close to the Vatican before looping round the south of the city to approach from the south-east.

 

[MarcVD]

You had such a situation in Antwerp for all trains to/from the Netherlands, before the underground link to the North was built. Trains had to exit the station to the south and then go around the city to pursue North.

Envoyé de mon SM-T819 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[ac6000cw]

I can think of a few lines across Europe that loop round staying within the confines of a town or city, but few if any like the Felixstowe line, ie passing through a station (Westerfield in this case) firmly out in the country and surrounded by green fields and very much a 'country' station - before going back through the eastern side of Ipswich.

I was thinking about Luzern, where trains to the east leave southwards then loop around though 270 degrees, and the narrow-gauge lines at Montreux that loop back and forth to climb up into the mountains to the north, but all of those appear to be within the city limits.

Yes, Westerfield is delightfully rural (if the weather is decent, I quite often while away some time there watching the freights go past). It's a bit of a culture shock to then arrive in urban Derby Road. As well as the curvature, the line also climbs from Ipswich up to Westerfield and then descends again towards Derby Road. The Felixstowe branch was built after the East Suffolk line, so presumably connecting to it at Westerfield was the cheapest way to get into Ipswich.

 

[30907]

The Gäubahn out of Stuttgart (towards Horb and Zürich) passes through open country for some distance before reaching S-Österfeld, -Vaihingen and -Rohr. However, I assume this is still within city limits politically, and there is no rural equivalent of Westerfield (despite the related name).

That's the nearest I can find.

 

[AM9]

Here in the UK I can think of Colchester. The GEML passes east-west about one mile north of the town centre where the main station officially just 'Colchester' is known by many locals as 'Colchester North'. The Clacton branch leaves the mainline and swings around to the east where a spur heads westwards to Colchester Town station back in the centre of the town, which was previously known as 'Colchester St Botolphs'.
Most of the day, the Colchester to Clacton stoppers provide a service to the town station by way of a triangle, the third side being the direct line to Clacton. There is only a single platform tracked at the station yet it's approach tracks and all three sides of the triangle are double track, - quite unusual in my experience.

On the continent, I remember Kitbuhel where the main Wörgl to Saalfelden route swings southeast along the western side of the Kitbuhel vallet. There is the small Kitzbuhel Hannekahn station, the line then after about 1Km swings across the valley through a 180 degree curve returning northwest to Kitbuhel Hbf station. It is possible to just miss a train at one station and get a cab across town to the other stop (provided it stops at both) to catch the same train.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Berlin used to have loopy routes during the Wall period.
Western trains had to use the Greibnitzsee crossing into West Berlin near Potsdam, so trains from Hamburg had to loop round the city to reach it.
Meanwhile, DDR trains had to loop round the east of the city to head for Potsdam, Leipzig and Dresden, avoiding West Berlin.
Now all sorted of course, although there are still some missing pieces to be restored (eg the direct route to Dresden).

Budapest also makes western trains loop round the city to reach Keleti terminus in the east.
Nyugati (West) is the natural terminus for trains from Bratislava and Prague, but they have to loop round the north of the city to reach Keleti.
I see this year that the Ukraine/Russia service uses Nyugati rather than Keleti.

Prague has solved its problems by building a new route from the east into Hlavni and then on to the routes exiting Mazarykovo, creating a big circle.
Through trains can use several routes through the city as a result, instead of having to reverse in a terminus.

 

[AlexNL]

If you want to go to the Spoorwegmuseum (railway museum) in Utrecht by train, you can do so once an hour. Dutch Railways operate a direct service from Utrecht Centraal to Utrecht Maliebaan, the site of the museum, once an hour on days that the museum is open.

The route is a bit quirky: the train leaves Utrecht Centraal in westbound direction, then makes a turn and heads in towards the northeast. At Blauwkapel the train stops, the driver changes ends, and drives the train in southbound direction towards the museum.

The line drawn by Google Maps is a bit off, as it continues to Bilthoven. In reality the train doesn't change ends there, though.

The trip takes 14 to 19 minutes, depending on the intensity of traffic around Utrecht and Blauwkapel. A trip from Utrecht Centraal to the museum takes approximately 20 minutes on foot.

 

[duesselmartin]

And a wonderful museum it is ??????

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

If you want to go to the Spoorwegmuseum (railway museum) in Utrecht by train, you can do so once an hour. Dutch Railways operate a direct service from Utrecht Centraal to Utrecht Maliebaan, the site of the museum, once an hour on days that the museum is open.

The route is a bit quirky: the train leaves Utrecht Centraal in westbound direction, then makes a turn and heads in towards the northeast. At Blauwkapel the train stops, the driver changes ends, and drives the train in southbound direction towards the museum.

The line drawn by Google Maps is a bit off, as it continues to Bilthoven. In reality the train doesn't change ends there, though.

The trip takes 14 to 19 minutes, depending on the intensity of traffic around Utrecht and Blauwkapel. A trip from Utrecht Centraal to the museum takes approximately 20 minutes on foot.

Though they used to reverse at Luneten in the South instead. If I remember correctly, when I first visited the museum, they still went this way. Anyways, I think they use some old stock on the museumspendel and not the newest Sprinter, for the authencity

 

[Seacook]

The London Midland trains from Wolverhampton call at several stations in Sandwell before stopping in Birmingham New Street and then call at more Sandwell stations on the other side of West Bromwich town centre on their way to Walsall.

 

[Cambus731]

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned Cromer.
The Bittern line heads out of the town in a West-North West direction for some way before diverging from the line to Sherringham, then sweeps round in a wide curve through fields before re-entering the the fringes of the built up area of Cromer, from the west where it has a small station at Roughton Road, before swinging south towards Norwich.

 

[30907]

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned Cromer.
The Bittern line heads out of the town in a West-North West direction for some way before diverging from the line to Sherringham, then sweeps round in a wide curve through fields before re-entering the the fringes of the built up area of Cromer, from the west where it has a small station at Roughton Road, before swinging south towards Norwich.

Good one, though there is no Westerfield equivalent, as Roughton Road is definitely in Cromer (and not far from the old High station).

 

[47513 Severn]

'Westbound' DLR trains from Beckton initially head east and then south around a substantial loop before they end up actually going westbound.

 

[MotCO]

Isn't the obvious one HS1, which comes from the South East, before looping round London to enter the city from the north.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Isn't the obvious one HS1, which comes from the South East, before looping round London to enter the city from the north.

In the same vein, the LGV Nord makes quite a huge diversion in order to run via Lille; from Calais to Lille you are actually getting further away from Paris ( and vice-versa in the other direction ).

I don't think that's close enough to Paris to count for the purposes of this thread, though!

 

[causton]

Liskeard to Looe. Enough said

 

[Gordon]

.

WOW!

I'm proud () of having started a thread that has produced so many responses - all excellent info too.

Unless I am mistaken, I am (so far) correct in that nothing does exactly the same as the Westerfield situation, but that there are plenty of loops out there.

In response to a couple of comments:

Luzern
Being a Swiss expert Switzerland was the first country I thought about and Luzern one of the first I compared, knowing the loop line very well, however I discounted it as there is no 'Westerfield' equivalent and the main line loop remains within the city limits (but only just!)

Berlin (during the Wall years)
I would say that was a completely special case, and I would venture to suggest that in any case none of the loop lines left Berlin and returned to Berlin, because the places they returned to were not Berlin itself, for example Berlin Ostbahnhof - Flughafen Schönefeld - Potsdam

Liskeard - Looe:
is the opposite, a bit like the St Albans example . In fact at Liskeard it could be argued that the line is rural all the way; never even entering Liskeard, as Liskeard main station is hardly in the town.


.

 

[paddy1]

Bratislava Petrazalka to Bratislava Hlavná Stanica (the main station in Bratislava) 'non stop' on Inter City trains to/from Vienna is quite a lengthy trip time wise (some 20 minutes or more) compared to the distance by road of only 4 miles or so, as it loops all around the suburbs and outskirts of Bratislava in the course of connecting the two stations.

 

[JonathanP]

The Warsaw/Prague - Cologne sleeper used to provide some interested moves. When it was unable to via the Stadtbahn(the east-west elevated route that runs through the city) ,it would run in a 'n' shape through Western Berlin, Südkreuz - Hauptbahnhof - Westhafen - Westkreuz - Wannsee.

Another trick they used to use was to split the Cologne - Warsaw/Prague into the Haupbahnhof high level platforms, where the Warsaw portion would be attached to an EC service, and then haul the Prague portion in a loop round Berlin and back to the lower level platforms of the same station.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Not forgetting Ljubljana-Trieste, once the main line of the Austrian Südbahn.
That reaches within about 5km of Trieste city and Centrale station, but on top of the karst plateau high above the sea.
The line has to run 15km west to descend from the plateau, then come 15km back along the coast into Trieste.
Currently, Slovenian trains terminate at the Italian border station of Villa Opicina, where you can walk across the village to get Trieste tram #2 down the steep cliff (with rack section) to the city.
Entertaining, but not very passenger-friendly.

 

[Martin66]

The railway at Oban in Scotland loops around the town.

 

[AlexNL]

Though they used to reverse at Luneten in the South instead. If I remember correctly, when I first visited the museum, they still went this way. Anyways, I think they use some old stock on the museumspendel and not the newest Sprinter, for the authencity

Originally the "Museumpendel" did change ends at the Lunetten yard. When this yard was closed for the capacity increase project between Utrecht and Houten, the turn moved to Driebergen-Zeist. At a later point, the junction from Maliebaan towards Driebergen-Zeist was closed as well (space was needed for the doubling of Driebergen - Utrecht), so the turn moved to its current spot at Blauwkapel.

Older stock has been used on this route, operating under the name Heimwee Express (Nostalgia Express). The train crew would be wearing outfits of older times and they even had Edmondson tickets. The Heimwee Express stopped in 2015, nowadays you'll only see more modern NS EMUs on the route.

 

[Groningen]

Where is my Flensburg remark?

 

[Polarbear]

One that may come close is the line from Clermont Ferrand to Volvic, (formerly through to Ussel). Leaving CF, the line curves sharply around the south & west parts of the city, climbing all of the time.

As the crow flies, Volvic isn't that far from CF & you end up almost facing in the opposite direction of travel to that you started your journey.

 

[duesselmartin]

Rendsburg also feels odd with that Loop onto the high bridge. Flensburg: the train to Kiel left Northwest then turning left which felt geographically funny.

 

[30907]

Bratislava Petrazalka to Bratislava Hlavná Stanica (the main station in Bratislava) 'non stop' on Inter City trains to/from Vienna is quite a lengthy trip time wise (some 20 minutes or more) compared to the distance by road of only 4 miles or so, as it loops all around the suburbs and outskirts of Bratislava in the course of connecting the two stations.

I think that should read "was" - AFAIK there is no passenger service between the two stations, and only Regional trains on either route from Vienna.