• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Station Closure That Was Biggest Loss (Only On Lines That Retain Regular Passenger Services In 2021)

Status
Not open for further replies.

tbtc

Veteran Member
Joined
16 Dec 2008
Messages
17,882
Location
Reston City Centre
Whenever we discuss regret at closed stations (which we seem to do fairly regularly), it always seems to be on lines that closed (and generally on lines that closed in fairly rural areas - North Yorkshire, Peak District, Dartmoor etc).

This means that we don't focus much on stations which closed on lines that remained open. For example, in Sheffield we've lost a few between Meadowhall and Dore (Brightside, Attercliffe, Heeley, Millhouses and Beauchief). Some of them are fairly minor losses (Brightside is a stones throw from Meadowhall, Attercliffe was only useful when the heavy industry of the Lower Don Valley meant large numbers of steel workers employed nearby), but that's still five of the six stations between Meadowhall and Dore that have closed (the main one - Sheffield Midland - remains open, of course).

Some stations would be hard to rebuild now (because of buildings that had encroached onto the envelope of the old station site - even though the line remains open), some stations would be hard to operate now (e.g. a "local" station on a main line, where there either wouldn't be anything suitable to stop there or there wouldn't be space for local trains to stop - e.g. whilst Heeley or Millhouses may be popular, there aren't enough local trains on that corridor to give them the kind of regular frequency that urban stations really need, and there's not enough slack in the timetable for a local train to slow down/ dwell/ accelerate)

So, I'm not worried about the practicalities of re-opening it (this isn't a re-opening thread, this is a thread about the closures that were the biggest losses at the time that they closed) - the only criteria is that the line remains open with a (pre-Covid) frequency of at least a bi-hourly service passing by (so no freight only lines or ones with "parliamentary" service levels)

To start somewhere, I'll nominate Tweedmouth (whilst the main Berwick station is north of the river, most of the locals live on the south side - there's a contrast between the "tourist town" and the suburbs, so a station would have served a different market) - obviously there's no "local" trains on the line these days, so it's not going to get re-opened any time soon, I'm not suggesting that it should be re-opened, but it's an example of a station that provided something different to the next station on the line, and the kind of station that flies under the radar on discussions on here (closing it didn't leave an entire town without a station, so it doesn't get mentioned on the list of "towns without stations")

There are plenty of other places though (Clay Cross, Wooton Basset etc)

Over to you...
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Sad Sprinter

Established Member
Joined
5 Jun 2017
Messages
1,800
Location
Way on down South London town
This is tough.

Chelsea and Fulham? It's closure denied South Londoners an easy route across the river to the areas. Even today Imperial Wharf isn't really here nor there in terms of being in Chelsea. That at the closure of the other West London Line station apart from Kensington left that corridor reliant on road transport and the awful proposals for the ringway scheme.
 

PeterJ

Member
Joined
8 Jan 2015
Messages
18
Somerton. The 30 miles between Castle Cary and Taunton leaves a huge section of Somerset - Glastonbury, Street, Wells and surrounding without a station
 

tbtc

Veteran Member
Joined
16 Dec 2008
Messages
17,882
Location
Reston City Centre
This is tough

Yeah, sorry about that!

I was just thinking that a significant percentage of closed stations must have been on lines still in use - we focus a lot of attention on the closed stations on closed lines but there's less discussion about some of the stations that closed when the line didn't.

Clay Cross, for example. Alfreton survived on the "parallel" line south of Chesterfield (Alfreton is on the Nottingham route, which has some local stations, whereas the trains from Chesterfield to Derby are non-stop as they whizz past Clay Cross) - thought it'd be a bit of a different discussion to the "usual suspects"
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
Wellington Somerset always seems like a large settlement without a station.
 

30907

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Sep 2012
Messages
17,867
Location
Airedale
Chelsea and F is an interesting choice - TBH I hadn't realised that the WLL passenger service had survived until 1940.
It fits the OP's criteria, obviously, but as the whole service was withdrawn (give or take the Post Office trains), it's a slightly odd case.

As for Somerton - when it closed, it had but a handful of trains a day, which suggests it was no great loss back then. In that area I would nominate Wellington, which did at least have a decent service (yorksrob agrees!). Or Templecombe, because that actually reopened within a relatively short time.

An example local to me is Brighouse in the Calder Valley (also reopened, but in that case a whole new (OK reopened) route had to be provided.

Dronfield on the MML also initially required new services to be provided.

On the MML there's aa few decent sized communities north from Bedford. Then there's Garstang on the WCML - but the station was poorly sited - and Bawtry on the ECML. But I struggle to say that any were a great loss when they closed.
 

D6130

Established Member
Joined
12 Jan 2021
Messages
5,648
Location
West Yorkshire/Tuscany
Chelsea and F is an interesting choice - TBH I hadn't realised that the WLL passenger service had survived until 1940.
It fits the OP's criteria, obviously, but as the whole service was withdrawn (give or take the Post Office trains), it's a slightly odd case.

As for Somerton - when it closed, it had but a handful of trains a day, which suggests it was no great loss back then. In that area I would nominate Wellington, which did at least have a decent service (yorksrob agrees!). Or Templecombe, because that actually reopened within a relatively short time.

An example local to me is Brighouse in the Calder Valley (also reopened, but in that case a whole new (OK reopened) route had to be provided.

Dronfield on the MML also initially required new services to be provided.

On the MML there's aa few decent sized communities north from Bedford. Then there's Garstang on the WCML - but the station was poorly sited - and Bawtry on the ECML. But I struggle to say that any were a great loss when they closed.
Now that Brighouse has reopened - more than 20 years ago - the local title goes to Elland, three miles to the West and now the largest town in West Yorkshire without a passenger service. However, the finance has now been agreed and a new station, about half a mile East of the original one, should be open by 2023.
 

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
11,648
If we are allowed Manchester Metrolink stations, my vote would be for the now closed Mosley Street station.

Was located at the South West corner of the "Piccadilly delta" triangular junction in central Manchester and was particularly useful as being largely undercover due to the overhang of the building above it (handy given the prevailing weather in Manchester) and the first stop where you could get a tram onwards to Old Trafford and Altrincham whether it had departed from the direction of either Victoria and/or Piccadilly stations.

Bit the dust in 2013 as the supposed cost of raising the split level platforms to a uniform height to accommodate the new M5000 trams (which didn't have retractable steps that could cope with split level platforms, unlike the predecessor Metrolink T68 units) was deemed (inter alia) to be too expensive.
 

Bevan Price

Established Member
Joined
22 Apr 2010
Messages
7,320
Rotherham Masborough - to reinstate Rotherham as a stop on long distance services (currently XC)
Golborne (South) -- closed largely because use was poor due to timetable being unattractive / infrequent.
 

NorthOxonian

Established Member
Associate Staff
Buses & Coaches
Joined
5 Jul 2018
Messages
1,483
Location
Oxford/Newcastle
There's a couple in Oxfordshire, because of the rapid population growth in many of its towns and villages. Wantage Road is rightly on the shortlist for reopening but would serve a town which is growing quite rapidly, and whose urban area now reaches the station. Kidlington is another - though the new Oxford Parkway station a mile to the south does give Kidlington a better service than a local halt on the Banbury line ever could.
 

BrianW

Established Member
Joined
22 Mar 2017
Messages
1,369
Whenever we discuss regret at closed stations (which we seem to do fairly regularly), it always seems to be on lines that closed (and generally on lines that closed in fairly rural areas - North Yorkshire, Peak District, Dartmoor etc).

This means that we don't focus much on stations which closed on lines that remained open. For example, in Sheffield we've lost a few between Meadowhall and Dore (Brightside, Attercliffe, Heeley, Millhouses and Beauchief). Some of them are fairly minor losses (Brightside is a stones throw from Meadowhall, Attercliffe was only useful when the heavy industry of the Lower Don Valley meant large numbers of steel workers employed nearby), but that's still five of the six stations between Meadowhall and Dore that have closed (the main one - Sheffield Midland - remains open, of course).

Some stations would be hard to rebuild now (because of buildings that had encroached onto the envelope of the old station site - even though the line remains open), some stations would be hard to operate now (e.g. a "local" station on a main line, where there either wouldn't be anything suitable to stop there or there wouldn't be space for local trains to stop - e.g. whilst Heeley or Millhouses may be popular, there aren't enough local trains on that corridor to give them the kind of regular frequency that urban stations really need, and there's not enough slack in the timetable for a local train to slow down/ dwell/ accelerate)

...
There are plenty of other places though (Clay Cross, Wooton Basset etc)

Over to you...
I'm conscious that I only lived in Sheffield as a student in the 1960s/70s, so happy to be corrected (tho not rubbished I hope!).
Sheffield had a long period of cheap bus fares, and frequent buses, and had had trams, so possibly trains were underused?
I also recognise trains need somewhere worth going to and coming from and at appropriate times, so not sure that an all-stations to Dore and Totley terminating there would have 'worked'.
Focus was on 'rationalisation'- closure of Victorias in Sheffield and Nottingham, Woodhead route, opening of Alfreton & Mansfield Parkway ...
And now we would have to dovetail in with more frequent and faster Express/ InterCity/ London services, and have capacity probs at Midland stn ...

Maybe some of the other candidates (eg Clay Cross, Wootton Bassett, Wantage Road, 'growth centres' ...
 

infobleep

Veteran Member
Joined
27 Feb 2011
Messages
12,556
What about Wotton Bassett? I'd have thought it useful but I know how what it was like when closed.

Whilst I appreciate it didn't serve a large community, Shap would have been a good location to start walking from.
 

topydre

Member
Joined
2 Jan 2012
Messages
188
As for Somerton - when it closed, it had but a handful of trains a day, which suggests it was no great loss back then. In that area I would nominate Wellington, which did at least have a decent service (yorksrob agrees!). Or Templecombe, because that actually reopened within a relatively short time.
If we're including stations that have since reopened (but the line never closed) then there's always Corby: twice!! Population about 55,000.
Otherwise, Wellington is a good one.
 

Ianno87

Veteran Member
Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
If we are allowed Manchester Metrolink stations, my vote would be for the now closed Mosley Street station.

Was located at the South West corner of the "Piccadilly delta" triangular junction in central Manchester and was particularly useful as being largely undercover due to the overhang of the building above it (handy given the prevailing weather in Manchester) and the first stop where you could get a tram onwards to Old Trafford and Altrincham whether it had departed from the direction of either Victoria and/or Piccadilly stations.

Bit the dust in 2013 as the supposed cost of raising the split level platforms to a uniform height to accommodate the new M5000 trams (which didn't have retractable steps that could cope with split level platforms, unlike the predecessor Metrolink T68 units) was deemed (inter alia) to be too expensive.

The actual reason for closure of Mosley Street was the increased tram frequency with the Phase 3 extensions - the increased risk of trams "blocking back" across the Delta Junction whilst waiting to get into the platform at Mosley Street.

That's why it was left as a split-profile platform after all the other city centre stops were rebuilt - it was pointless rebuilding it as its days were numbered.

Plus its close proximity to alternative stops at Market Street and Piccadilly Gardens.
 

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
11,648
The actual reason for closure of Mosley Street was the increased tram frequency with the Phase 3 extensions - the increased risk of trams "blocking back" across the Delta Junction whilst waiting to get into the platform at Mosley Street.

That's why it was left as a split-profile platform after all the other city centre stops were rebuilt - it was pointless rebuilding it as its days were numbered.

Plus its close proximity to alternative stops at Market Street and Piccadilly Gardens.
That's as may be, and I've never been entirely convinced by the additional argument, but it was nevertheless still much more convenient to wait at Mosley Street (in the dry) for an Altrincham bound tram than go fifty-fifty and walk across to, say, Piccadilly Gardens only for the next tram to sail across the delta from Market Street. ;)
 

Sad Sprinter

Established Member
Joined
5 Jun 2017
Messages
1,800
Location
Way on down South London town
I think there are a number of inner-city stations in many cities that shouldn't have closed.

In London, apart from Chelsea and Fulham, College Park left a hole in North Kensington that still hasn't been filled today. Camberwell, arguably, could have been kept open, or at least resited. The stations between New Street and Smethwick serve dense residential areas that are now reliant on road transport.
 

Snow1964

Established Member
Joined
7 Oct 2019
Messages
6,025
Location
West Wiltshire
Chipping Sodbury (whole expansion of area, and Yate or Bristol Parkway not easiest to get to)

Oakley (nearer to Western Basingstoke)

Plympton (South Devon)

Corsham (Wiltshire)

All of them because former rural areas, now have lots of homes
 

Irascible

Established Member
Joined
21 Apr 2020
Messages
1,988
Location
Dyfneint
Wellington was not very big until recently & vaguely within distance of Taunton or Tiverton Parkway - I can see why it shut ( especially as there's no local trains between Taunton & Exeter ) but probably borderline. Either of the mainline Tiverton stations are/were hopeless for the actual residents of Tiverton unless you're going long distance, but the station that closed isn't on a currently open line so it doesn't count :p.

Chard is a similar case to Tiverton, only it lost it's mainline station too.
 

adc82140

Established Member
Joined
10 May 2008
Messages
2,928
Not sure if this really counts, as the reason for closure was obvious. But I'll say Bramshot Halt on the SWML. Not being facetious, I accept when it closed it pretty much just served a golf club, but today the sprawling housing estates of Cove and Southwood would find it beneficial in lieu of driving to Farnborough or Fleet.
 

Dr Hoo

Established Member
Joined
10 Nov 2015
Messages
3,912
Location
Hope Valley
If we're including stations that have since reopened (but the line never closed) then there's always Corby: twice!! Population about 55,000.
Otherwise, Wellington is a good one.
Sorry for going slightly off-thread but I am always baffled at the way RailUKforums seems to attract posts that under-estimate Corby.

It is one of the fastest-developing towns in the UK an has seen its population grow to 75,000. It is well on track to be into the 80,000s in the current decade.

Returning to the thread premise, I know that other stations are nearby (Manchester Victoria and Salford Central) but given the operational gridlock and shortage of terminating facilities I wonder if Manchester Exchange was actually the 'biggest loss' (but not at the time it closed, I suppose).
 

DB

Guest
Joined
18 Nov 2009
Messages
5,036
Returning to the thread premise, I know that other stations are nearby (Manchester Victoria and Salford Central) but given the operational gridlock and shortage of terminating facilities I wonder if Manchester Exchange was actually the 'biggest loss' (but not at the time it closed, I suppose).

The same point could be made about Leeds Central - Leeds is too large a city to just have one city centre station, and the station has capacity issues.
 

JohnElliott

Member
Joined
15 Sep 2014
Messages
230
On a personal level, Finchley Road (Midland) would be very convenient for me if it still existed.
 

Ianno87

Veteran Member
Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
That's as may be, and I've never been entirely convinced by the additional argument, but it was nevertheless still much more convenient to wait at Mosley Street (in the dry) for an Altrincham bound tram than go fifty-fifty and walk across to, say, Piccadilly Gardens only for the next tram to sail across the delta from Market Street. ;)

In these days of live information on your phone, you can pull up the App and see which tram is approaching next and route yourself accordingly. Arguably, Mosley Street is nowadays redundant for its original purpose.
 

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
11,648
Arguably, Mosley Street is nowadays redundant for its original purpose.
We'll agree to disagree on that, but that's what this forum is all about, opinions and (hopefully) well-argued counter opinions. 8-)
 

quantinghome

Established Member
Joined
1 Jun 2013
Messages
2,262
The same point could be made about Leeds Central - Leeds is too large a city to just have one city centre station, and the station has capacity issues.
But they will be overcome by expanding the existing station, not building a new one on a different site. It's always better to have a single main station as in Germany. The multiple station model is a legacy of railway competition and hugely inefficient.

I'd say the biggest losses were the urban and suburban stations in cities like Leeds. Armley and Kirkstall would have been very well-used.
 

Western 52

Member
Joined
19 Jun 2020
Messages
1,104
Location
Burry Port
St Clears station would be well used if it was still there, but at least it is proposed for reopening. In Swansea, Cocket station would be used with a journey time of about 6minutes to the city. Buses take a lot longer, especially at busy times.
 

Ken H

On Moderation
Joined
11 Nov 2018
Messages
6,272
Location
N Yorks
But they will be overcome by expanding the existing station, not building a new one on a different site. It's always better to have a single main station as in Germany. The multiple station model is a legacy of railway competition and hugely inefficient.

I'd say the biggest losses were the urban and suburban stations in cities like Leeds. Armley and Kirkstall would have been very well-used.
Osmanthorpe would be useful today, serving Osmanthorpe and Halton Moor. And probably part of gipton too. Be difficult to get paths for a stop there unless the requadify it.
 

Ianno87

Veteran Member
Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
TPE also pass through Masborough and could link Rotherham to Manchester

I do wonder whether Malborough was a "loss", with Rotherham Central replacing it, and much more convenient for the town centre, bus interchange etc. Presumably it was beneficial overall for passenger numbers, and so net better for "the railway" as a whole.

But it's a good shout for a reopening in an NPR/post-HS2 world, hopefully tieing into redevelopment of that end of town.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top