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Stations and lines not used to their full potential

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TBY-Paul

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One massive improvement would be if the line from Battersby to Picton would be restored, which would vastly improve journey times into Whitby from York, etc.

Good Shout, especially considering how places like Stokesley & Hutton Rudby have grown, and are planned to grow even further, since the line closed.

It has just recently been on the local news about Hutton Rudby having 7 separate large scale planning applications for developments around the village, with concern about the village become the size of a small town.
 
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glbotu

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Lincoln to Doncaster (EMT), would probably make for a useful service. It's 50 mins currently, but is run rather sporadically. Currently, passengers have an hourly "via Retford" or "via Lincoln" journey, of at best 1hr 20. Making this hourly should reasonably allow for much better patronage.
 

scarby

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Another big improvement would be reopening the line from Malton to Pickering - creating a direct link between Whitby and York.

I can't see this happening. It's built over for quite a way out of Pickering and would need some serious demolition to restore it. Also, I think there is a fair bit of resistance on the NYMR to having its line used for service trains, which would require major changes.
 

tbtc

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An interesting idea for a thread.

Whilst we froth about reopening services to various rural hamlets, there are a lot of existing stations on existing lines that don't get the treatment that they deserve.

If it costs ten million pounds for a mile of new line (based on the Borders route) then there are lots of open stations that we could improve before we start worrying about reconnecting villages in the middle of nowhere.

A few suggestions (along with reasons why they may not happen):

Dore. Prime commuter territory in a relatively wealthy part of Sheffield (on a busy A-road that can see buses take an hour to cover what the train achieves in five minutes). But it's a station on a single track chord, on a line where most of the services are limited stop long distance ones (Cleethorpes/ Norwich to Manchester Airport/ Liverpool), so even if/when it gets redoubled, there's no guarantee that everything will stop there.

The Colne branch (north of central Burnley). This should be good rail territory, given the frequency of the parallel bus services. But the combined passenger numbers of the three stations (Colne, Nelson, Brierfield) is around three hundred and fifty departing passengers per day (130,000pa) - pretty pathetic. Lack of through trains to Manchester may be a factor (though all services on the line serve Burnley/ Accrington/ Blackburn/ Preston). Maybe a passing loop and a half hourly service would be more attractive, in terms of taking passengers away from buses/ cars (but, given all the other things do with a "spare" DMU, it's hard to see this as a top priority).

Musselburgh. Prime Edinburgh commuter territory with a University campus next door, but held back due to being a "local" station on a relatively "Intercity" line. Same goes for Chester le Street, Morley and Batley which seem similarly hampered by being too small for the longer distance services to stop at (but would do a lot better if they were on their own line).

Cwmbran. One of the biggest places in Wales but gets a poor railway service, possibly because it's restricted to through trains from Cardiff to Shrewsbury (instead of being on a separate branch line, like many towns in south Wales). Any additional services may be hampered by lack of paths through Newport.

York to Hull. It's going hourly in the new Northern franchise, but this has long felt like a forgotten service, remaining irregular in the era of clockface improvements elsewhere. Rather than worrying about rebuilding the Beverley route, we should focus attention on the under-appreciated service that exists between the cities.

Knutsford. Well, someone had to mention it... :lol:

(anyhow, I'll let people get back to worrying about Bentham/ Brigg/ Battersby/ Baghill etc)

I think the Hope Valley route stopper should be an hourly service in the summer timetable. Granted it is at weekends but I think there is a case for it in the summer too.

Year round freight is the problem there (significantly fewer freight services at the weekends, hence the increased frequency possible).

Par - Newquay
A service once every three hours in each direction, using a single dogbox which is barely half full. Newquay is a sizable town and the mainline route from Paddington - Plymouth - Par - Penzance is very well used indeed. I'm not surprised numbers are low on the Atlantic Coach branch as it isn't a very attractive service to those who would likely use the line on a frequent basis

Newquay seems a good shout - it's not just a population of twenty thousand, it's a popular destination in its own right (so the trains wouldn't just be "people leaving for the nearest big city in the morning and returning at teatime", there ought to be decent loads in both directions during the daytime too).

Hopefully the doubling of frequency west of Plymouth and the increase in DMUs for GWR will make something possible here. Then again, I'd run through services from the main line to Falmouth too.

For me, the Newquay branch feels like one of those routes that, if it didn't currently exist, people would be insisting on it re-opening because it would get millions of passengers per year, but as it does exist, it's a bit neglected and badly served.

(hmm, speaking of the Falmouth branch, it's been a while since anyone has mentioned a "Penryn-style solution" on here... did that fall out of fashion as the solution to infrastructure problems on various routes?)

Shrewsbury - Knighton/Llandrindod
I boarded a single 153 at Shrewsbury a couple of weeks ago on the HOWL. Nearly every seat was taken and about 75% of the passengers on board were heading to Knighton. The line only receives about 4 trains a day with the last train leaving very early (6pm ish). Extra shuttles could run between the existing through trains as there is clearly a market, and I believe more would come if the service was more frequent.

Swansea - Llandeilo/Llandovery
For identical reasons mentioned above. The last train leaves Swansea at like 18:20, way too early for the Swansea - Llandeilo part! A couple were heading to Swansea from Llandeilo (I think they were heading out for a meal in Swansea) and they only realised en route that the last train would leave 15 minutes after they arrive. I imagine they'd be put off next time. Demand is there but the infrequency of services is extinguishing it!

The Heart Of Wales line is a real mess. You've got a couple of well used stations in the middle, but need to run through lots of poorly used ones to get there. But the stations at the Swansea and Shrewsbury end do get rather good numbers - it's a shame that they are held back by the need to maintain four a day to the quiet shacks.

Lincoln to Doncaster (EMT), would probably make for a useful service. It's 50 mins currently, but is run rather sporadically. Currently, passengers have an hourly "via Retford" or "via Lincoln" journey, of at best 1hr 20. Making this hourly should reasonably allow for much better patronage.

Agreed - two places with populations of around 100,000, around thirty miles apart, Doncaster is a hub for various ECML destinations - the service between them is pretty rubbish when you consider these things. Roads aren't fast in that neck of the woods, so a regular rail service should be competitive.
 

Doctor Fegg

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Yes, interesting thread.

I wonder what opportunities there are to develop handily placed rural/suburban stations into parkways. Theale could be one: under a mile from the M4 by dual carriageway, and usefully placed for a faster route into either Reading or London. And Alliance Rail have occasionally made noises about upgrading smaller stations into parkways in connection with service proposals - Kings Langley Parkway, for example.
 

Harbornite

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I can think of two lines that could be improved . The direct Wolves to Walsall line lost its passenger services a few years ago, this was blamed on low passenger numbers and the fact that Willenhall wasn't served by a station. If a station was built here, then perhaps the service could be restored, although rolling stock would obviously be needed. I also think that closing the station at Castle Bromwich was a poor decision, considering that a housing estate was being built at the time of closure.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Shrewsbury to Wolves. Some decent sized (and growing*) towns / villages with an hourly service and a couple of peak extras. Two hourly 153 at weekends. The trains are always rammed whenever I use them, which is exclusively off peak.

A half hourly service of 4 car units would certainly cover its marginal costs.

* Shifnal for example has near doubled in population over the last 15 years, and has about the same amount of growth again planned in the next decade. There are three significant new housing developments under construction right now. The train service is much the same as it was in 1967.

I agree, although Shrewsbury, Wolves, Telford and Wellington have benefited from the reinstated Virgin service to Euston.
 

swt_passenger

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I wonder what opportunities there are to develop handily placed rural/suburban stations into parkways. .

Micheldever is possibly a good example I always thought. Straight off the A303 using the existing junction almost above Popham No 2 tunnel and build a road ramp down to a multi storey carpark on the site of the closed oil terminal, with passenger access across to the London end of the island platform, then vehicle traffic wouldn't even have to go anywhere near the existing settlement.

I would think the down sides of the business case would be:

- Attracting people who currently park at stations further down the Southampton or Salisbury routes.

- Stopping more trains at Micheldever to give it a better service frequency. But if they were extra trains following proposed line capacity improvements that might be a different matter.
 

ChiefPlanner

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Horsham - Dorking , electrified 2 track railway must have the lowest utilisation in the South East.

However - Green Belt , nimby paradise and everything much goes via the Croydon - Gatwick axis. Must be some use for it.
 

Starmill

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Musselburgh actually has a fairly decent service. It could be better, but it's not terrible and it sees only very new trains. It's a lot better than Chester-le-Street anyway. Cwmbran is not bad either, although overcrowding is a serious problem.

I think if Llandybie, Ammanford, Pontarddulais and Llangennech and possibly Bynea could justify an hourly service to Llanelli and Swansea, as they're remarkably close by. It could probably be extended Llandeilo and Llandovery too, but those are significantly further.

The current provision for Ammanford and Pontarddulais in particular is woeful for medium towns so close to Swansea.
 
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Bevan Price

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To comment on a few places already mentioned.

1. Elland. The railway line (and former station) are not well placed relative to the town centre and populated areas. It is probably about 10 minutes walk from the town centre - and the average UK resident is less likely to walk such distances than was the Victorian era citizen. With frequent bus services linking the populated areas to Huddersfield & Halifax, a station at Elland might struggle to attract lots of passengers.

2. Featherstone. With apologies to Wakefield, there is probably a greater need for direct services to Leeds or Castleford. Extending the Knottingley - Featherstone - Wakefield service to Leeds via Wakefield Westgate would help a lot - but would paths be available.

3. Knottingley - Goole. Agree that present service is awful and needs to be improved - but would be more likely to attract passengers if trains ran semi-fast through to Hull; Goole in itself is not large enough to attract lots more passengers.

4. Colne. Problem is that only service is all-stations, and slow. Could do with 2 trains per hour, one running semi-fast calling only at Nelson, Burnley Central, Accrington & Blackburn - then either Bolton & Manchester or Preston & Blackpool. But - would need either a new passing loop, or double track reinstated to Gannow Jn.

5. Reddish South & Denton. Ideally, service ought to run at least hourly from Stockport to Manchester Victoria, rather than Stalybridge - but finding paths at Stockport end is a problem.
 

Starmill

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To comment on a few places already mentioned.

1. Elland. The railway line (and former station) are not well placed relative to the town centre and populated areas. It is probably about 10 minutes walk from the town centre - and the average UK resident is less likely to walk such distances than was the Victorian era citizen. With frequent bus services linking the populated areas to Huddersfield & Halifax, a station at Elland might struggle to attract lots of passengers.


Forecast demand at Elland was 240,000 a year and it is one of the few stations recommended for further funding from WYCA, so I don't think it has a weak case.

2. Featherstone. With apologies to Wakefield, there is probably a greater need for direct services to Leeds or Castleford. Extending the Knottingley - Featherstone - Wakefield service to Leeds via Wakefield Westgate would help a lot - but would paths be available.

Good job that this is a franchise requirement then eh :p
 

Kite159

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Lincoln to Doncaster (EMT), would probably make for a useful service. It's 50 mins currently, but is run rather sporadically. Currently, passengers have an hourly "via Retford" or "via Lincoln" journey, of at best 1hr 20. Making this hourly should reasonably allow for much better patronage.

Another EMT Service is Peterborough to Sleaford via Spalding

On a weekday the last direct train from Peterborough is at 16:25, last direct train from Sleaford towards Spalding is at 16:34. (Although there are a tiny handful of Peterborough - Spalding short runnings in the evening), but on a route which had some money thrown at it to modernise it is a rather rubbish service
 
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yorksrob

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As you probably know, the Esk Valley line was saved by the skin of its teeth during the Beeching cuts, it being deemed that closing the line would cause severe hardship, with several villages difficult to access in the winter.

If it had gone, of course Whitby would have completely lost its rail link.

It was run on a shoestring for years and BR did some ridiculous things such as ripping up the double track into Whitby and at Whitby - since restored in the station at great expense.

One issue is that the line is slow - the Middlesbrough-Whitby bus is quicker, though I guess that could be improved if there were some trains that stopped at Battersby (necessary to reverse) and Grosmont only.

Because it is the remains of a once wider and useful network, it is unappealing to use to get to Whitby from beyond Middlesbrough - it takes over two and a half hours from York, though there is a very cheap walk-up day return available for just £14.

Getting from Whitby to London by train takes a minimum of 4hrs 56m, compared with 3 hours regularly from Scarborough, just 20 miles down the coast. In fact, it is quicker to take the 93 bus to Scarborough and change.

One massive improvement would be if the line from Battersby to Picton would be restored, which would vastly improve journey times into Whitby from York, etc.

As you mention, Whitby is now a very popular destination, and suffers from bad traffic congestion because public transport options are so slow.

The line does have a huge amount of community support. There is a later "music train" on Fridays in the summer, meaning one can then leave Whitby at 22.25.

There is also going to be one extra service some time in the not too distant future, and I believe, a year-round Sunday service.

Indeed.

The one extra train a day isn't enough.

There needs to be a more frequent service throughout the day making use of the passing points.
 

Marton

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Esk Valley.

Making Gisborough junction to Nunthorpe single in the 80s was an error.

Connections to and from the branch are often abysmal, especially for the Nunthorpe terminators.

Promotion would be good, but it's almost impossible for the guard to issue tickets on the morning trains. Makes me wonder if the stats are accurate.

20 years or so ago there were stations not served. Now it's only one. There were also request stops other than for the school trains. The services also usually ran to Darlington, now it's run by a single unit shuttling back and forth, no time to go beyond Middlesbrough.
 

Kettledrum

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The perennial favourite, the Stoke-Derby line. Poor service, poor rolling stock, potential as through route from North Wales/North West to East Midlands/East Anglia.

Definitely agree about the Derby to Stoke line. I waited 50 minutes at Stoke station this week because I caught a different train from Manchester to Stoke to my usual one and there is only one train per hour from Stoke to Derby.......and when it did come, it was only one coach.

I'm sure it would be much more used if there were two trains an hour
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
East Midlands Parkway is another under-used station. Not surprising given there are two trains to London in a 10 minute period and then nothing for the next 50 minutes. If the trains were spread out further apart, it might encourage more users.

The other way to encourage more passengers would be to slash the high car parking charges.
 

backontrack

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(anyhow, I'll let people get back to worrying about Bentham/ Brigg/ Battersby/ Baghill etc)

tbtc, if you don't mind me asking, why do you always use the smallest places on lines in order to demean people who suggest projects there? It's something I've noticed.

BENTHAM hasn't been suggested.

BRIGG has been suggested but services would be relatively easy to improve.

BATTERSBY isn't about connecting Battersby; it's about linking Whitby to the south.

BAGHILL isn't the name of the place (it's Pontefract and it has a population of 30,900), just the station - and that's about linking the town to London - as well as an important city in Sheffield - relatively easily.
 

ChiefPlanner

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Starmill said:
I think if Llandybie, Ammanford, Pontarddulais and Llangennech and possibly Bynea could justify an hourly service to Llanelli and Swansea, as they're remarkably close by. It could probably be extended Llandeilo and Llandovery too, but those are significantly further.

The current provision for Ammanford and Pontarddulais in particular is woeful for medium towns so close to Swansea.

I agree of course - but the involuntary diversion via Llanelli to Swansea does not help the case - though a new chord and re-opening of Pontardulais to Gowerton would assist. The latter of course , now thriving since the redoubling and a much improved service frequency. Though there is a good bus service from Ammanford - Swansea (Mon - Sat) , it is liable to hit road congestion. One for the medium- long term I think, but wold love to see it coming off.
 

jimm

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Newquay seems a good shout - it's not just a population of twenty thousand, it's a popular destination in its own right (so the trains wouldn't just be "people leaving for the nearest big city in the morning and returning at teatime", there ought to be decent loads in both directions during the daytime too).

Hopefully the doubling of frequency west of Plymouth and the increase in DMUs for GWR will make something possible here. Then again, I'd run through services from the main line to Falmouth too.

For me, the Newquay branch feels like one of those routes that, if it didn't currently exist, people would be insisting on it re-opening because it would get millions of passengers per year, but as it does exist, it's a bit neglected and badly served.

Have you ever travelled on the Newquay branch?

It takes trains three quarters of an hour to get 20 miles between Par and Newquay - you can drive Newquay to Truro in little more than half that time, St Austell a good 10 minutes quicker, and Plymouth almost an hour faster - and Par is a good-old-fashioned Victorian junction station in a small village that isn't a destination in itself anyway.

The line may have its uses on summer Saturdays but outside the holiday season it is simply a financial basket case and running more trains up and down will not change that. To speed up journey times would require a brand new line, which is just not going to happen.

If the link from St Dennis Junction to Drinnick Mill were rebuilt to allow trains to reach St Austell that might make it marginally more attractive, but would do little to improve the speed of the trains given the lines' origins as cheaply-built mineral tramways for china clay and other local mining operations.

Just because 20,000 people live in a place does not mean it is a natural market for rail if the railway does not go to the places that people want to get to or takes forever to do so on a roundabout route and requires a change of trains - places far smaller than Newquay where the railway provides the best transport link to places people do want to go generate far more rail traffic, year-round, than Newquay ever will.

The line is open, current traffic is 100,000 a year, so not much risk of hitting a million any time soon, whether or not pots of money were sunk in to make only marginal improvements that will not change the fundamental issues with the line.

And why bother running through trains to Falmouth - and from where, Plymouth/London/the North? The overwhelming majority of the traffic, all year round, is local and the service is half-hourly most of the day, so people travelling further afield don't have long waits for connections at Truro and the extra Cornish main line services will likely deliver more and better connections anyway.
 

backontrack

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Starmill said:
I think if Llandybie, Ammanford, Pontarddulais and Llangennech and possibly Bynea could justify an hourly service to Llanelli and Swansea, as they're remarkably close by. It could probably be extended Llandeilo and Llandovery too, but those are significantly further.

The current provision for Ammanford and Pontarddulais in particular is woeful for medium towns so close to Swansea.

Agree with this. But what about Pantyffynon and Llandeilo? I'm not sure about Ffairfach, however...
 

markindurham

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I can't see this happening. It's built over for quite a way out of Pickering and would need some serious demolition to restore it. Also, I think there is a fair bit of resistance on the NYMR to having its line used for service trains, which would require major changes.

This old chestnut keeps coming up. Even if the NYMR was to allow operation of other operators' trains, which is somewhere between 'slim' and 'none', with 'slim' reported to have left the building ;) , the line speed is such that it still wouldn't compete with the York-Whitby buses. (That's presuming that you could find an acceptable way through Pickering, of course). I have even seen some clown proposing tilting trains to overcome the curves on the route!!!

It amazes me that there haven't been major improvements made to the Whitby-Scarborough road, of course. At least the 93 bus stops right next to the stations at both Whitby and Scarborough. Oh, and before reinstatement of the Scarborough & Whitby line is suggested, let's head that one off too - again, the curvature of the route made it slow, there would be a reversal needed at the Whitby end at Prospect Hill Junction, the route is built on at Scalby & you have a supermarket built across the old route at Gallows Close, Scarborough. Also, Gallows Close tunnel is filled in, then you would have another reversal at Falsgrave, before entering Scarborough station.
 
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tbtc

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Forgot to mention Morecambe (twice the size of Whitby).

Always horribly busy roads, whenever I’ve tried to get there from Lancaster, a reasonably sized urban area in its own right (i.e. its more than a “beach resort”), but only gets a handful of services a day because it’s tied to the “Bentham” service (presumably dating back to the days when it was a premier tourist destination for people escaping West Yorkshire).

If it were electrified then it may get some of the Manchester – Preston services extending there, maybe portion working with Windermere/ Barrow services, I dunno. But a relatively large place compared to the poor service it gets (a handful of Pacers to Leeds, rather than a regular service to Preston/ Manchester etc).

Musselburgh actually has a fairly decent service. It could be better, but it's not terrible and it sees only very new trains

It depends on what you mean by “fairly decent”, I suppose. You’ve got:

  • A University campus next to the station
  • Twentysomething buses per hour from Musselburgh into central Edinburgh
  • A stone’s throw from a major road junction (where the A1 meets the Edinburgh City Bypass)
  • A location that GNER thought was worth building a Parkway station at (for long distance services to use)

…yet the service to Edinburgh is hourly at worst, half hourly at best (and no InterCity services).

Compared and contrasted to other towns on the outskirts of Edinburgh/ Glasgow and there are plenty examples of places that get four trains an hour – I don’t want to get into one of these arguments where we cherry pick extreme examples and argue about whether the size of town “x” is comparable to the size of town “y” – but four an hour is fairly typical for many commuter stations around Edinburgh/ Glasgow (without considering the University / Park And Ride aspects at Musselburgh).

But as Musselburgh is on a busy main line, there’s not a lot of scope for extra services to stop there. The additional services from Edinburgh to London/ Manchester etc planned over the next few years will make those paths even scarcer.

East Midlands Parkway is another under-used station. Not surprising given there are two trains to London in a 10 minute period and then nothing for the next 50 minutes. If the trains were spread out further apart, it might encourage more users.

The other way to encourage more passengers would be to slash the high car parking charges.

I'm hopeful that the next EMT franchise will have sufficient spare capacity to allow more services to stop there.

At the moment, with five coach 222s doing a fair percentage of the London services (we even get a four coach 222 to Sheffield, albeit on an off-peak diagram), there's not a lot of spare seats to justify stopping long distance services at the Parkway.

If I were driving down the M1, I'd welcome a station that had lots of parking with a "turn up and go" frequency for London/ Nottingham/ Derby. But if I have to wait three quarters of an hour then I could have driven several junctions further along the motorway in that time, so the station looks unattractive.

tbtc, if you don't mind me asking, why do you always use the smallest places on lines in order to demean people who suggest projects there? It's something I've noticed

Well, it was more a case of alliteration...

BENTHAM hasn't been suggested..

see #14:
"1) The Bentham Line - A peak service from Bentham to Leeds in the morning and return in the afternoon, could maybe help to pick up passenger numbers in the town"

.

BRIGG has been suggested but services would be relatively easy to improve..

Why would that be a priority though? It's a pretty empty part of the country, there's no major flows I can see that are unmet. Grimsby/ Cleethorpes have hourly services from Doncaster/ Sheffield, there's not going to be much of a market from Worksop (beyond the current Saturday daytripper market to the seaside).

If you want to increase the services between Grimsby/ Cleethorpes and civilisation then why not extend the current Sheffield - Doncaster - Scunthorpe service?

BATTERSBY isn't about connecting Battersby; it's about linking Whitby to the south..

Yes - see point above about alliteration...

Again though, why is the Whitby line such a cause celebre?

It's never going to justify significantly higher speeds, it's never going to justify a new alignment.

Focus on the two main markets (the well documented need to serve school children and having a tourist friendly service into the seaside town in the morning and out in the afternoon). The new franchise will mean a morning arrival into Middlesbrough suitable for commuting. Beyond that, I struggle to find much else - it'll never be faster than the bus.

[BAGHILL isn't the name of the place (it's Pontefract and it has a population of 30,900), just the station - and that's about linking the town to London - as well as an important city in Sheffield - relatively easily.

Again, alliteration...

What's the market here (other than "because it used to be a regular service")?

Demand from Pontefract is overwhelmingly into Leeds, not to Sheffield or York. By all means double the Pontefract - Leeds service (e.g. by chopping the current Sheffield - Castleford - Leeds service), but you'll never get many heading to Sheffield/ York in comparison.

Sheffield to York already has two relatively fast services per hour (which serve much bigger stations en-route - Doncaster, Wakefield and Leeds), so I can't see many people swapping their Voyager/ HST for a Sprinter.

Pontefract to London was something that Grand Central tried to dump relatively soon after their West Yorkshire service started.

And why bother running through trains to Falmouth - and from where, Plymouth/London/the North? The overwhelming majority of the traffic, all year round, is local and the service is half-hourly most of the day, so people travelling further afield don't have long waits for connections at Truro and the extra Cornish main line services will likely deliver more and better connections anyway

Is the Falmouth market that different to Penzance (which does have lots of long distance services a day)?
 

Lankyline

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Forgot to mention Morecambe (twice the size of Whitby).

Always horribly busy roads, whenever I’ve tried to get there from Lancaster, a reasonably sized urban area in its own right (i.e. its more than a “beach resort”), but only gets a handful of services a day because it’s tied to the “Bentham” service (presumably dating back to the days when it was a premier tourist destination for people escaping West Yorkshire).

If it were electrified then it may get some of the Manchester – Preston services extending there, maybe portion working with Windermere/ Barrow services, I dunno. But a relatively large place compared to the poor service it gets (a handful of Pacers to Leeds, rather than a regular service to Preston/ Manchester etc)

Morecambe is definitely a shadow of its former self, it was always known as a poor mans Blackpool and to be honest not much has improved since its heyday in the 50's and early 60's, Whitby for me has much more potential. I can't see any major rail infrastructure investment being made in the link to Morecambe.
 

Ianno87

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I'd suggest some of the routes around Cambridge.

Employment growth around Cambridge has been phenomenal over recent years, but so has that of the traffic congestion. Meanwhile, most routes into Cambridge have a number of lightly used wayside halt-type stations (Shepreth, Great Chesterford, Kennett, Manea, Lakenheath,...)

The new station at Cambridge North, plus the potential new station to serve Addenbrooke's Hospital would mean that housing development could be targeted around some of these lightly used stations, which would be superbly well-connected to employment opportunities in Cambridge itself, perhaps with a strategy of moving from 1 train per hour to 2tph on radial routes.
 

DynamicSpirit

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Morecambe is definitely a shadow of its former self, it was always known as a poor mans Blackpool and to be honest not much has improved since its heyday in the 50's and early 60's, Whitby for me has much more potential. I can't see any major rail infrastructure investment being made in the link to Morecambe.

I agree that for the time being, there's no prospect of major rail investment on the Morecambe line, which is a shame because it definitely meets the criteria for this thread. The service is - on average - hourly, but the actual timings are completely irregular, which must be some disincentive to using it, and the location of Morecambe station is somewhat awkward too. I do wonder what could realistically be done to improve it. Electrification would be good, and a relatively small project (as electrifications go) because the line is very short and there are only a couple of bridges. An extra station at the Lancaster Road/Euston Road bridge would bring in extra passengers, as would extending the regular service to a new station at Westgate. A further extension of the regular service to Heysham would be nice, but would probably require something like a parkway station somewhere around around the A683, since the line doesn't go very near Heysham itself. With that I would suspect traffic flows would be easily enough to sustain a half-hourly service, but I'm not sure if capacity at the flat junction with the WCML would then become a problem - and any solution to that would be expensive. A real game-changer would be running through to Lancaster University - again requiring a new station, which would allow the line to tap into the considerable student/University staff flows (and would also incidentally go some way to ease pressure on housing in Lancaster, by making living in Morecambe a more realistic possibility for University students and staff). However, I don't see that kind of investment coming any time soon - and there are probably many other places in the UK where the same amount of money invested would bring greater returns.
 
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Grumpy

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Providing a Willesden jn. to Ealing Broadway service (possibly by extending the Greenford shuttles) always seems an opportunity lost. Would give some good connections, not least for passengers to Heathrow from north/north west London.
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3) Knottingley to Goole - Leeds to Knottingley has a regular service, with just a meagre service to Goole - could there be benefits to Goole if the service from Leeds to Knottingley was extended, say, every hour; or again, is the traffic just not there for Goole, nor for the stations en route, especially Rawcliffe, Hensall and Whitley Bridge (Snaith may benefit somewhat from a regular service by actually being in a relatively populated area).

Not necessarily disagreeing with this, but as an alternative perhaps extending the Leeds-Knottingley services to Doncaster rather than Goole, thus giving an outlet from the Castleford/Pontefract areas to the South. I appreciate the pointwork at Knottingley would need alteration. Could also add in a halt at Askern.
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One Section of track that could have more done with it, would be Northallerton to Ferryhill via Yarm.

If the Line was upgraded & electrified, and maybe a fly-over/under in the Ferryhill area. It would have the effect of making Northallerton to Ferryhill 4 track.

It would then give scope to have a Northern Stopper service linking Yarm-Eaglescliffe & Stockton, more so if Northallerton Low Level was re-built, so as to avoid the flat junction onto the ECML.

I wonder if the real benefit from the Stockton-Ferryhilll line would be to facilitate faster journeys from the Middlesbrough area to Durham and Newcastle
 

Bletchleyite

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ty - again requiring a new station, which would allow the line to tap into the considerable student/University staff flows (and would also incidentally go some way to ease pressure on housing in Lancaster, by making living in Morecambe a more realistic possibility for University students and staff). However, I don't see that kind of investment coming any time soon - and there are probably many other places in the UK where the same amount of money invested would bring greater returns.


It would be good to see some of this kind of thing done in our smaller towns, combining new or refurbished DMUs or EMUs with a pure clock face Taktfahrplan and strong local branding, with S Bahn numbers etc. The way the Swiss do this seems to work quite well - and this kind of part of semi rural Britain near some reasonably size cities would seem to have similar transport needs.

The Southern Coastway services have that kind of feel to them and I quite like it.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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The Planner

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Providing a Willesden jn. to Ealing Broadway service (possibly by extending the Greenford shuttles) always seems an opportunity lost. Would give some good connections, not least for passengers to Heathrow from north/north west London.

Plans for two stations in the OOC area to latch on to the HS2 station.
 

chorleyjeff

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More stations on the main lines...they would almost certainly need passing loops so as to not stop the expresses but the likes of Garstang and Beattock come to mind.

My local line needs (and should be getting under the new franchise) a twice an hour service but it passes through Timperley Village, Cheadle and Wythenshawe without stopping...crazy

Garstang?
Too from the town and houses. It is quite a walk to the station.
I suppose if there was a lot of parking space available there could be something of a case.
 
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