Stations that don't contain the name of a settlement, particularly termini

[Amlag]

The settlement of Morchard Road a station on the North Devon line built to serve the hill top village of
Morchard Bishop three miles away.

 

[D365]

On the highlighted part. If I am on a train from London St Pancras to Sheffield and want to go to Nottingham or Lincoln then it is possible i would get off at East Midlands Parkway to change trains. I would not get off there and exit the station though.

Other than exceptional circumstances, I would just get on a STP-NOT train in the first place…

 

[WizCastro197]

Other than exceptional circumstances, I would just get on a STP-NOT train in the first place…

Exactly, three minute wait between NOT trains and Sheffield trains isn’t that long!

 

[Topological]

Other than exceptional circumstances, I would just get on a STP-NOT train in the first place…

Quite

Thus confirming my point that East Midlands Parkway is not a place anyone going to the East Midlands would actually get off at

There are one or two connections, most of which are poorly timed, and most of which involve trains that have come from the same place anyway.

Therefore East Midlands Parkway is neither named after a settlement, nor does it satisfy the evolving criteria in this thread that the station should be the place people who are seeking to visit the East Midlands should aim for

 

[A0wen]

Perhaps to do with the fact that it was built by "underground" companies rather than mainline companies, I think it's probablly the only terminus with more London Underground platforms than national rail platforms.

Would Greenford count ? 2 LUL platforms and 1 GWR platform which is a terminus (well sort of)......

Back on topic - Adderley Park on the line into Birmingham from Coventry. There is a park nearby called Adderley Park, but the area is either Bordesley Green or Saltley.

 

[PG]

Quite

Thus confirming my point that East Midlands Parkway is not a place anyone going to the East Midlands would actually get off at

There are one or two connections, most of which are poorly timed, and most of which involve trains that have come from the same place anyway.

Therefore East Midlands Parkway is neither named after a settlement, nor does it satisfy the evolving criteria in this thread that the station should be the place people who are seeking to visit the East Midlands should aim for

According to the ORR estimates East Midlands Parkway had 196298 entries and exits in the year 2021/22, so where were these people going to/coming from?

 

[Watershed]

According to the ORR estimates East Midlands Parkway had 196298 entries and exits in the year 2021/22, so where were these people going to/coming from?

Most are probably using it as a Park & Ride station, as the name would suggest. It's not a particularly impressive number, considering that today (by way of example) it sees 113 departures. If you assume 6.5x that many services in a week to account for reduced Saturday and Sunday services, and 50x that in a year to account for engineering works, Christmas etc. then you'd come to a figure of 36,725 services a year. So 5.35 passengers getting on and off per train, on average.

There are far busier stations with fewer services. Even Whitby, which only has 12 trains a day (6 arrivals and departures) saw 120k entries and exits during the same period.

 

[Topological]

According to the ORR estimates East Midlands Parkway had 196298 entries and exits in the year 2021/22, so where were these people going to/coming from?

I think it is just getting silly.

The thread was about stations which do not contain the name of settlements. There is no settlement called East Midlands

An evolution of the interpretation was that it was a place people intending to visit a particular destination would be confused by. On this definition East Midlands Parkway also qualifies because most people visiting the East Midlands region would actually want other places (e.g. Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln etc.) and therefore should not use East Midlands Parkway.

If it was a thread about stations that did not have enough people using them, then clearly East Midlands Parkway does not qualify, it is brilliant as a parkway.

 

[Meerkat]

An evolution of the interpretation was that it was a place people intending to visit a particular destination would be confused by. On this definition East Midlands Parkway also qualifies

I disagree. No one wants to visit 'East Midlands', they want to go to somewhere specific. However the station says exactly what it is to those who live in the East Midlands and want to drive to the station.

 

[Pinus contorta]

Gunton (on the line from Norwich to Sheringham) isn't a settlement.

 

[vic-rijrode]

Gunton (on the line from Norwich to Sheringham) isn't a settlement.

There is, however, a Gunton Hall and Park nearby so presumably there was a village called Gunton which was swept away by the local landowner to build his hall, (possibly).

 

[John Griffiths]

Apologies if this has already been said, but wasn't Crewe named after Crewe Hall nearby, rather than any village or hamlet called Crewe?

Also, had MetroCentre been named Gateshead MetroCentre, and people had got off there expecting to be in the centre of Gateshead, it might have been doing them a kindness.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Apologies if this has already been said, but wasn't Crewe named after Crewe Hall nearby, rather than any village or hamlet called Crewe?

Crewe station is actually named after the 'Township of Crewe' (nowadays known/renamed as Crewe Green), a village a mile and a half away from modern day Crewe.

Crewe Hall wasn't built until Jacobean times, but moot point whether the Crewe family that lived there in the 12th / 13th Centuries took or gave their name from that of the locality.

Wasn't much in the vicinity of the station when the railway first came in the 1830s/1840s, and the modern day settlement that everyone thinks of as Crewe subsequently grew up nearby.

As an old, local proverb succinctly describes things:- "The place which is Crewe is not Crewe, and the place which is not Crewe is Crewe."

 

[Ken H]

Crewe station is actually named after the 'Township of Crewe' (nowadays known/renamed as Crewe Green), a village a mile and a half away from modern day Crewe.

Crewe Hall wasn't built until Jacobean times, but moot point whether the Crewe family that lived there in the 12th / 13th Centuries took or gave their name from that of the locality.

Wasn't much in the vicinity of the station when the railway first came in the 1830s/1840s, and the modern day settlement that everyone thinks of as Crewe subsequently grew up nearby.

As an old, local proverb succinctly describes things:- "The place which is Crewe is not Crewe, and the place which is not Crewe is Crewe."

Why did Crewe centre establish itself north of the junction? And has the bit of Crewe along Nantwich Rd ever had another name?

 

[Pdf]

The DLR has a few such as King George V. If we're allowing TfL stations, there's also Arsenal on the Piccadilly line.

 

[Meerkat]

The DLR has a few such as King George V. If we're allowing TfL stations, there's also Arsenal on the Piccadilly line.

They are not settlements but KGV is the nearest dock, and Arsenal was a destination.

 

[Magdalia]

Arsenal was a destination

No, Arsenal was (and is) the name of a Football Club. The destination was the stadium which was called Highbury.

 

[Meerkat]

No, Arsenal was (and is) the name of a Football Club. The destination was the stadium which was called Highbury.

Thats very pedantic!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Why did Crewe centre establish itself north of the junction?

The land was available to develop and was relatively cheap? It's also near to where the extensive Crewe Railway Works was located, so handy if you worked there.

And has the bit of Crewe along Nantwich Rd ever had another name?

Quite possibly, although possibly not all that much there but fields until development started in earnest in the mid 19th Century after the railway had arrived. Anyone know?

 

[Magdalia]

Arsenal FC are unusual in that they are a football club with a name that doesn't contain the name of a settlement, though they were Woolwich Arsenal for a brief period.

 

[zwk500]

No, Arsenal was (and is) the name of a Football Club. The destination was the stadium which was called Highbury.

To be especially pedantic, the stadium was actually called 'Arsenal Stadium', it was referred to as Highbury after the area it was in.

Arsenal FC are unusual in that they are a football club with a name that doesn't contain the name of a settlement, though they were Woolwich Arsenal for a brief period.

Interestingly, they began as Dial Square before becoming Woolwich Arsenal, so they have gone from no settlement to having one and then back again.

 

[greyman42]

Arsenal FC are unusual in that they are a football club with a name that doesn't contain the name of a settlement, though they were Woolwich Arsenal for a brief period.

You could say the same for Q.P.R.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

You could say the same for Q.P.R.

Wasn't/isn't the Queen's Park Estate (which predates the Q.P.R. football club by several years) originally developed as a residential area of West London?

 

[Rescars]

Have we mentioned Coulsdon yet? Coulsdon Town used to be Smitham, which isn't really a place. Coulsdon North (which was a terminus) opened as Stoats Nest (which certainly isn't a place) & Cane Hill (which was the adjacent mental hospital).

 

[Howardh]

Ashburys is named after a carriage works that used to be adjacent to the station. No area of Manchester called Ashburys exists.

I never knew that, wonder though if any locals do refer to the area as Ashburys because the station is so called? If the works have gone it would kinda make sense?

Is Belle Vue, nearby, an areas name or just a sporting venue?

 

[Western Sunset]

All this talk about East Midlands Parkway, but has anyone mentioned Trent? Bonus points as it once also had a power signal box. Also the (very) short lived Ramsline Halt.

Further afield, was Kyle of Lochalsh just a house of that name, with Kyle Hotel further up the road, before the railway made its terminus there?

 

[Taunton]

At least the above all seem to make passing reference to the locality in some form.

Overseas, not so much. The Soviet Union Metro stations were often named after something of interest to the politicians but quite unconnected. Every city Metro seems to have a Chkalovskaya. Chkalov was a pioneering aviator hero back in Soviet times, and long before the station in question was built. The Paris Metro can be the same, and a couple of stations were (re)named after prominent VIPs or events - Franklin D Roosevelt, or Stalingrad.

I always liked the Rio Grande railway's approach in the USA. Building across completely unpopulated land, the initial junction station got the engineering line drawing reference instead, Dotsero ("dot zero"). Lost for what the opposite end might be, they chose the opposite - Orestod.

 

[PG]

Further afield, was Kyle of Lochalsh just a house of that name, with Kyle Hotel further up the road, before the railway made its terminus there?

Not a house, it refers to the narrow (Kyle) of Loch Alsh - the narrow bit of Loch Alsh before the Inner Hebrides sound.

 

[Ken H]

Long closed but Cruden Bay. The settlement was Port Errol. But there qas a Cruden Hotel and the station seems to have been named for that.
Its north of Aberdeen

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Further afield, was Kyle of Lochalsh just a house of that name, with Kyle Hotel further up the road, before the railway made its terminus there?

Not a house, it refers to the narrow (Kyle) of Loch Alsh - the narrow bit of Loch Alsh before the Inner Hebrides sound.

Not sure how big the village of Kyle of Lochalsh was in the 19th Century, but it was effectively a ferry terminal across to Kyleakin on Skye, which ferry operated for several decades before the railway reached Kyle in 1897.

Not sure either when exactly the Kyle Hotel was built, it's reputedly over 100 years old, so my guess would be this was around the time the railway line was opened.