Stations which have declined/increased in importance

[Ianno87]

). Also Anglo – Scottish expresses no longer stop at Crewe.

Birmingham-Scotland expresses do. Just not the direct Euston ones.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Using your thirty-year window, Wakefield Kirkgate has increased in importance... if you think it's bad now, try it in 1991! On the other hand, go back another thirty and it was probably more important then than it is now.

Sheffield Midland became less of a "destination" station when Meadowhall and the station serving the mall opened.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Didcot was an rather unimportant junction station, pretty much until HSTs started and train frequencies increased.
Gloucester is more of a backwater than it was when Eastgate station existed (which avoided reversal for XC services).
Manchester Oxford Road is far busier than it was before the Windsor Link and Hazel Grove Curve were built (1986-88).

 

[bramling]

Huntingdon Station was the northern limit of Network South-East services on the ECML in the '80s so it was necessary for one Inter-City services to call there. With the completion of
wiring throughout, Peterborough became the northern limit of Kings Cross, (and now Thameslink) services.
Chelmsford, on the other hand has in some ways become relatively less important in the service structure despite its increasing footfall. Pre the electrification to Norwich, Chelmsford was a stop for all off-peak services except the odd-hour down Norwich trains, (and the corresponding up services), which were non-stop to Colchester. Chelmsford to London passengers are now served by the increased numbers of outer suburban EMUs all of which call there.

On a similar theme to Huntington, Hitchin once had “Intercity” services call, but this stopped around the time the resited Stevenage station opened. Hitchin is still a very busy commuter station though, or at least it was until 2020!

 

[Western Sunset]

Cheltenham Spa Lansdown has probably increased, being the only station in the town now. London trains previously went from St James', whilst there was also cross-country stuff from Malvern Road.

 

[Ianno87]

Cheltenham Spa Lansdown has probably increased, being the only station in the town now. London trains previously went from St James', whilst there was also cross-country stuff from Malvern Road.

Meanwhile in the same area Gloucester has declined in importance, being bypassed by most XC services nowadays.

 

[The exile]

Albeit slightly resited, Filton Abbey Wood is massively more important than Filton was.

And just round the corner, Bristol Parkway. Although of course always an InterCity station, it's now a far cry from the "two draughty platforms and a portakabin" that it first was. I doubt that much "inbound traffic" was envisaged in 1972 either. Still draughty, though!

 

[Western Sunset]

Nearby Pilning has declined somewhat, though... There were once separate high and low-level stations.

 

[The exile]

Nearby Pilning has declined somewhat, though... There were once separate high and low-level stations.

I suspect that, even if it was slightly better served than now (less appallingly?), Pilning lost any significance it ever had once the car shuttle ceased.

 

[Western Sunset]

Whilst still in the Bristol area, Stapleton Road was once served by cross-country services that avoided reversal at Temple Meads. And even further back, before the Badminton line was built, South Wales expresses called there.

 

[6Gman]

I don't recall Bletchley ever being an Inter-City station. When I first started travelling around the network on my own in the mid-1970s, it was served by an hourly terminating local service from Euston - which was extended to MKC when that opened in 1982 - and an hourly Euston-Northampton-Rugby-Birmingham service, which was semi-fast South of Bletchley; both worked by class 310 EMUs....plus, of course the local DMU service to Bedford.

Bletchley is a strange one. In steam days a handful of long distance trains stopped there, but it included through trains to/from such diverse places as Blackpool, Windermere and Stranraer!

Curiously in most cases the service was in one direction only!

 

[Western Sunset]

If we look at the balance of stations within a town/city, in Worcester, for example, it's shifted more to Foregate Street, than Shrub Hill.

 

[Taunton]

And just round the corner, Bristol Parkway. Although of course always an InterCity station, it's now a far cry from the "two draughty platforms and a portakabin" that it first was. I doubt that much "inbound traffic" was envisaged in 1972 either. Still draughty, though!

Another surprising thing about Bristol Parkway is the development of commuter traffic to Bristol TM. I don't think this was ever envisaged at the start, when it was seen almost wholly as a station just for London.

St Pancras, of course.

Stratford, local to me, is also an extraordinary advance compared to former times. Similarly, Clapham Junction, always busy for trains but only moderately so for passengers, has advanced considerably - leaving London in the morning nowadays, commonly far more passengers board the train at Clapham than at Waterloo. It's unfortunate that the opportunity to do the same at West Hampstead, where the Midland, the London Overground, Chiltern, and two Underground lines are next to one another, was lost to the intervening railway-owned land being sold off for development. It was proposed more than once, but I believe the suggestions were lost in a turf war between BR and ths Underground over who should bear what part of the costs.

 

[Ianno87]

Tottenham Hale will give grown in importance since the construction of the Victoria Line, and later the introduction of Stansted Express.

 

[Taunton]

I suspect that, even if it was slightly better served than now (less appallingly?), Pilning lost any significance it ever had once the car shuttle ceased.

Pilning, even with two stations, was always in the middle of nowhere, and with the car shuttle only a couple of times a day, which often ran near-empty anyway and was most used by the PW department to move vehicles and plant over to Severn Tunnel Junction, was always deserted. I believe motorists trying to find it used to get lost in the lanes around it.

 

[Western Sunset]

I always find Pilning a surreal spot. So close to the edge of Bristol, but feels like miles from anywhere.

 

[Springs Branch]

Carnforth was a proper junction station when there were platforms on the WCML.

A good number of WCML stopped there, some of the Barrow-in-Furness line trains started/terminated here rather than running south to Lancaster or beyond, there were restaurant car and sleeper services to/from London. Plus it had that "romantic" refreshment room (technically it still does, but not quite the same).

 

[JKF]

I always find Pilning a surreal spot. So close to the edge of Bristol, but feels like miles from anywhere.

I’m surprised there’s never been a proposal for a new town around Pilning/Severnside/Severn Beach, lots of marginal land, not much in the way of spectacular countryside for people to object about, sea views for some and potentially very good road/rail links to a popular city. Instead it’s a backwater and Severn Beach a bit of a dump.

A lot of stations people have listed (Weymouth, Poole, Harwich etc.) were once very busy with ferry traffic, major transport hubs, but traffic has been abstracted by low-cost airlines (and the Chunnel) hence the reduction in connecting rail services.

 

[xotGD]

Bishop Auckland.

There used to be trains running to destinations all over County Durham, now just a single platform for the service to Darlo and onwards to Saltburn. Which may be truncated to Darlo in the near future.

 

[Taunton]

I’m surprised there’s never been a proposal for a new town around Pilning/Severnside/Severn Beach, lots of marginal land, not much in the way of spectacular countryside for people to object about, sea views for some and potentially very good road/rail links to a popular city. Instead it’s a backwater and Severn Beach a bit of a dump.

You should have seen Severn Beach a generation ago then ... affectionately known as "Severn Mud", outside the summer it was a ghostly, twilight-zone sort of place, which I think at least one television play has represented. In winter the 3-car dmu on the last stretch was usually empty. Some more houses have been built there in recent times, but it could be a dour, windswept, deserted place. Quite how up to the mid-1960s it warranted two separate routes there, which often departed fruitlessly in opposite directions to Bristol at the same time, was extraordinary.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Carnforth was a proper junction station when there were platforms on the WCML.

A good number of WCML stopped there, some of the Barrow-in-Furness line trains started/terminated here rather than running south to Lancaster or beyond, there were restaurant car and sleeper services to/from London.

Surely the WCML platforms at Carnforth closed as long ago as the early 1970s; if so, this is good couple of decades outwith the timeframe stipulated by the OP.

 

[nw1]

Another surprising thing about Bristol Parkway is the development of commuter traffic to Bristol TM. I don't think this was ever envisaged at the start, when it was seen almost wholly as a station just for London.

St Pancras, of course.

Stratford, local to me, is also an extraordinary advance compared to former times. Similarly, Clapham Junction, always busy for trains but only moderately so for passengers, has advanced considerably - leaving London in the morning nowadays, commonly far more passengers board the train at Clapham than at Waterloo. It's unfortunate that the opportunity to do the same at West Hampstead, where the Midland, the London Overground, Chiltern, and two Underground lines are next to one another, was lost to the intervening railway-owned land being sold off for development. It was proposed more than once, but I believe the suggestions were lost in a turf war between BR and ths Underground over who should bear what part of the costs.

I never think of the Midland and the Chiltern being anywhere near each other, I'd have always guessed they'd be two or three miles apart. But obviously they are.

The geography, and particularly the rail geography, of that part of northwest London is very confusing unless you're intimately familiar with it. It's like you'd never think the WCML and the GWML are anywhere near each other if you're not familiar with the area. It sounds like the whole caboodle - GW, WC, Chiltern and Midland - are all much closer to each other than you might think - but not close enough to build a 'Grand Junction' station for all four.

The whole lot is presumably forced to take a path around the western side of the high ground around Hampstead. In the meantime, the ECML presumably goes to the east of said high ground.

At the other extreme to some of the stations here, how about Beaulieu Road.

This had a significant decline for a while, and even now has not had the level of service seen in the 80s or early 90s restored. Hourly until at least 1991/92, for a time I believe it saw peak-hour-only services Mon to Sat (perhaps 2004-07?) when no stopping services at all progressed west of Southampton. Since 2007 it got back a two-hourly Saturday service at least, though Mon-Fri remained rather poor until recently.

Ironically, I believe it used to be closed on Sundays, while since at least 1989 it's had an hourly service even when the weekday service became almost non-existent. A good weekend service, of course, makes sense for the station - at least for 9 months of the year, though I can imagine Dec-Jan-Feb must be pretty quiet.

 

[YorksLad12]

Agree with the points about Normanton. It always surprises people when they find out there were two routes south as well as north and that it acted as an interchange/junction. Plus all of that unused railway land to the west of the current effort.

Penistone as well was a junction with four routes outwards, towards Barnsley, Huddersfield (as now), Woodhead and Sheffield (both closed). Mirfield I think was similarly a junction between several routes, dropped back to one or two stoppers then has picked up enough to be rebuilt as part of TRU. Castleford services and facilities were cut back, then increased in the late 1980s when Altofts closed and will soon get its second platform back.

Leeds was two stations in 1967, with City 9old plus new) cut from 17 to 12 even though Central closed - now back up to 17 from 2002, 18 from this year. Could we count Manchester Airport? It seems to be partly used as a place to get trains away from central Manchester as much as a destination, hence all of the new platforms. At the other end, both Bradford stations are less than half of what they were.

 

[norbitonflyer]

you'd never think the WCML and the GWML are anywhere near each other if you're not familiar with the area. It sounds like the whole caboodle - GW, WC, Chiltern and Midland - are all much closer to each other than you might think - but not close enough to build a 'Grand Junction' station for all four.

The whole lot is presumably forced to take a path around the western side of the high ground around Hampstead. In the meantime, the ECML presumably goes to the east of said high ground.

The ECML tunnels through the high ground.

One reason the GWML and WCML are so close together is that there was an early plan for both railways to share Euston station, until the GWR decidsed to build its own station in what were then the western suburbs of London.

Marylebone was rumoured to be at risk of closure in the 1980’s, it’s had quite a renaissance since then with the Chiltern commuter network.

More than just rumour. A formal closure notice was issued in 1984
Almost Terminal: Marylebone's Brush With Destruction - London Reconnections

 

[swt_passenger]

Manors. 9 platforms down to two with a fairly limited service.

 

[Bertie the bus]

Birmingham-Scotland expresses do. Just not the direct Euston ones.

As I said, Anglo - Scottish expresses no longer stop at Crewe. Something that spends half a day trundling around the West Midlands isn't an express.

 

[The exile]

Another surprising thing about Bristol Parkway is the development of commuter traffic to Bristol TM. I don't think this was ever envisaged at the start, when it was seen almost wholly as a station just for London.

Less surprising when you think how much development has sprung up round it in the last 40 years or so. With apologies to Stoke Gifford, there was next to nothing there when it was built.

 

[LowLevel]

Nottingham Midland.
Once on an Anglo-Scottish route, now rather a railway backwater. Though, in fairness, train frequencies have increased, so probably a bit of a draw with this one.

Nottingham may not have the Scottish services but they were a bit of a curious irrelevance anyway really - in the late 80s perhaps I'd say it reached it's nadir before coming back with the reintroduced local services to Worksop, Leicester and so on. It has two trains an hour to London, an hourly train to Leeds, an hourly train to Liverpool and Norwich (in theory, when EMR get their act together), two trains to Birmingham one of which runs through to Cardiff. When it isn't subject to the reduced timetable it probably has the best service it ever has had.

My vote for going downhill would be Boston, in the same vein as Spalding. It has gone from a large Junction station with works, depot, yards, and many converging branch and mainlines to being a crossing point on a single line that somehow retained it's docks branch and exchange sidings. Boston was a humongous railway undertaking in it's day and now boasts one mechanical signalbox, a part time manned station and carriage sidings and EMR's smallest traincrew depot.

 

[NoMorePacers]

Selby has probably had its importance reduced a fair bit, given it's no longer on the ECML anymore (although it probably has a better local service than it did in 1983).

 

[Iskra]

Selby has probably had its importance reduced a fair bit, given it's no longer on the ECML anymore (although it probably has a better local service than it did in 1983).

The arrival of Hull Trains must be considered something of a revival