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Stations with a suprirsingly limited number of train services

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infobleep

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If you arrive at Gatwick Airport between 5pm and 6pm I believe there are just 4 train services south to Haywards Heath where as for lost of the day it's at least 9 per hour. The 4 trains are not evenly spread out either.

When I get to Clapham Junction around 7.30am I often hear an announcement on platform 13 telling passengers for Brighton to change at East Croydon. Wen I look at the next direct board it shows 8.13 or something like that as the next train.

Of course any fast train to London during morning peak rush hour and again from London during peak rush hour for the fact they don't stop at Clapham Junction. Commuters might know this but I doubt many other people do. Some years ago I did find myself on a slow service from Clapham Junction because I hadn't realised a gap in the service existed.

Guildford to London via Woking on Sundays. Yes there are four trains an hour but surprisingly they 5 minutes apart and then a 25 minute gap and another 5 minutes apart. Back to Guildord from Woking it's 3 minutes and then 27 minutes! Surprisingly uneven when you first encounter it.

I'm sure there are many other examples. So please post the ones you know of.
 
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tsr

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I'm sure there are many other examples. So please post the ones you know of.

Let's carry on with the Brighton Mainline.

Earlswood and Salfords really deserve a better off-peak service.

Purley should ideally have more longer-distance services off-peak during the day, but I'm not actually sure if the traffic is there, on second thoughts.

Redhill has appalling numbers of trains to Brighton and for that matter to many other coastal stations.

I've always felt that Wivelsfield could do with a higher service frequency, but maybe that's just me.
 

cuccir

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This happens at a lot of relatively minor stations on mainlines, where service times are designed around the major cities and not the local stops. Durham has 4 northbound trains an hour during the day, three in a 15 minute period, then one 10 minutes later, then none for over half an hour!
 

SprinterMan

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Conwy station in North Wales is treated as a little local request stop, but Conwy is a large town and has it's own county. Let's compare passenger numbers for request stops between Llandudno Junction and Holyhead (2009/10):

#1 Conwy - 27,168
#2 Valley - 15,156
#3 Lanfairpwll - 13,524
#4 Rhosneigr - 13,478
#5 Penmaenmawr - 11,870
#6 Llanfairfechan - 11,052
#7 Bodorgan - 5,354
#8 Ty Croes - 3,732

So Conwy has near enough double the passengers of the next busiest request stop, yet receives the same service.
 

tbtc

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Rotherham?

There are eleven trains in a typical hour from Sheffield to Meadowhall (inc two non stop XC ones), seven of which continue to Swinton (where only three stop), yet Rotherham only gets three trains an hour (mainly due to being on a loop off the main line that has a long single track lead into it which eats up capacity). It probably only gets around half the stops it ought to as a result.

Plus Sunderland - a big place but only an hourly train service (Hexham - Middlesbrough) plus a handful of GC services. A few years ago it had four trains an hour to Newcastle (most of which continued to the Metro Centre) but these were replaced by the Metro service.
 

Eagle

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If you arrive at Gatwick Airport between 5pm and 6pm I believe there are just 4 train services south to Haywards Heath where as for lost of the day it's at least 9 per hour. The 4 trains are not evenly spread out either.

It's only 9tph in the morning peak; most of the time it's 6tph. Here's the distribution:
 

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stuart

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Four trains an hour - what luxury! My local station, Carrbridge, has only twelve trains a day (in each direction) and only four of them actually bother to stop there, which equates to roughly one train every four hours over the service day.

Bizarrely, the Caledonian Sleeper stops there northbound, but not southbound. And the East Coast Highland Chieftain stops there southbound on Sundays only, but never northbound. This makes booking return journeys a nightmare beyond the understanding of either telephone centre staff or internet ticket issuing services.

Any time I raise the issue of this miserable level of service with Scotrail I am told there is "no demand". How do they know there is no demand unless the trains actually stop?
 

MCR247

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Any time I raise the issue of this miserable level of service with Scotrail I am told there is "no demand". How do they know there is no demand unless the trains actually stop?

Because if I run an hourly bus service with an optare solo minibus which is rarely full, there is not going to be demand for a 15 minute service using Double deckers!

But then there is the old argument that it is a continuous circle; if a better service is provided, people will use it. But if there service is pitiful people will make other arrangements!
 

MidnightFlyer

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Bizarrely, the Caledonian Sleeper stops there northbound, but not southbound.

I believe that has been the case since December only, it's to compensate for a withdrawn service from Aviemore-Inverness that operated in the morning peak.
 

Johnuk123

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Four trains an hour - what luxury! My local station, Carrbridge, has only twelve trains a day (in each direction) and only four of them actually bother to stop there, which equates to roughly one train every four hours over the service day.

Bizarrely, the Caledonian Sleeper stops there northbound, but not southbound. And the East Coast Highland Chieftain stops there southbound on Sundays only, but never northbound. This makes booking return journeys a nightmare beyond the understanding of either telephone centre staff or internet ticket issuing services.

Any time I raise the issue of this miserable level of service with Scotrail I am told there is "no demand". How do they know there is no demand unless the trains actually stop?

The railways have used that old chesnut of "no demand" for years to justify running a poor service.

You might not have a lot of train action but you're living in one of the most desirable places in the U.K. - lucky sod.
 

Southern

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Folkestone Central/West gets 3tph to/from Ashford Mon - Fri Off - Peak, reduced to 2tph on Sat/Sun. These run at xx36 (Charing X) and xx56 (St Pancras) so nothing after the latter for 40 minutes. It's a shame because if the xx09 ran on Sat/Sun, it would offer a connection at Ashford with the xx43 to St Pancras. Strangely enough, if you travel FROM St Pancras on the Margate via Canterbury West service at the weekend, an 8 minute connection is available with the Folkestone train.
 

LE Greys

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Retford, where practically everything on the ECML zooms straight through except for the bi-hourly semi-fast to York and the bi-hourly Hull Trains service. That's a gap of 97 minutes in the down direction. Honestly, Sandy gets a better service, 2tph each way, even though they are only stoppers.
 

causton

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Retford, where practically everything on the ECML zooms straight through except for the bi-hourly semi-fast to York and the bi-hourly Hull Trains service. That's a gap of 97 minutes in the down direction. Honestly, Sandy gets a better service, 2tph each way, even though they are only stoppers.

That's the problem - unless you send all-stations services all the way to York (actually, that's a good idea... ;) ) you'll get the problem of small stations too far out of London for 'metro' style operators, but too small for Intercity-style operators :(
 

AlterEgo

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The railways have used that old chesnut of "no demand" for years to justify running a poor service.

You might not have a lot of train action but you're living in one of the most desirable places in the U.K. - lucky sod.

But out in the sticks in Scotland there is no massive demand.

You can't just run a service for the sake of it if it's going to harmorrhage money everywhere.

Yet another poster that thinks TOCs actually sit down in board meetings and dream up new schemes designed to annoy people "just because they can".

I do wonder where some people come from on this forum.
 

Johnuk123

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But out in the sticks in Scotland there is no massive demand.

You can't just run a service for the sake of it if it's going to harmorrhage money everywhere.

Yet another poster that thinks TOCs actually sit down in board meetings and dream up new schemes designed to annoy people "just because they can".

I do wonder where some people come from on this forum.




Where did I say that the Highlands should have more train services ?

Where did I say that a service should be run for the sake of it ?

I will hazard a guess that you live in the South of England by your description of the Highlands as "the sticks"
 

AndyLandy

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Whilst Hartford gets a reasonable service (1tph each direction, despite being a small village), the number of West Coast expresses that go through it and don't stop is quite impressive. I don't have any actual numbers, but I believe any WC service from Crewe to either Liverpool or Scotland will go through Hartford.
 

Drsatan

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Even though there's at least one train an hour from Exeter to Plymouth and vice versa, very few of them call at Ivybridge. Ivybridge has a population of 12,000, yet there are only seven trains a day Monday - Friday from Ivybridge to Plymouth, and seven trains from Ivybridge to Plymouth.

Ivybridge has few trains stopping there because there are few local services from Exeter St Davids to Plymouth, and chances are FGW and XC would justify not stopping more long-distance trains at Ivybridge on the grounds that there would be insufficient demand. There are too few local services which is why Voyagers have to stop at stations which normally wouldn't merit a long distance service stopping there, such as Lostwithiel (population around 2,000) and Alnmouth (population 500)
 

Eagle

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Northampton (for its' size)?

4tph London, 3tph Birmingham, 1tph Crewe... doesn't seem too bad.

Poole is about the same size as Northampton and has just 2tph Weymouth and 3tph London (one of which is overtaken by another and is only advertised as going to Farnborough).

Bournemouth has ditto plus 1tph Manchester, still fewer services in total than Northampton.
 

WatcherZero

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At least these stops which only get a handful of services a day are still open, look at Boars Head in Wigan, closed in 1959 because it was a local station on the WCML and reduced capacity for intercity services. This station if it was still open today would likely have 100,000+ annual entries and exits as a great location for rail commuters avoiding a road thats virtually a car park in peaks.
 

tbtc

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Northampton (for its' size)?

I guess it depends on how we define "limited number".

Every train that passes through Northampton stops there, though that's not as many as stop at (say) Milton Keynes (although not everything that passes through Milton Keynes stops at Milton Keynes).

Are we talking "station that sees only a fraction of the services on its line stop there" (Retford, Ardwick etc) or "station on a line that doesn't see lots of services (Lincoln etc).

I'm happy with either definition, but they are two different things
 

Mutant Lemming

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Willington is another that springs to mind as a newly re-opened station that has a relatively poor service.
 
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