Trivia, lines with very few stoppers but frequent non-stop trains.

[plugwash]

There are some lines around that have lots of fast trains, but virtually no stoppers. A couple of examples around greater Manchester.

Guide Bridge to Stalybridge. Used regularly (though not as regularly as it used to be) by Transpennine services from Manchester to Staylybridge and beyond but if you actually want to go from Guide Bridge to Staylybridge then you nearly always have to either go to Manchester and back or get a bus.

Hazel Grove to Chinley. Use regularly by Transpennine and EMR services from Stockport to Sheffield, but most of the time you either have to go to Manchester and Back, or walk between the two stations in New mills.

 

[Watershed]

The East Coast Main Line between Morpeth and Chathill - in each direction, 2 stoppers a day but 3-5 non-stop trains per hour.

 

[Basil Jet]

Chislehurst to St Mary Cray - I think there's nothing using it now, but after December there will be regular trains which I think run non-stop between Swanley and London Bridge.

 

[bishdunster]

Holton Heath?

 

[Halish Railway]

Bolton to Salford Crescent - Only a small proportion of trains make a stop between the two stations, very few call at all intermediate stations.

This should change when the frequency of stopping trains is increased from 1tph to 2tph.

 

[Flange Squeal]

Bit of a cheeky one, but Stafford to Stoke? No stoppers since the early/mid-2000s, but I believe the stations at Barlaston and Wedgwood not formally closed as yet (with murmurings of potentially reopening one of them?).

 

[martinsh]

Bit of a cheeky one, but Stafford to Stoke? No stoppers since the early/mid-2000s, but I believe the stations at Barlaston and Wedgwood not formally closed as yet (with murmurings of potentially reopening one of them?).

Only 2tph currently - and one of them stops at Stone

 

[Kite159]

Chislehurst to St Mary Cray - I think there's nothing using it now, but after December there will be regular trains which I think run non-stop between Swanley and London Bridge.

I think there is a handful of peak time services which use those curves, normally the Cannon Street - Medway - Kent services which run nonstop from London Bridge to Rochester]

Also sees use at weekends if Bromley South is closed for enginnering works with trains towards Rochester diverted via Chislehurst [and Lewisham] into Victoria [or Charing Cross/Cannon Street]

Bolton to Salford Crescent - Only a small proportion of trains make a stop between the two stations, very few call at all intermediate stations.

This should change when the frequency of stopping trains is increased from 1tph to 2tph.

From memory in the current timetable there are 5tph between Bolton & Salford Crescent [2 for Blackpool, 2 for Southport & 1 to Clitheroe]. Off which one of those 5 calls at the intermediate stations [excluding Clifton]. I wouldn't call 20% as "very few".

 

[Springs Branch]

Another cheeky Staffordshire one - is the WCML between Stone Junction & Colwich similar to the Stockport / Chinley example?

Regular Pendolinos speeding up and down the line between the Stoke Loop and the Trent Valley Main Line. But if you want to travel between Trent Valley line stations like Lichfield TV or Tamworth and Stoke-on-Trent, you need to go via Stafford and change there.

In the current timetable, there is one Avanti service each day running via Hixton which calls at Stoke, Lichfield TV & Tamworth.
Up train is the 06:10 Piccadilly - Euston, whilst the down train is the 22:00 Euston-Piccadilly - unfortunately booked as 'set down only' at Tamworth & Lichfield TV, so 'problematic' to use as a stopping service.

 

[Halish Railway]

From memory in the current timetable there are 5tph between Bolton & Salford Crescent [2 for Blackpool, 2 for Southport & 1 to Clitheroe]. Off which one of those 5 calls at the intermediate stations [excluding Clifton]. I wouldn't call 20% as "very few".

From December there will also be an hourly service to Cumbria and an hourly service to Blackburn, but no increase in the off-peak provision for intermediate stations between Salford Crescent and Bolton. I'm not sure if the TPE Anglo-Scottish services are applicable for this list as they don't call at Salford Crescent, but they use the line nonetheless.

 

[Kite159]

From December there will also be an hourly service to Cumbria and an hourly service to Blackburn, but no increase in the off-peak provision for intermediate stations between Salford Crescent and Bolton. I'm not sure if the TPE Anglo-Scottish services are applicable for this list as they don't call at Salford Crescent, but they use the line nonetheless.

The Cumbria trains skip Salford Crescent so for the purpose of Salford Crescent - Bolton they are like TPE

 

[30907]

Holton Heath?

has roughly 50/50, but it doesn't meet the normal definition of a line; there are numerous individual stations with a lower % of trains stopping, including a batch in Lincolnshire.

 

[Deepgreen]

Breakneck Ridge on the Grand Central to Poughkeepsie Hudson Valley line in New York state. Certain Metro-North trains, at weekends only (I think), stop there, while there are frequent Metro-North and Amtrak non-stops all week.

 

[mister-sparky]

Chislehurst to St Mary Cray - I think there's nothing using it now, but after December there will be regular trains which I think run non-stop between Swanley and London Bridge.

Curve used every day in the peaks but trains run fast London Bridge to Rochester

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Winsford, Hartford or Acton Bridge to Warrington Bank Quay

 

[LRV3004]

Winsford, Hartford or Acton Bridge to Warrington Bank Quay

Literally what I was about to type!!!

 

[TeeMarkM]

Pilning

 

[MisterSheeps]

WCML situation for Carstairs

 

[A S Leib]

Cardiff Central - Bridgend via Pencoed?

Still 1 tph stopping, but Southampton - Portsmouth?

Reading / Newbury - Taunton

 

[Kilopylae]

I know there are lots of fast trains WB from Exeter through Ivybridge but to reach Ivybridge one normally has to change at Plymouth. Although I think this has been less true in recent years.

 

[Future]

Westbury - Bedwyn. Unless you plan on travelling at 5am, then you can’t actually get to Bedwyn from the south you would have to go north to Hungerford/Newbury and reverse there.

 

[daodao]

Bit of a cheeky one, but Stafford to Stoke? No stoppers since the early/mid-2000s, but I believe the stations at Barlaston and Wedgwood not formally closed as yet (with murmurings of potentially reopening one of them?).

The stopping service from Kidsgrove to Cheadle Hulme is only 1 tph, with 1 peak hour Mon-Fri extra, whereas there are several fast trains on this route (pre-Covid 4 tph).

 

[Doctor Fegg]

The "Oxfordshire Halts" (Combe, Finstock, Ascott-under-Wychwood) on the Cotswold Line. 1tpd in each direction, on a line that has 1+tph in each direction.

 

[Some guy]

Leyland it gets just the airport service and a Liverpool service per hour and the rest of the services just speed through. When going from leyland to Preston the timings are 4 minutes apart meaning if you miss both you have to wait a full hour

 

[PGAT]

Faygate

 

[StretfordEnd96]

Hazel Grove to Chinley. Use regularly by Transpennine and EMR services from Stockport to Sheffield, but most of the time you either have to go to Manchester and Back, or walk between the two stations in New mills.

A fair few of these examples I think are influenced by the history of the line between the two.

Prior to 1986 there were no trains at all which passed Chinley and then Hazel Grove. There's a good reason for this - there was absolutely no physical connection between the two, until the HG Chord was built 36 years ago.

Chinley was built by the Midland railway on their Manchester Central to Derby/Sheffield lines and Hazel Grove was built by the LNWR on their Buxton-Manchester line - two previously rival companies who didn't particularly get on with each other. (Midland also built a Hazel Grove station too, on its own line, just prior to where the chord is today, but this was short lived).

The opening of the Chord came about for a handful of reasons but was always designed for faster express services.

So what looks like in the modern day a clear connection between the two which would warrant a stopping service is actually not that and influenced by various history of the two stations and the two lines serving them.

 

[RuddA]

Between Norwich and Ely.
If I wanted to travel from Spooner Row to Shippea Hill right now I would have to catch the 16:43 to Ely, wait there overnight and catch the 7:38 back tomorrow morning, arriving at 7:47. I believe there are 2 services per hour on that line (GA and EMR)