Trivia: Minor stations on the approach to major stations

[ccityplanner12]

Many major termini have one station on the lines out of them which is very small & usually receives fewer trains than most stations on the line:

• Queenstown Road (London Waterloo)
• Wandsworth Common (London Victoria)
• Queens Park (London Euston)
• Acton Main Line (London Paddington)
• Adderley Park (Birmingham New Street)
• Bordesley (Birmingham Moor Street)
• Ardwick (Manchester Piccadilly)
• Manors (Newcastle Central)

In a few cases there was once such a station, but no longer:

• Spa Road (London Bridge/CX/CST)
• Bishopsgate Low Level (London Liverpool Street)
• Holloway (London Kings Cross)
• Westbourne Park (London Paddington)
• Holbeck (Leeds Central)
• St Dunstans (Bradford Exchange)
• Bridge Street (Glasgow Central)

Feel free to add to this list. Is there a reason for this or is it just a coincidence?

 

[edwin_m]

Mixed-traffic railways aren't really suited to journeys between city centres and their inner suburbs. A passenger between Lime Street and Edge Hill is taking a space that could be occupied by someone travelling much further, so a train is not an efficient way of moving that person (and station capacity probably prevents running of more short-distance trains). A bus may be slower but the time difference is small for a short journey, but the bus is probably more frequent and may stop in a more convenient place so is the better choice for most people on this journey.

For all these reasons most inner-city stations, along with the entire suburban services of smaller cities, tended to close or become very lightly used with the advent of tram competition in the early 20th century. Sometimes urban growth and traffic congestion makes their revival attractive, but there is probably not the capacity to do it with heavy rail. Metros, trams or quasi-Metro networks such as in Merseyside and Strathclyde are more appropriate than extra stops on suburban rail.

 

[30907]

Spa Road is one of several stations closed during WW1 as an economy measure - Walworth Road and Camberwell were others (together with the LCDR service round to Victoria which served now disused/long-vanished platforms at Brixton, Clapham (HS) and Wandsworth Rd, the LSWR at Shepherd's Bush, the LCDR Greenwich Park branch....

I don't think Queens Park or Wandsworth Common fit your criterion of being very small though - the former gets all the Watford Electrics (and the tube), the latter gets most slow line trains - unlike 40 years ago when it was only every 15 minutes off peak.

 

[swt_passenger]

I believe the current track layout limits calls at Queenstown Rd, but IIRC the intention is to alter the layout and reopen the platform alongside the present Windsor reversible, and increase the calls made by Windsor side trains both there and at Vauxhall.

 

[lammergeier]

Attercliffe Road was just before Sheffield.
Was meant to have one of if not the cheapest season ticket available on the network.

 

[B&I]

At least some of these stations are going to become more valuable as the centres of most of our bigger cities expand into what are currently underdeveloped inner city areas. But I suspect that they will still continue to be served by local rather than inter-city services.

 

[Welshman]

Holbeck station was on two levels - High and Low.
The High level platforms were served by GN trains to/from Leeds Central and the Low Level ones by NER & Midland services to/from Leeds City.
I suspect it was originally intended as an interchange to allow passengers from, say Doncaster to Shipley, or Carlisle to Pudsey, to avoid the need to walk from Central to City stations, although I have no idea how easy[or desirable] the interchange was.
With the amalgamation of all services into City in 1967, Holbeck was closed.

 

[Jamm]

Adderley Park and Bordesley are lightly used due to their location. Both of these stations are located in industrial district with little residential housing.

This is especially evident with Adderley Park having no direct bus connection to the city centre which in theory should mean it'll get used a lot but it's not.

As for other stations? I guess it's probably because it's also located in industrial district or there is plenty of (much more frequent) bus connections with similar journey times to city centres making train use redundant.

 

[TommyJ]

Acton Main Line is about to become part
of the Elizabeth Line, so it’ll be interesting to see whether passenger numbers take off.

 

[yorkie]

Many major termini have one station on the lines out of them which is very small & usually receives fewer trains than most stations on the line

• Queenstown Road (London Waterloo)

[...]

• Queens Park (London Euston)

Is there a reason for this or is it just a coincidence?

Queenstown Road gets a decent service of around 8 trains per hour, surely this is about right?

Queens Park has all DC line services calling there; most services at Queens Park are Bakerloo Line services, and any question of DC line frequency between Euston & Watford Junction is a separate matter entirely.

Clearly it isn't appropriate for mainline services to call at stations between Harrow & Wealdstone and London Euston, with the exception of some calls at Wembley Central.

 

[Up_Tilt_390]

Edge Hill station, just 1.30 miles east of Liverpool Lime Street at the end of the long cuttings and tunnels. It isn't served by as many stations as the others on local services, and most trains pass through them as you would expect.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Queens Park has all DC line services calling there; most services at Queens Park are Bakerloo Line services, and any question of DC line frequency between Euston & Watford Junction is a separate matter entirely.

.

The old 00:30 New Street > Euston all stations used to call at Queens Park (think the equivalent in the opposite direction did too). Not sure when the mains stopped calling there apart from the NYE extras.

 

[Springs Branch]

Two other examples close to Manchester:-

• Salford Central, in its original guise as just "Salford", used to fit the OP's criteria, but has improved in recent years with regeneration in nearby parts of Manchester & Salford.
  It probably wouldn't be described as a "minor station", but for a long time Salford was only open during Monday to Friday peak hours and was in a very run-down state. Trains now stop all day, every day (electrification bustitution aside) and a lot of the station has been refurbished and improved.
• Miles Platting, 1¼ miles east of Manchester Victoria, was another of those smaller stations on the approach to a big city which was hardly used.
  Miles Platting closed in 1995 in the last days of BR and IIRC had limited trains stopping there in the period up to closure. There's now a tram stop nearby on the Metrolink Rochdale line (not the same railway lines that Miles Platting station was on), but Metrolink was not the reason for closure, more likely 1970s / 80s inner-city blight and depopulation in the local area.

 

[Killingworth]

Used to train spot at Manors in the 1950s when it had at least 6 platforms. I dont recall many passengers even then. It was the terminus of the Blyth and Tyne railway, although that had been at New Bridge Street until about 1904.

Trains from Blyth terminated at Manors until the 60s.

 

[Dai Corner]

Bedminster, about a mile west of Bristol Temple Meads, probably used to fall into this category. IIRC it had one or two up trains in the morning and one or two down in the evening when I used the line regularly thirty years ago.

Now it has hourly calls all day by the Weston-Parkways plus the Taunton stoppers at peak times and quite respectable usage figures - over 90,000

 

[Essexman]

Used to train spot at Manors in the 1950s when it had at least 6 platforms. I dont recall many passengers even then. It was the terminus of the Blyth and Tyne railway, although that had been at New Bridge Street until about 1904.

Trains from Blyth terminated at Manors until the 60s.

Football specials used to use manors. I got on one there in the late 1970s following West Ham to Newcastle.

 

[Mojo]

I think it’s a legacy of the fact that Inner-City areas historically tended to be not the locations that were ever high traffic generators. It wasn’t that long ago that these locations (and still are in cities like Birmingham) are not particularly pleasant places, with numerous derelict industrial units dispersed with low quality housing and high crime.

 

[swt_passenger]

Used to train spot at Manors in the 1950s when it had at least 6 platforms. I dont recall many passengers even then. It was the terminus of the Blyth and Tyne railway, although that had been at New Bridge Street until about 1904...

Nine platforms back then, East side four on the mainline, North had two through and three bays. Only used Manors once on a trip from South Gosforth into town, I lived in a part of Heaton where the bus was a much better option normally...

 

[coppercapped]

Although there is now no station at Westbourne Park on the main line into Paddington, the station is still served by the Hammersmith and City and Circle Line services. So apart from those who wish to travel west who need to double back from Paddington there is no loss of amenity for local residents at all. If anything the service is better as eastbound the trains go past Paddington.

 

[Mikey C]

Excellent examples are the stations on the Chiltern mainline out of Marylebone

Sudbury Hill Harrow and Sudbury & Harrow Road in particular get a very poor service due to lack of capacity on a 2 track railway and as a result are amongst the least used stations in London!

 

[DanTrain]

Darnall I think falls at least somewhat into this category - it gets a decent service, but remains the least used station in South Yorks. Also, Peartree is another least used station adjacent to a major hub (Derby).

 

[70014IronDuke]

Used to train spot at Manors in the 1950s when it had at least 6 platforms. I dont recall many passengers even then. It was the terminus of the Blyth and Tyne railway, although that had been at New Bridge Street until about 1904.

Trains from Blyth terminated at Manors until the 60s.

Were the down east coast expresses accelerating through Manors back in the day - must have been a grand sight and sound if so? - or was there a permanent speed restriction that spoiled all that?

 

[swt_passenger]

Were the down east coast expresses accelerating through Manors back in the day - must have been a grand sight and sound if so? - or was there a permanent speed restriction that spoiled all that?

IIRC they were speeding up through Manors but I think there must have been a low speed through Heaton where the down main took quite a curved path around the island platform. Heaton was a location where the pair of tracks in the middle were straight (up main and down Tynemouth) and the outer pair dealt with providing the space for the islands.

 

[341o2]

On the approach to Plymouth (GWR), there was formerly Lipson Vale Halt (51 1/4), and on the other side of the tunnel Mutley (51 3/4), what was once North Road, now simply Plymouth (52m). Measured from Exeter (0m)

 

[ccityplanner12]

Imagine if the LNER had been around just long enough to electrify the ECML (which, given their preferences elsewhere, I believe would have been 1500v DC overhead) & run trains with rheostatic braking into Newcastle Central through Manors, with it being the first significantly-sharp curve for miles.

 

[70014IronDuke]

IIRC they were speeding up through Manors but I think there must have been a low speed through Heaton where the down main took quite a curved path around the island platform. Heaton was a location where the pair of tracks in the middle were straight (up main and down Tynemouth) and the outer pair dealt with providing the space for the islands.

Ah, thanks. So a Gresley pacific with 12 or 13 on passing the closed platform space was probably not quite the sound and fury that it might otherwise have been.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Imagine if the LNER had been around just long enough to electrify the ECML (which, given their preferences elsewhere, I believe would have been 1500v DC overhead) & run trains with rheostatic braking into Newcastle Central through Manors, with it being the first significantly-sharp curve for miles.

But if it was a low-speed station, then the rheostatic brake would be ineffective, and they'd be using the vacum at that point.

 

[HowardGWR]

One would think the tiny station outside Exeter Central, St James's. But I think it does see some use apart from for the football.

 

[450.emu]

I think it’s a legacy of the fact that Inner-City areas historically tended to be not the locations that were ever high traffic generators. It wasn’t that long ago that these locations (and still are in cities like Birmingham) are not particularly pleasant places, with numerous derelict industrial units dispersed with low quality housing and high crime.

Maryland Station, just after Stratford is a bit like this, once you pass the glamour of Westfield and the Olympic Village housing complex

 

[Western Sunset]

Going back a bit; Derby (Nottingham Road)