Shimbleshanks
Member
Wasn't there a pier railway that was connected to the town's tramway system? Possibly the Isle of Man? Or did I just dream that?
On the Isle of Man, Peel and Ramsey both had railway lines to their harbours, but not for passengers as far as I know, and they weren't tramways.Wasn't there a pier railway that was connected to the town's tramway system? Possibly the Isle of Man? Or did I just dream that?
If we're going down this route, then the Hythe Pier Railway - since it connects with the Hythe Ferry at the pier head...The OP didn’t preclude light rail & tramways, so how about the Blackpool Tramway’s terminus at Fleetwood Ferry.
Is this the only light rail example still in existence?
(There must have been plenty in the past - Liverpool Pier Head tram terminus springs to mind)
And Birkenhead Tramways Woodside Terminus which was next to Woodside Station and Landing Stage and Wallasey Tramways Seacombe Terminus which was part of the Seacombe Ferry Terminal.The OP didn’t preclude light rail & tramways, so how about the Blackpool Tramway’s terminus at Fleetwood Ferry.
Is this the only light rail example still in existence?
(There must have been plenty in the past - Liverpool Pier Head tram terminus springs to mind)
Southport Pier has been closed for a year or so -" for safety reasons". The council is understood to be seeing if/how/when repairs can be afforded. Any extensive repairs would probably require removal of the rails.There are trips from Southend Pier, getting along there on the Pier railway.
Southport pier has had a railway along it for many years, and, a long time ago, had steamers sailing from the end. However the railway has been closed for a while, and the latest news is that the rail track is to be removed.
Yarmouth IW, unlike its Norfolk namesake, never had a Beach station. Its station was at the back of the town, about 10 minutes walk from the ferry. I don’t think it belongs in the OPs list even at a stretch.On the Isle of Wight, there was formerly a rail connection to Medina Warf, also Yarmouth Beach station, a short walk from the ferry.
If we are allowed tramways, can we include examples which were entirely stand-alone? As an example, there was once a very short line at Kippford in Galloway which connected a granite quarry via a self-acting inclined plane to a loading jetty on the Urr estuary. All long gone, though the inclined plane is still there in the form of a road leading to some houses and the jetty remains for use by the sailing club. In years gone by, there must have been a very significant number of similar arrangements to connect various industries to convenient transhipment points all around the UK.The OP didn’t preclude light rail & tramways, so how about the Blackpool Tramway’s terminus at Fleetwood Ferry.
Is this the only light rail example still in existence?
(There must have been plenty in the past - Liverpool Pier Head tram terminus springs to mind)
Your points about proximity are very well made and many airports are reasonably connected now. However, unless the locations have been fortuitous, the railways have tended to take a long time to develop routes to connect with airports. Just how long did it take to extend the Piccadilly line to Heathrow, never mind building the spur for the Heathrow Express? IIRC the railway crosses the end of the runway at Edinburgh, but a viable rail connection has taken a very long to come into being. It seems strange that the thinking which created the easy rail/shipping interchanges listed in this thread have not been carried forward readily to provide similar easy interchanges for air passengers as a matter of course.1 Reason for this is Commercial - railway companies often owned the Dock, ships, maritime lines or some combination thereof. Airports havent had the same close connection. Another reason is time - when the railways were being built, they could aim for suitable sites to build harbours. Whereas airports came after the railways but needed large areas of flat land so couldn't always be built immediately adjacent to a station.
Having said that, off the top of my head the following Airports have a mainline station either within or adjacent to the terminal:
Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester. Inverness has a station within walking distance.
Luton and Birmingham have people movers for a mainline rail station.
Edinburgh and City have light rail connections. Newcastle, Heathrow have metro connections.
Bristol, Liverpool, have direct bus links to a nearby mainline station.
I've certainly missed some links.
Given they said “station” rather than goods yard, I’m pretty sure that was implied. Would be a bit daft to list every single harbourside freight line - there must’ve been hundreds.I'm not sure if the OP meant solely passenger stations, most on the list below are goods-only locations:
Aberdovey Harbour
Faversham Creek branch
Bowaters Railway (now the Sittingbourne & Kemsley) - Ridham Dock
Chatham Dockyard branch
Sheerness Dockyard branch
Woolwich Arsenal internal rail system
Angerstein Wharf - still in operation
Ipswich Docks
Bristol Harbour
Gloucester Docks
Sharpness Docks
Sunderland - branches to both north and south sides of the Wear
Granton Harbour [passenger] (Edinburgh - Caledonian and North British both had lines)
Assorted locations in Cardiff, Newport and Barry
Does Tywyn Wharf count - narrow gauge to standard gauge
Porthmadog Harbour [passenger]
Apologies if any have already been mentioned.
The simple answer is that by the time Air Travel was of sufficient volume to make a rail connection viable, the car was a simpler method of connection. Rail connections were added once road connections had reached capacity.Your points about proximity are very well made and many airports are reasonably connected now. However, unless the locations have been fortuitous, the railways have tended to take a long time to develop routes to connect with airports. Just how long did it take to extend the Piccadilly line to Heathrow, never mind building the spur for the Heathrow Express? IIRC the railway crosses the end of the runway at Edinburgh, but a viable rail connection has taken a very long to come into being. It seems strange that the thinking which created the easy rail/shipping interchanges listed in this thread have not been carried forward readily to provide similar easy interchanges for air passengers as a matter of course.
Yarmouth Beach is actually at Great YarmouthYarmouth IW, unlike its Norfolk namesake, never had a Beach station. Its station was at the back of the town, about 10 minutes walk from the ferry. I don’t think it belongs in the OPs list even at a stretch.
I should have remembered that one, and Penzance, fond memories of disembarking from the Scillonian to catch the overnight sleeper to Paddington.Wasnt there a line from the Portsmouth Harbour station throat across a viaduct into the dockyard, with a station canopy for Queen Victoria to transfer to a ship to the IoW?
Possibly replaced a similar set up at Gosport?
And maybe a pier in Stokes Bay, south of Gosport?
AIUI Immingham was just a small and scattered village until the GCR constructed the docks.Immingham Eastern Jetty used by boat trains until closed in 1939.
Immingham Dock closed 1969.
Yes, post 34.Has anyone mentioned Neyland?
And Newham, Pentewan, Looe, Tregantle, Calstock, Padstow, Wadebridge, Newquay, Portreath, Hayle Wharves and Lelant....to add to those already mentioned.Penzance Station ran right up to the harbour until the part nearest the station was infilled to create car parking.
A spur led along the adjacent Albert Pier until the connection was severed in 1967.
See Cornwall Railway Society: Penzance area - as far as Marazion >>
See post #23, upthread.And Newham, Pentewan, Looe, Tregantle, Calstock, Padstow, Wadebridge, Newquay, Portreath, Hayle Wharves and Lelant....to add to those already mentioned.