[Trivia] Smallest Stations in the Biggest Towns (or Cities)?

[Eskimo]

I used to hold a belief that the bigger a places’ station was, the more important or massive the town was. As if platform count equated to the settlements’ status, in a sort of top-trumps kind of way. I was a kid, after all!

But seemingly this belief has resurfaced today, here in The Potteries, and I’m now wondering if there’s anywhere that ‘trumps’ it?

Stoke-on-Trent station has 3 platforms (younger me would see that as rubbish!) yet the population of the City of Stoke-on-Trent* is, as of 2022, around 260,000.

That’s a platform to people ratio of: 1platform to 86,666 people.

*Now I know Stoke’ is technically not a city in the traditional sense of the word, more of a collection of towns forming a larger urban area, including some that have their own smaller stations.. but for simplicity and the sake of starting this trivia thread, we’ll go with a lenient approach to ‘city’ and say that the ‘main’ station is the one that ‘counts’.

Can any settlements in Britain beat that ratio? (Obviously the lower the amounts of platforms here the better - as I’m sure a larger city with more platforms can probably beat that ratio despite having 7+ platforms!)

Current rankings:

1. Sunderland
Population: 277,000
Platforms 2 (for this debate)
Ratio: 1 to 138,500

2. Leicester
Population: 373,000
Platforms: 4
Ratio: 93,250

3. Stoke
Population: 260,000
Platforms: 3 (Stoke-on-Trent)
Ratio: 1 to 86,666

4. Coventry
Population: 345,000
Platforms: 4
Ratio: 1 to 86,250

5. Redditch
Population: 82,000
Platforms 1
Ratio: 1 to 82,000

6. Telford
Population: 156,000
Platforms: 2
Ratio: 1 to 78,000

7. Corby
Population: 76,000
Platforms: 1
Ratio: 1 to 76,000

8= Middlesborough
Population: 150,000
Platforms: 2
Ratio: 1 to 75,000

8= East Kilbride
Population: 75,000
Platforms: 1
Ratio: 1 to 75,000

9. Poole
Population: 141,000
Platforms: 2
Ratio: 1 to 70,500

10. Southampton
Population: 252,000
Platforms: 4
Ratio: 1 to 63,000

11= Cheltenham Spa
Population: 120,000
Platforms: 2
Ratio: 1 to 60,000

11= Swansea
Population: 241,000
Platforms: 4
Ratio: 1 to 60,000

12. Merthyr Tydfil
Population: 59,000
Platforms: 1
Ratio: 1 to 59,000

13= Chelmsford
Population: 110,000
Platforms: 2
Ratio: 1 to 55,000

13= Mansfield
Population: 110,000
Platforms: 2
Ratio: 1 to 55,000

13= Wakefield
Population: 110,000
Platforms: 2
Ratio: 1 to 55,000

14. Worcester
Population: 104,000
Platforms: 2 (Foregate Street)
Ratio: 1 to 52,000

15. Bath
Population: 94,000
Platforms: 2
Ratio: 1 to 47,000

16. Oxford
Population: 160,000
Platforms: 4
Ratio: 1 to 40,000

17. Burton upon Trent
Population: 77,000
Platforms: 2
Ratio: 1 to 38,500

18. Blackburn
Population: 120,500
Platforms: 4
Ratio: 1 to 30,125

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Don't think it beats your example, but Middlesbrough springs to mind as somewhere rather large with only 2 platforms.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Cheltenham. Two platforms. Population of just under 120,000.

Warrington Central. Two platforms. 212,000, although it does have Bank Quay.

 

[A S Leib]

The recent thread on settlements of over 10,000 people without a station has lots of examples of 1:infinity ratios.

Excluding those, Chelmsford (urban area of ~110,000) has the busiest two-platform station outside London (I think), and Derry~Londonderry has two platforms as well for an urban area of 100,000 and a metro area of 240,000.

 

[Eskimo]

Don't think it beats your example, but Middlesbrough springs to mind as somewhere rather large with only 2 platforms.

Yeah that’s a great example. Looks to be around 150,000 people, so a clean ratio of 1ptf to 75,000!

 

[NSE]

I’ve always thought Oxford quite understated in railway terms, for the importance of the city in general. Only three platforms until recently (I think the extra bay came with Chiltern’s arrival?). Not my neck of the woods, but for only four platforms, seems like it should have more.

 

[Eskimo]

Cheltenham. Two platforms. Population of just under 120,000.

Warrington Central. Two platforms. 212,000, although it does have Bank Quay.

Cheltenham is a great shout, a decent ratio of 1ptf to 60,000.

Might be a debate on Warrington though. Both Central and Bank Quay are important and inter city.. Central would take the crown at 1ptf to 106,000 people though!

 

[A S Leib]

Even if Sunderland counts as the four platforms it's numbered as rather than the two platform faces it has, that's not a lot for a city of a quarter of a million people.

 

[Bill57p9]

Blackpool South?
Or does the presence of Blackpool North negate it?

 

[Eskimo]

I’ve always thought Oxford quite understated in railway terms, for the importance of the city in general. Only three platforms until recently (I think the extra bay came with Chiltern’s arrival?). Not my neck of the woods, but for only four platforms, seems like it should have more.

Especially when compared with Cambridge, which I suspect a few would do.

Looks to be 1ptf to 40,000 in 2022 population terms!

 

[Bill57p9]

Swansea only has 2 platforms for a population of 241000

 

[ValleyLines142]

Swansea only has 2 platforms for a population of 241000

Swansea has 4 platforms.

 

[Eskimo]

Even if Sunderland counts as the four platforms it's numbered as rather than the two platform faces it has, that's not a lot for a city of a quarter of a million people.

Are there ways to switch lines between the two consecutive platforms? Or is it a case of a longer platform split into two signalling sections thus allowing two trains on the same platform at the same time?

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Blackpool South?
Or does the presence of Blackpool North negate it?

Unfortunately yes. North is by far the more important nowadays.. down to 6 now I believe?

 

[A S Leib]

East Kilbride (75,000) and Merthyr Tydfil (40,000) have one platform each.

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Are there ways to switch lines between the two consecutive platforms? Or is it a case of a longer platform split into two signalling sections thus allowing two trains on the same platform at the same time?

No; it's a continuous island platform.

 

[Eskimo]

East Kilbride (75,000) and Merthyr Tydfil (40,000) have one platform each.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Saturday at 22:16 ==


No; it's a continuous island platform.

Tapping into the inner kid, I’d declare Sunderland a fraud and have it as two, but how do you view it, more importantly? It’s shared with the Metro which probably complicates matters.

 

[A S Leib]

Functionally I'd say that Sunderland has two. Looking at realtimetrains for this Monday, the metro exclusively uses platforms 1 and 3, Northern 1 and 4 and Grand Central doesn't use 3 in passenger service, but I'm not sure if any of those are always the case.

 

[Magdalia]

Especially when compared with Cambridge, which I suspect a few would do.

Cambridge is rapidly increasing its number of platforms. 15 years ago it had 6, by early next year it will have 15 at 3 different stations!

 

[Hophead]

If I understand this correctly, Southampton is towards the top of this league, with 4 platforms and a population of just over 250,000.

 

[Palmerston]

Leicester has 4 platforms and about 380,000 people.

 

[Magdalia]

Excluding those, Chelmsford (urban area of ~110,000) has the busiest two-platform station outside London (I think)

Chelmsford is the third busiest station in the East of England with 6.5 million entrances and exits, 2.8 million of which are to/from Liverpool Street.

Though it will be getting Beaulieu Park soon.

I'd nominate Stansted Airport, even though it isn't strictly a town or city. Stansted Airport is the second busiest station in the East of England, with 9.3 million entries and exits. The station is an inadequate hole in the ground with only 3 platforms, one of which is only 106 metres long.

 

[Merthyr Imp]

Crawley - 2 platforms, pop. 119,000
Mansfield - 2 platforms, pop. 111,000

 

[MadMac]

East Kilbride (75,000) and Merthyr Tydfil (40,000) have one platform each.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Saturday at 22:16 ==

For East Kilbride, though, there’s two stations with a total of three platforms if you include Hairmyres.

 

[A S Leib]

Chelmsford is the third busiest station in the East of England with 6.5 million entrances and exits, 2.8 million of which are to/from Liverpool Street.

Which is why I specified the busiest with two platforms; Cambridge and Stansted Airport have more.

 

[Captain Bigwig]

Are we just looking at the "main" station for each location? And if so, can anyone tell me what the main station is in London? (pop 8.8 million)

 

[A S Leib]

Waterloo has the most platforms in London with 24 National Rail and eight Tube; King's Cross / St. Pancras combined, if you count it, wins with 26 National Rail and eight Tube.

 

[Brubulus]

Crawley - 2 platforms, pop. 119,000
Mansfield - 2 platforms, pop. 111,000

When you take into account service levels, I think Mansfield wins this hands down. Remember Cambridge only had 1* through platform until the end of 2011.
Longton is within Stoke and has 2 platforms, though it's not really a Stoke station.

Redditch has a single platform and a population of 87,037 , so I think it wins this.

 

[Omnidekkalover]

Burton on Trent has 76,270 with two platforms. Could mention Corby too with one platform for 75,571 people

 

[ChrisC]

When you take into account service levels, I think Mansfield wins this hands down.

I agree. Mansfield has a population of 110,000 and the station has just 2 platforms. However, since EMR introduced reduced timetables during Covid, except for a couple of peak time extras, Mansfield only has 1tph each way Monday to Fridays. Due to very bad overcrowding the 2tph service has been reintroduced on Saturdays.

 

[Omnidekkalover]

Depends if you include Mansfield woodhouse station alongside Mansfield which would bring Mansfield as a whole town to five platforms

 

[class ep-09]

Bath ?
2 platforms and quite sizeable town / city / urban area.