Trivia: Stations with the most long-distance railheadding (excluding Parkway stations)

[PTR 444]

Railheadding has become commonplace (pre-Covid at least) ever since the advent of the motor car and subsequent upgrades to specific railways. Before the 1960s, most rail passengers would only travel from their local station as it was impractical to go anywhere else, and many more places had their own station pre-Beeching. Nowadays, anyone with a car can drive to a more convenient station that better serves their needs, even if their own settlement has a station.

Parkway stations were specifically built for this purpose, but it would be interesting to find out how many without that distinction still serve this purpose, particularly those which take in passengers from other towns that have their own station.

As an example, Diss is the nearest station for a large catchment area in Suffolk. I would imagine it also takes in a fair few London passengers from Thetford and Beccles since it is usually quicker to drive to the station with the faster train, rather than get the slower train from the local station and have to change.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Might be difficult to tell across the whole GB network, but, pre-COVID, I've often driven to Chorley or Preston because from there you can get CDR fares onwards to Glasgow/Edinburgh, and on the way home later, it's usually quicker driving home from Preston/Chorley by car than using onward rail/Metrolink tram connections (and also because that'll be where I've left my car!)

 

[Dr Hoo]

Stanmore LUL (With people having driven down the M1 and other roads from towns with stations further north.)

More congestion/parking cost related than 'fast train'/journey time. Also simple Oyster-style ticketing/capping.

 

[paddy1]

Newark Northgate and Grantham. With populations of only around 30k but London journeys from both stations of around 700k per annum (pre covid) and the two towns being only 15 miles apart, it would appear that a significant number of those trips must generated by people living outside the towns who railhead to them to use fast trains to and from London.

 

[route101]

If I had a car I could drive to Motherwell and take a service to England or Edinburgh. Saves changing at Glasgow Central.

 

[WesternBiker]

Taunton is the effective railhead for much of central and west Somerset - the 1.5m entries and exits is pretty good for a town of 70,000. The fact that 75% are reduced price fares implies there's a lot of long-distance travel as opposed to commuting.

 

[Alex27]

Hanborough acts as a railhead for Woodstock and Witney, although depending on where you are going it may be worth tackling the traffic to get to Oxford itself

 

[Llandudno]

Hooton?
Cheap Merseyrail fares, huge cheap car park and 6 trains per hour to Liverpool.

No doubt plenty of north Wales residents use it owing to expensive, infrequent, short formed and unreliable TfW services!

 

[willgreen]

How do we define 'long-distance railheading'? E.g. I would suggest that the large majority of Alnmouth's passengers come from Alnwick and the surrounding area, but is that the sort of distance you're thinking of?

 

[PTR 444]

How do we define 'long-distance railheading'? E.g. I would suggest that the large majority of Alnmouth's passengers come from Alnwick and the surrounding area, but is that the sort of distance you're thinking of?

I was thinking much further than that, ideally 10 miles or more.

 

[hermit]

Stanmore LUL (With people having driven down the M1 and other roads from towns with stations further north.)

More congestion/parking cost related than 'fast train'/journey time. Also simple Oyster-style ticketing/capping.

Cockfosters serves the same purpose for parts of Hertfordshire.

 

[Springs Branch]

Stanmore LUL (With people having driven down the M1 and other roads from towns with stations further north.)

More congestion/parking cost related than 'fast train'/journey time. Also simple Oyster-style ticketing/capping.

Cockfosters serves the same purpose for parts of Hertfordshire.

I know several people who live up the M11 and swear by Epping LU for those exact reasons.

 

[chris_in_salop]

I'd guess Warwick Parkway would be in with a shout, but don't have figures to hand.

 

[bluenoxid]

Steeton and Silsden due to being in the WYMetro area and having a free car park. Passengers as far west as Preston and Blackburn.

 

[Ken H]

I'd guess Warwick Parkway would be in with a shout, but don't have figures to hand.

I used to live in Alcester. I railheaded from Warwick parkway(for London) Henley in Arden (for Brum) or Evesham (for London) Sometimes Alvechurch (for brum). Avoided Redditch & Stratford because of expensive parking. Live in upper ribblesdale now. Usually drive through settle to hellifield because of free parking and more trains.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Hanborough acts as a railhead for Woodstock and Witney

Hanborough, Charlbury and Kingham are all significant railheads, Charlbury being the busiest of the three.

 

[AY1975]

Newark Northgate and Grantham. With populations of only around 30k but London journeys from both stations of around 700k per annum (pre covid) and the two towns being only 15 miles apart, it would appear that a significant number of those trips must generated by people living outside the towns who railhead to them to use fast trains to and from London.

And possibly Retford for parts of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.

Macclesfield for Buxton and places on the Buxton line like Whaley Bridge and New Mills (which would otherwise involve changing at Stockport).

Derby, Stoke-on-Trent and Tamworth (and possibly Lichfield and Rugeley) for places like Uttoxeter and Burton-on-Trent.

Rugby, Northampton and Milton Keynes for places like Aylesbury, Great Missenden and Amersham (which have no rail services going anywhere further north than Aylesbury Vale Parkway).

 

[norbitonflyer]

Before the through services from Lincoln were introduced, (in 2019, eight years after they were supposed to have been) Newark (17 miles) was the railhead for many passengers from Lincoln. (Although some preferred the rather more salubrious station at Grantham). In some cases such railheading was unintentional, with people having to resort to taxis, or friends and family coming to the rescue, as a result of both LNER (and its predecessors) and EMR having a very lax attitude to honouring connections. (I was once told by an East Coast official in all seriousness after the doors of a train of Mark 4s were closed literally in the faces of passengers disgorging from a crush-loaded 153 that it only mattered that the train got to Kings Cross on time, not that seventy passengers would now be delayed by an hour (perish the thought that a special stop be put in any other service passing Newark in the mean time)

Once bitten, twice shy, and most of those people would next time drive to Newark - or even London.

Last time I travelled by train to Lincoln, back in 2019, sitting at the same table as me were three people travelling back to Lincoln from a business meeting in London. Despite being on the one train a day that did go to Lincoln, all three got off at Newark, because they had driven to Newark that morning.

The previous once-a-night direct train arrived in Lincoln after 9pm and returned at 7:30am - not exactly ideal for tourism! I don't know if travel patterns to/from Lincoln have changed since the introduction of a regular service (albeit only every two hours) which actually runs at times people visiting the city might want to use it, since my own reason for visiting the city died six months before the new service was introduced.

 

[miami]

Crewe has a lot of traffic from southwest cheshire villages (Tarporley, Bunbury, Tattenhall) - 10-15 miles, and I suspect from Middlewich (10 miles), and North Shrops (Market Drayton, although that might go to Stoke and Stafford, all three about 15 miles) for destinations you wouldn't drive to (mainly London).

 

[Halish Railway]

Macclesfield is a railhead for a large part of the Peak district/Derbyshire, with a lot of folk including those from Buxton choosing to drive there to get a train south rather than taking the train north to Stockport and changing there.

Although there is also a surprisingly large amount of people that get the train into Manchester from there. In my pre-COVID experience it seems like at least a third if not half of all passing on the Northern service from Stoke to Manchester boarded at Macclesfield. It’s just a shame that the second Northern path promised back in 2016 and included in the first May 2018 timetable (before it was ripped up) was never introduced.

 

[stuu]

Castle Cary is the main station for a big chunk of Somerset when heading long distances, including Glastonbury, Wells and Shepton Mallet.

 

[mjmason1996]

I suspect Peterborough is used quite heavily for this purpose. The station has a huge car park which (in pre-covid times anyways) was always full.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Reading tends to be a railhead for anywhere south of Oxford/High Wycombe, west of Slough, east of Thatcham/Didcot and north of Basingstoke for long distance, despite the extortionate parking prices.

 

[Ianno87]

I'd guess Warwick Parkway would be in with a shout, but don't have figures to hand.

I suspect Banbury picks up a fair amount. I know somebody who routinely drives there from Worcester.

 

[Dr Hoo]

I suppose that it depends a bit on how you define 'railheading' but I suspect that many customers at St Erth may well have driven to Cornwall on holiday from (say) Leeds or wherever in a 4x4 and then make their only National Rail journeys of the year to St Ives and back (before being duly recorded in the National Travel Survey as 'rail users').

 

[AY1975]

Macclesfield is a railhead for a large part of the Peak district/Derbyshire, with a lot of folk including those from Buxton choosing to drive there to get a train south rather than taking the train north to Stockport and changing there.

So is Chesterfield. I would expect that a lot of people from places like Matlock choose to drive there to get a train north (or south too for that matter) rather than taking a train on the Matlock line and changing at Derby.

 

[507020]

So is Chesterfield. I would expect that a lot of people from places like Matlock choose to drive there to get a train north (or south too for that matter) rather than taking a train on the Matlock line and changing at Derby.

If only there was a through line between Buxton and Matlock. Then that would satisfy the requirements of people from Manchester travelling South and from Derby travelling North, as well as well as serving Bakewell in the middle.

 

[Irascible]

Taunton is the effective railhead for much of central and west Somerset - the 1.5m entries and exits is pretty good for a town of 70,000. The fact that 75% are reduced price fares implies there's a lot of long-distance travel as opposed to commuting.

Taunton is also a railhead for much of east Devon & west Dorset - if you want to get to London it's quicker to drive across the WoE line & go there, and of course if you want to go north there's not really another sensible option.

Tiverton Parkway is a railhead for all of N & E. Devon & practically all of Cornwall if you want a quicker journey, it's about an hour quicker to drive there than get on the train from much of Cornwall. It's a parkway because it's 8 miles from Tiverton, not because of the rest of it

 

[zwk500]

If only there was a through line between Buxton and Matlock. Then that would satisfy the requirements of people from Manchester travelling South and from Derby travelling North, as well as well as serving Bakewell in the middle.

But doesn't help anybody from Manchester, Buxton, Bakewell or Matlock intending to travel North from Ambergate. We've done the High Peak route to death on other threads.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

How about Lockerbie? Even the shortest hop from there (to Carlisle) is 25 odd miles, although most folk in the area will probably be travelling the 76 miles to Glasgow Central or the similar distance to Edinburgh Waverley, despite possibly living near the slower Carlisle/Dumfries/Kilmarnock/Glasgow line.