Trivia: Urban Areas with poor suburban services

[thenorthern]

I know its not a recognized Urban Area as such but Gateshead and Washington are both rather poor to be honest in my opinion. I know Gateshead does have the Tyne and Wear Metro but it only serves areas close to the River Tyne and the entire southern end of Gateshead is without any rail link. The western part of Gateshead has a number of stations but the only other part of Gateshead they connect to is Heworth which involves a detour through Newcastle and of the 3 West Gateshead stations only MetroCentre has a good service. Washington though of course doesn't have any rail link.

 

[dave12435]

How about the urban area of Lincoln the urban area comprises the city and places like Hykeham, Scampton, Bracebridge Heath, Canwick, Washingborough, Waddington, Birchwood along with many other smaller villages around the edges yet they basically have Lincoln Central, Hykeham and Saxilby serving a sizeable area and it only recent year that the direct services to London have been reinstated. That and Sategcoach have cute back bus services in the city and urban and suburban area a lot

 

[edwin_m]

1960s? More like 1990s, I'd have thought - and they were still building on trackbeds even then.

Perhaps I should have said that road traffic was increasing in the 60s but most people with any influence on transport policy thought that was the way of the future and it would just be a question of building enough roads to accommodate it. In the 70s it was realised this wouldn't work for the larger cities, whose surviving commuter rail networks started to be gradually developed. Probably right to say that this view didn't gain traction for smaller cities until the 1990s, when the view that new roads create congestion became more widely (but still not fully!) accepted.

 

[DarloRich]

What's the issue now? Paths, or a reluctance to provide it now when it'll be taken away again with East West Rail?

both plus any other excuse you like

It mainly centers around having a unit block up P5 at Bletchley for any length of time as this forms the only southern access to the carriage sidings.

That does, of course, assume the timetable would remain as it stands today........

EDIT: It is the same battle getting the unit in there in service on a regular basis.

 

[dysonsphere]

Weren't there issues with the Potteries loop line in terms of restricted clearances and the like? I'd hazard a guess that had it survived the Beeching era it would have been a strong contender for conversion to tramway or light-rail.


AIUI the city of Stoke-on-Trent is in reality an amalgamation of several smaller overlapping towns, the traditional commercial centre being Hanley which is a fair distance from Stoke station. The present day Stoke station would struggle to support a suburban network in addition to the current regional and intercity services I'd have thought.

There were definitly problems at Hanley station with the curve radius and as I recall larger locos and Mk 1`s were barred from normal use, however it was used for diversions when the mainline was closed so not to bad I guess,

 

[mlambeuk]

York has only 2 stations

 

[AM9]

Norwich has an increasing urban area but just one station which does not have the best approach to the city anyway. The developments to the west of the city along the Fakenham and Swaffam roads are about 6-7 miles from the city centre but some of the the recommennded routes send drivers around the A47 southern bypass totalling 13 miles before tackling the hopeless inner ring road, a legacy of Norwich's Saxon market town origins.
The Fakenham line and old city stationterminus , were it still in existence (closed in 1959), could form the basis of local services to both those areas with limited new track.