Trivia: worst connected cities?

[Tetchytyke]

And to those who would say that 6 trains per hour to the 'bigger city up the road' makes up for this, I would advise never to say this or otherwise conflate Leeds and Bradford if you are actually here!

I'm from Shipley.

Bradford Council should never have allowed the line via Cleckheaton to be closed. Once it was, Bradford was only ever going to be at the end of a branch line from Leeds (regardless of whether it's a loop branch line or two separate branch lines), with inevitable consequences. I don't think it is badly connected though. It's a bit annoying to always have to change east of Pudsey, but the trains there go everywhere you would want to go.

As for the population, only about half the City of Bradford is actually Bradford. The likes of Shipley, Bingley, Ilkley, Keighley, Denholme, Silsden, Addingham, Haworth and Queensbury are not seen as Bradford by their residents.

 

[Western Lord]

It hasn't though, has it?

http://trains.im/location/GCR/2014/03/24//PAD
http://trains.im/location/PAD/2014/03/24//GCR

Alternate hours filled by connections at Swindon or Bristol Parkway.

I was referring to long distance cross country services.

 

[34D]

extend Cardiff-Nottingham to Newark and Lincoln, giving direct links to Birmingham, Derby and beyond.

This would be interesting I feel
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Or alternatively Leicester/East Midlands region to Glasgow calling at Derby, Sheffield, Barnsley (selected services), Wakefield Kirkgate, Leeds, Skipton, Hellifield (to connect with extended services from Blackburn direction), Settle, Appleby, Carlisle, Motherwell, and Glasgow Central.

This would be similar to the original Midland Railway Thames Clyde express that ran years ago.

Wasn't there an open access proposal a little while to do this?

 

[FQ]

Hi,
I was just wandering if anyone is going on the tour The Southern Mule, http://www.pathfindertours.co.uk/index.php/event-list.html?day=20140526
or the Highland Clansman, http://www.compasstoursbyrail.co.uk...category_id=8&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=67
I am. If anyone is hopefully I will see you on them.

 

[TheWalrus]

extend Cardiff-Nottingham to Newark and Lincoln, giving direct links to Birmingham, Derby and beyond.

This would be interesting I feel
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Or alternatively Leicester/East Midlands region to Glasgow calling at Derby, Sheffield, Barnsley (selected services), Wakefield Kirkgate, Leeds, Skipton, Hellifield (to connect with extended services from Blackburn direction), Settle, Appleby, Carlisle, Motherwell, and Glasgow Central.

This would be similar to the original Midland Railway Thames Clyde express that ran years ago.

Wasn't there an open access proposal a little while to do this?

Yes Glasgow trains. I'm not sure how they are expecting the usage.

 

[Kite159]

Hi,
I was just wandering if anyone is going on the tour The Southern Mule, http://www.pathfindertours.co.uk/index.php/event-list.html?day=20140526
or the Highland Clansman, http://www.compasstoursbyrail.co.uk...category_id=8&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=67
I am. If anyone is hopefully I will see you on them.

*gets red carpet out for lovely tourists*

 

[thenorthern]

The best way to answer this is how many cities can be reached regularly from that city when regular lets say 4 time a day at least. With Sunderland I think its 3 (York, Newcastle and London and with Bradford its 5 I think (Wakefield, Leeds, York, Preston and Manchester).

 

[aelius]

Over the past few years, I've visited every Anglican cathedral in England. Remarkably of the 42 in England, all but 3 - Ripon, Southwell and Wells - can still be reached by railway. All the cathedrals are in cities except Blackburn, Bury St Edmunds, Guildford, Rochester, Southwark and Southwell.

 

[feline1]

Armagh

Yes I was going to say Armagh! It used to be very well connected, but the iniquitous Ulster Transport Authority closed all the lines in the 1950s, leaving it stranded

 

[Deerfold]

The best way to answer this is how many cities can be reached regularly from that city when regular lets say 4 time a day at least. With Sunderland I think its 3 (York, Newcastle and London and with Bradford its 5 I think (Wakefield, Leeds, York, Preston and Manchester).

Bradford has 5 services a day to London.

 

[34D]

I do love how this thread has degenerated into petty arguments about how certain places aren't proper cities.

Of those that are 'proper' cities, can we conclude Ripon, Sunderland and Bradford are the worst-connected (in that order)?

 

[feline1]

I do love how this thread has degenerated into petty arguments about how certain places aren't proper cities.

Of those that are 'proper' cities, can we conclude Ripon, Sunderland and Bradford are the worst-connected (in that order)?

I don't see how we can avoid concluding that Armagh is a 'proper' city.
Its rail services were cut because it had the temerity have a predominantly Catholic population (despite one of its two cathedrals being Protestant!) and because its rail lines headed further into predominantly Catholic areas and across the border into the Rep. of Ireland.
It was this kind of shameful behaviour by the Unionist government in Stormont during the 1950s and 60s that led pretty much directly to everyone having no alternative but to murder each other for the next 40 years. Still, we laugh about it now (Well, some of us do... #PeaceProcess)

 

[thenorthern]

For the purposes of Railways I wouldn't include Northern Ireland, there railways have become so separate to Great Britain's its almost a completely separate country for railways.

On the subject of connections I was in Stockport today which itself is not a city today and it made me think that this town has better links than Liverpool, Bradford, Sunderland, Norwich, Nottingham and many other cities.

 

[feline1]

For the purposes of Railways I wouldn't include Northern Ireland, there railways have become so separate to Great Britain's its almost a completely separate country for railways.

That's an interesting political view. You'd think commentators in the rest of the UK might learn something from the only part of the country where the railways have stayed in state ownership since Clem the Gem nationalised them in 1947.

 

[thenorthern]

That's an interesting political view. You'd think commentators in the rest of the UK might learn something from the only part of the country where the railways have stayed in state ownership since Clem the Gem nationalised them in 1947.

Its kind of true though, the regulations, tickets, trains and gauges are all different to Great Britain.

On a separate note its a good idea to weight cities according to their size to connections for example Bradford is slightly larger than Stoke-on-Trent but Stoke-on-Trent has much better links but it would be unfair to compare Stoke-on-Trent and Lichfield as Stoke-on-Trent is about 10 times the size of Lichfield.

 

[feline1]

Its kind of true though.

Truth alone would be unlikely to protect you if you expressed such a view to a DUP voter

 

[northwichcat]

On the subject of connections I was in Stockport today which itself is not a city today and it made me think that this town has better links than Liverpool, Bradford, Sunderland, Norwich, Nottingham and many other cities.

The thing to note about Stockport is many local lines have services which stop there meaning that without the regional and Intercity trains stopping there a lot of people would needlessly travel northbound in to Piccadilly and then back south to Stockport, which will then make overcrowding on trains and also track capacity between Stockport and Manchester more of a problem.

You mention Liverpool which has Liverpool South Parkway nearby which with the exception of Liverpool-London services is a calling point for all services that go that way (the platforms are too short to allow Liverpool-London services to stop there.)

 

[Merseysider]

And if we are being strict about direct trains from this city to other cities, Salford comes out pretty crap.

I second that. Unless you're on a train to Manchester or going through Wigan, you have to change at least once to get virtually anywhere else in the country.

Liverpool is quite well connected in my opinion, an average of 7 tph to Manchester during the day, some of which carry on to further destinations. An hourly service to London isn't bad nor particularly great, (half-hourly if you include changing at Crewe) and, granted, its services to Scotland are non existent but it has 4tph to Chester. Could do with more Wigan services though

 

[Silversmith]

Wells?

Absolutely. I was on holiday in Somerset last year, and found that without a car, I was largely dependent on the bus service. Whilst they offered good frequency and it was a pleasant ride through the Mendip Hills from Bristol to Wells and beyond, I felt that hours were taken out of my day just getting to the places I wanted to visit - Glastonbury, Cheddar etc.

Is there any scope for reinstating portions of the Somerset-Dorset Railway? Is it being discussed? I think it's ridiculous that Wells (a cathedral city) and a town of the profile of Glastonbury (not just the Festival, but its status as a New Age mecca drawing visitors in) have not been connected to the railway network since the 1960's.