Trivia: Stations that didn't justify reopening

[bluenoxid]

Dunston and Teesside Airport are two openings that have due to external factors not been a success. However, many of the recent reopening a have done quite well.

 

[thenorthern]

Dunston and Teesside Airport are two openings that have due to external factors not been a success. However, many of the recent reopening a have done quite well.

Dunston is getting better although pre December 2013 it was a bit of a waste of a re-opening.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I think Ashchurch struggled a bit ...as a Parkway ....(If not for local flows)

 

[Hornet]

List I have compiled regards Stations Opened/Reopened since beginning of Privatisation and their TOC's at 2015, (Plus some odds and ends Stations).

 

[thenorthern]

For may years I would say Dronfield fitted this category as it was very lightly served after re-opening in 1981 despite being on a major route into Sheffield.

What about Heysham Port? Served by 1 train a day to connect with a car ferries.

 

[Iskra]

For may years I would say Dronfield fitted this category as it was very lightly served after re-opening in 1981 despite being on a major route into Sheffield.

What about Heysham Port? Served by 1 train a day to connect with a car ferries.

Does a good summer trade.

Has one train per day, and is still only just below Dent on usage which has a lot more trains, so proportionately well used really.

 

[backontrack]

As for Haxby it was a busy station when it closed in 1930 and Haxby is now an affluent commuter village. I suspect that if it and Strensall were reopened the trains would struggle to cope with the number of passengers generated.

Only Haxby is being looked into, and it certainly should reopen!

List I have compiled regards Stations Opened/Reopened since beginning of Privatisation and their TOC's at 2015, (Plus some odds and ends Stations).

Thanks for the list, very useful.

 

[Groningen]

I do not see Cottingley station. It is below Bingley and Saltaire? Or is it somewhere else in the UK.

 

[Iskra]

I do not see Cottingley station. It is below Bingley and Saltaire? Or is it somewhere else in the UK.

It's in-between Morley and Leeds

 

[mirodo]

Having originally been closed in 1871, Croydon Central was reopened in 1886. It closed again 4 years later, having never really achieved any significant level of usage.

 

[Pinza-C55]

Only Haxby is being looked into, and it certainly should reopen!



Thanks for the list, very useful.

Haxby has been looked into for the last 15 years, usually in the run up to an election and usually accompanied by a photo of the local Conseervative MP.

 

[Ianigsy]

Cottingley is an odd one- for a number of years I thought that it should have been closed and a station opened at the back of the White Rose when that opened, but I guess the original point of the reopening was to improve access to the city centre from a run down council estate on the edge of Leeds and it would have been less than ten years old. Since then there's been a lot of development on the other side of the line at Churwell, but it's mid-range private housing and probably the sort of occupants who would take a lot to be tempted out of their executive saloons. Back on the Cottingley side, once the White Rose opened (with its associated bus station) a lot of the local services went to higher frequencies anyway so you can't blame residents for preferring a bus every ten minutes to an hourly train which may well be packed by the time it gets to Cottingley.

 

[bluenoxid]

I do not see Cottingley station. It is below Bingley and Saltaire? Or is it somewhere else in the UK.

Cottingley is just south of Leeds on the line to Huddersfield. It is located just north of the White Rose Centre.

You are not the first to make that error with the location. Even people supposed to be working at Cottingley station have turned up very confused at that point in the Aire Valley.

 

[me123]

Falls of Cruachan could possibly be a contender. Reopened in 1988, it doesn't serve a significant actual community, is only open for part of the year, and the passenger numbers have failed to reach the dizzy heights of 500 per annum. I might get some hardcore hikers up in arms, and I've no doubt them at there's plenty of fantastic reasons to go walking there, but clearly those who do visit ain't going by rail!

 

[LowLevel]

For may years I would say Dronfield fitted this category as it was very lightly served after re-opening in 1981 despite being on a major route into Sheffield.

What about Heysham Port? Served by 1 train a day to connect with a car ferries.

That was down to the paltry service though - as soon as it got a decent one figures went through the roof. The platforms are always very busy going into Sheffield in the morning peak.

 

[Philip Phlopp]

Falls of Cruachan could possibly be a contender. Reopened in 1988, it doesn't serve a significant actual community, is only open for part of the year, and the passenger numbers have failed to reach the dizzy heights of 500 per annum. I might get some hardcore hikers up in arms, and I've no doubt them at there's plenty of fantastic reasons to go walking there, but clearly those who do visit ain't going by rail!

Falls of Cruachan gets more visitors than the official ticket sale statistics reveal, with the power station offering free tours for those arriving by rail, it's a nice stopping off point for anybody on a Highland Rover or similar ticket.

 

[alex17595]

Falls of Cruachan gets more visitors than the official ticket sale statistics reveal, with the power station offering free tours for those arriving by rail, it's a nice stopping off point for anybody on a Highland Rover or similar ticket.

I went there for like an Hour in May, I did walk from Loch Awe though (and used a rover so no record of me!) . Each train I saw go past the station did stop though.

Maybe it should be marketed as a park and ride to Oban!

 

[Pinza-C55]

How often is a bus stop or a road closed due to lack of usage ?

 

[me123]

I went there for like an Hour in May, I did walk from Loch Awe though (and used a rover so no record of me!) . Each train I saw go past the station did stop though.

Maybe it should be marketed as a park and ride to Oban!

Given the length of diversion when the A85's closed (80 miles), that idea actually isn't as daft as you might think!

 

[12CSVT]

Ty Glas always seems an oddity. Opened in 1987, a mere 330 yards from Birchgrove station. To put things in perspective, the distance between the two stations is little more than half the length of the long platform at Gloucester.

 

[thenorthern]

How often is a bus stop or a road closed due to lack of usage ?

Bus stops are occasionally closed although its relatively uncommon.

Bus routes however are regularly withdrawn, I know that timetabled Bus services to Alton Towers are regularly changed with services being introduced and withdrawn at a moments notice.

 

[me123]

How often is a bus stop or a road closed due to lack of usage ?

The difference with a bus stop is that, if it's not being used, the bus simply won't stop! There's only a few cases (hospitals, railway stations, schools) where the bus will deviate from the main route to serve a stop, but in these instances it does so because the demand is there in the first place. Closing a poorly served bus stop on a normal route won't have any real effect. The cost of maintaining the stop once it's up and running is minimal - in fact, most of the smaller stops are just a sign on the side of the road and they surely require very minimal maintenance!

By contrast, railway stations must have higher operating costs and, of course, stopping a train at an unused station can consistently add quite a bit of time to your journey.

 

[Amberley54]

Bus routes however are regularly withdrawn, I know that timetabled Bus services to Alton Towers are regularly changed with services being introduced and withdrawn at a moments notice.

I thought an operator had to give a statutory period of notice to withdraw a service?

 

[fairysdad]

. . .in fact, most of the smaller stops are just a sign on the side of the road and they surely require very minimal maintenance!

A lot of bus stops in rural areas aren't even that - they're just somewhere that people know the bus will stop at! (The bus stop in the village I grew up in was somebody's driveway one way, or a garage forecourt the other!)

By contrast, railway stations must have higher operating costs and, of course, stopping a train at an unused station can consistently add quite a bit of time to your journey.

Wouldn't that be where request stops come in to play? Often, the only cost I can think of would be maintaining the platform structure and a couple of signs (neither of which, I agree, may be cheap!). Maybe a bus shelter if you're lucky.

 

[Altnabreac]

Falls of Cruachan could possibly be a contender. Reopened in 1988, it doesn't serve a significant actual community, is only open for part of the year, and the passenger numbers have failed to reach the dizzy heights of 500 per annum. I might get some hardcore hikers up in arms, and I've no doubt them at there's plenty of fantastic reasons to go walking there, but clearly those who do visit ain't going by rail!

I've been twice in the last few years. Once climbing the Cruachan Horseshoe and the second time taking my wee boy on the Power Station tour (thoroughly recommended).

I suspect there is more usage than the numbers reflect as people may be visiting both on rovers and as an intermediate stop on a Glasgow - Oban ticket as my power station visit was.

 

[thenorthern]

I thought an operator had to give a statutory period of notice to withdraw a service?

Depends on the service I think.

 

[onlinespotting]

Depends on the service I think.

The 32 group of services (32a, X32 serve Alton Towers, 32 follows an alternate route) have a summer and winter timetable, summer sees more 32a's, winter more 32s etc...

In the past year , however , this group of services has seen many changes other than the seasonal ones, and at times it has been with as little as a weeks notice. Additionally snow and ice also lead to cancellations of the Alton Towers route.

There has been talk of reopening the railway to Alton, Staffs recently, part of which is a heritage railway, part is overgrown tracks

 

[thenorthern]

The 32 group of services (32a, X32 serve Alton Towers, 32 follows an alternate route) have a summer and winter timetable, summer sees more 32a's, winter more 32s etc...

In the past year , however , this group of services has seen many changes other than the seasonal ones, and at times it has been with as little as a weeks notice. Additionally snow and ice also lead to cancellations of the Alton Towers route.

There has been talk of reopening the railway to Alton, Staffs recently, part of which is a heritage railway, part is overgrown tracks

There was one from Swadlincote via Burton upon Trent and Uttoxeter to Alton Towers for a couple of weeks this year but it was withdrawn because lack of usage. There used to be an Alton Towers operated bus as well that had routes to Uttoxeter and Stoke-on-Trent which local residents were also allowed to use but it was withdrawn for the same reason. Most people in the Uttoxeter/Cheadle area though rely on cars so buses will never work.

I can't see an Alton Towers station ever re-opening though as the route it would have to take would be so long with low speed limits. If it did re-open though it could end up on here as Stations that didn't justify reopening.

Back to the topic in hand though Corby's 1987 station can go on the list, it was not a bad station and carried a fairly large number of passengers but Corby Council withdrew its subsidy and it closed after 3 years. I am not saying the new station shouldn't have opened but I think it should have more northbound services using it.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The OP mentioned Low Moor. I'm rather sceptical about how successful that station will be, especially with only 1 tph.

 

[Gwenllian2001]

Ty Glas always seems an oddity. Opened in 1987, a mere 330 yards from Birchgrove station. To put things in perspective, the distance between the two stations is little more than half the length of the long platform at Gloucester.

Things are not always what they seem if you just measure the distance by rail. Ty Glas serves an entirely different catchment area to Birchgrove. The Tax Office and other commercial premises, clustered around Ty Glas, are a surprisingly long and indirect way, on foot, from Birchgrove.