Trivia: Most ridiculously named station in UK

[Howardh]

Ben Rhydding was called Wheatley until the Victorians built a large hydropathic hotel there. Wiki repeats a local tale that Ben Rhydding was the ancient name for Ilkley Moor, but as there is apparently no other evidence for this it is likely to be a name invented by the hotel to compete with the Scottish hydro hotels. It was even built apparently built in grand "Scottish baronial style", there's a picture on Wiki. The hotel paid for the station, but was demolished in the1950s.

Interesting!

 

[GatwickDepress]

If they were actually named Milton Keynes North and Milton Keynes South then I could see the point of Milton Keynes Central, but they are not so I don't.

You don't need to see the point. It serves Central Milton Keynes, so therefore Milton Keynes Central is a perfectly cromulent station name in its own right.

 

[swt_passenger]

Any station with 'Parkway' in its name. What is it supposed to mean? A park and ride for visiting the place? A station too far from town meaning you have to drive there if you are catching a train to somewhere else? Or just any old station with a very big car park?

Any of those three definitions can be correct. Parkway stations definitely do not all fulfil the same role.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

When I worked in a certain former TOC's call centre many years ago I used to annoy a particularly irritating colleague by changing the default origin and destination on his booking screen to the rather insulting "Swineshead" and "Broadbottom".

 

[37 418]

Crossmyloof

Comes from Gaelic Crois MoLiubha which means (St) MaelRubha's cross

 

[bramling]

Any of those three definitions can be correct. Parkway stations definitely do not all fulfil the same role.

And I wonder how many passengers actually have a clue about any of this? Just casually asked a friend what he thinks would be meant by a station name including the word parkway, and his response was he’d assume the station was situated on a main road called parkway. Says it all really.

 

[700007]

Acton Main Line should have been called Acton Gypsy Corner, as it's about 3 minutes away from the Gypsy Corner road junction on the A40.

Tottenham Court Road is a very misleading name for those who aren't good with their geography. I've seen many football fans try to find Tottenham Hotspur's football ground around there believe it or not when they're miles off (they want White Hart Lane or Northumberland Park stations - doesn't help that one isn't on the tube map, and the other one only came on it fairly recently). Even Tottenham Hale would've been a much closer guess.

Beaulieu Road isn't actually near any road called Beaulieu Road (please correct me if I'm wrong, I've tried to look for it a few times on a map), and is miles off the village of Beaulieu. In fair honesty I don't know what you'd call it? Hatchet Lane?

And Llanfair PG, of course.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Runcorn and Bromborough need some sort of suffix to differentiate themselves from the more recently opened stations at Runcorn East and Bromborough Rake.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

How about Birmingham New Street? Yes, it's in Birmingham, but does not now (and as far as I can make out has not ever) been accessed from New Street.

 

[SwindonBert]

Bath Spa.

No one calls it that. It's Bath!

Ditto for Cheltenham Spa

 

[SwindonBert]

I am not sure if St Keyne Wishing Well Halt qualifies, or is it simply the best name on the network.

It's not in the village of St Keyne, looking at it closely, I don't think it's even in the parish

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Winnersh Triangle - not a triangle station...

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Surely nothing here is as ridiculous as this, between Brussels and Leuven?
View attachment 41080

Well there's Espoo in Finland (Esbo in Swedish), just outside Helsinki.
It's where Nokia (Microsoft) live, and is the second biggest city in Finland.

I used to correspond with a fellow astronomer in Erps-Kwerps, you had to think carefully writing the address.
It's a merged name for two adjacent villages.

 

[Mag_seven]

You don't need to see the point. It serves Central Milton Keynes, so therefore Milton Keynes Central is a perfectly cromulent station name in its own right.

Appreciate that it does serve central Milton Keynes but normally a station name ZZZ YYY implies there is more than one station starting ZZZ, hence the need for the YYY bit.

 

[Dr_Paul]

Winnersh Triangle - not a triangle station...

There's a Winnersh Triangle Industrial Estate nearby, perhaps it's named after that? There's another oddly-named station in that area, Martin's Heron, which, whilst it makes me think of Jim's Pigeon or Bobby's Penguin or other such combinations, is actually named after a large house of that name. The nearest settlement to it is Bullbrook, see this map .

 

[stut]

Paisley Canal can be somewhat confusing.

It's near Canal Street, although not that near Canal Street. The new station is certainly nowhere near as Canal Street as the original (given the site was filled in by housing after the Beeching Axe). However, the station is not named after Canal Street, but rather Canal Street is named after the canal that gave Paisley Canal its name. Which, of course, was the Ardrossan Canal, not the Paisley Canal. Well, it was the Ardrossan Canal, except it never reached Ardrossan. So it became the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal, which then became the Paisley Canal Line when converted to railway.

So the station was named after the feature that was converted to a railway after it had been renamed as it no longer met its original purpose, the reason for its conversion in the first place.

 

[JaJaWa]

Made it to Page 4 without the non-international Stratford International?

Stratford International is one stop away from Stratford on the DLR. Meanwhile St Pancras International and St Pancras are both used interchangeably on announcements for the same station.

 

[700007]

What is a Martins Heron?

 

[700007]

Made it to Page 4 without the non-international Stratford International?

Stratford International is one stop away from Stratford on the DLR. Meanwhile St Pancras International and St Pancras are both used interchangeably on announcements for the same station.

THIS WAS THE ONE THAT MY BRAIN WAS ITCHING TO REMEMBER! Gah, somebody beat me to this!

 

[EM2]

Made it to Page 4 without the non-international Stratford International?

Stratford International is one stop away from Stratford on the DLR. Meanwhile St Pancras International and St Pancras are both used interchangeably on announcements for the same station.

THIS WAS THE ONE THAT MY BRAIN WAS ITCHING TO REMEMBER! Gah, somebody beat me to this!

Er, post #19!

 

[och aye]

Edinburgh Gateway - a gateway to where?

 

[Howardh]

Edinburgh Gateway - a gateway to where?

Be nice if station names were truthful....
Bolton Are You Sure?
Westhoughton 1971
Clifton Nothing To See Here
Dent It's Miles From The Village
Arnside The Water's Dangerous
Grange-Over-65
Moses Gate Really?
etc....

 

[Josie]

Acton really takes the biscuit in terms of the stations serving it. All 4 compass points (North, West, and East Acton on the central line, and South Acton on the overground), Acton Town, Acton Central and Acton Main Line.
Renaming Acton Main Line to just 'Acton' would only cause confusion, and there aren't really any sensible names left!

Jonn from CityMetric suggested Acton Friary a couple of years ago (in the context of renaming all the Crossrail stations - Tottenham Court Road gets a mention here too).

 

[davetheguard]

Bath Spa.

No one calls it that. It's Bath!

Then you've got Wavertree Technology Park.

The "technology park" consists of a Barclays call centre and a few other office units, and a Matalan!

Of course you're right and plain "Bath" is the name of the place, but I always thought that "Spa" was the name of the individual station within Bath. Perhaps to differentiate from the Somerset & Dorset's Bath Green Park station? Don't know if I'm right or not, and if I am, I wonder why the Great Western (the pre 1948 one) didn't use their more usual suffix "General".

 

[Busaholic]

Rename West Hampstead East Kilburn and watch property prices drop 50%

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

I've always thought Wootton Wawen sounds like the noise your speakers made as an old cassette tape got jammed and came apart.

 

[PeterY]

Be nice if station names were truthful....
Bolton Are You Sure?
Westhoughton 1971
Clifton Nothing To See Here
Dent It's Miles From The Village
Arnside The Water's Dangerous
Grange-Over-65
Moses Gate Really?
etc....

Tring.... it's only two miles away.
Shippea Hill...no need for hill walking shoes but bring a weeks worth of food

 

[PeterY]

Acton really takes the biscuit in terms of the stations serving it. All 4 compass points (North, West, and East Acton on the central line, and South Acton on the overground), Acton Town, Acton Central and Acton Main Line.
Renaming Acton Main Line to just 'Acton' would only cause confusion, and there aren't really any sensible names left!

I often wonder if people have ever got confused with the other Acton station.....Acton Bridge.

 

[OverSpeed]

Around my way you've got Bermuda Park, no train goes to Bermuda, and there is no park there either! Tile Hill has no hills made of tiles, and there are no hills of snow at Birmingham snow hill!

 

[whittlesfordok]

The line is still there and they have talked of reopening it but would you call it Six mile bottom or after the biggest employer and the one with a helipad Dick Whites referral? There is talk of a parkway station Dicks Bottom parkway would be good