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Trivia: Currently-open stations where closure has been mooted post-privatisation

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backontrack

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Which currently-open stations on the network have had closure suggested since privatisation?

Beltring and Swale both had closure proposed in 2005 by the Strategic Rail Authority.
 
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swt_passenger

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Are you limiting this question to officially published closure proposals that never happened? Cos if you make it clear now, it’ll avoid an unnecessary list of the closures that did go through...
 

backontrack

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Are you limiting this question to officially published closure proposals that never happened? Cos if you make it clear now, it’ll avoid an unnecessary list of the closures that did go through...
Nice spot, thanks. I've edited the title of the thread in response to it.
 

Dr Hoo

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Welwyn North seems to be 'popular' suggestion with some.

Several people have wondered why Newhaven Harbour wasn't closed along with Newhaven Marine (given that it no longer serves the Harbour).
 

Ianno87

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Breich recently.


I recall that the future of Ardwick, Reddish South and Denton were 'discussed' in the North West Route Utilisation strategy in about 2007.
 
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Hadders

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IBM is still officially open but doesn't have any trains calling.
 

hexagon789

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IBM's shut formally, hasn't it?

But yes, Breich for sure has been touted for closure.

Cricklewood is another one.
As Hadders notes - IBM is not actually closed, just nothing calls there.

Hopefully the development in the area does go ahead and then IBM will get trains stopping again.

Breich is one which has undergone changed fortunes. It used to be Carfin which only had the limited service, though not as bad as one train, then for some reason it swapped to Breich
 

Bletchleyite

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Breich strikes me that someone didn't look at the map when picking where it should go!

1609195096964.png

Why on earth would you not put it near the village rather than in the middle of a field?

Edit: ah, the village looks quite new - perhaps it was that that was put in the wrong place! :)
 

Bletchleyite

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Though it is worthy of note that once the decision was made not to close it, it was completely rebuilt as new - might have made sense to do that about a kilometre further north and maybe people might use it! :)
 

hexagon789

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Though it is worthy of note that once the decision was made not to close it, it was completely rebuilt as new - might have made sense to do that about a kilometre further north and maybe people might use it! :)
Wasn't that considered but ruled out for some reason? Or am I confusing it with something else?
 

yorksrob

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Which currently-open stations on the network have had closure suggested since privatisation?

Beltring and Swale both had closure proposed in 2005 by the Strategic Rail Authority.

My Gran lived near Beltring, so I could have used it in my youth, however Yalding turned out to be nearer, so I used that instead.

Isn't Beltring near the Whitbread Hop Farm attraction (a fixture of my childhood, albeit car based).
 

61653 HTAFC

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If the (ludicrous IMO) White Rose Centre station goes ahead, it will almost certainly spell the end for Cottingley or at the very least reduce that station to a Parliamentary type service... however, nobody from Leeds City Council is being very open about this, presumably because of all those new houses that attracted a premium for having a station on the doorstep.
 

yorksrob

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If the (ludicrous IMO) White Rose Centre station goes ahead, it will almost certainly spell the end for Cottingley or at the very least reduce that station to a Parliamentary type service... however, nobody from Leeds City Council is being very open about this, presumably because of all those new houses that attracted a premium for having a station on the doorstep.

I actually commuted to Cottingley for a couple of years. I successfully lobbied Metro to reinstate a dropped morning service at one point.

I wasn't often the sole passenger getting on/off as I recall, although this was a few years back.
 

61653 HTAFC

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I actually commuted to Cottingley for a couple of years. I successfully lobbied Metro to reinstate a dropped morning service at one point.

I wasn't often the sole passenger getting on/off as I recall, although this was a few years back.
Well played on that front, just a shame the PTEs are basically toothless these days. I've posted before about the issues with White Rose Centre, so I won't go into an extended rant about it again... but if I'd bought one of those new houses I'd be very concerned about the future of Cottingley if WRC goes ahead. Just about everything about the proposal is flawed and I hope our future elected West Yorkshire mayor will have the authority to hold Leeds City Council to account over their duplicitousness.
 

xotGD

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I actually commuted to Cottingley for a couple of years. I successfully lobbied Metro to reinstate a dropped morning service at one point.

I wasn't often the sole passenger getting on/off as I recall, although this was a few years back.
There are a few folk who commute to Cottingley and then walk down to the White Rose office park or other employers in the area. In normal times, that is. I'm one of them.
 

yorksrob

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I've posted before about the issues with White Rose Centre, so I won't go into an extended rant about it again... but if I'd bought one of those new houses I'd be very concerned about the future of Cottingley if WRC goes ahead. Just about everything about the proposal is flawed and I hope our future elected West Yorkshire mayor will have the authority to hold Leeds City Council to account over their duplicitousness.

I kind of agree. I used to work near the White Rose Centre, and whilst it was a big shopping centre, the shops were very same old, same old compared to what you'd get in any other medium sized town centre. It seems difficult to see why anyone would want to catch a train there, particularly when Leeds City Centre has been developed as such a high end/specialist retail destination.

Ballsing up the trans Pennine main line with a station there would serve no purpose IMO.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

There are a few folk who commute to Cottingley and then walk down to the White Rose office park or other employers in the area. In normal times, that is. I'm one of them.

I suppose the office park is a bit more of a trek than where I worked.
 

bramling

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Welwyn North seems to be 'popular' suggestion with some.

Several people have wondered why Newhaven Harbour wasn't closed along with Newhaven Marine (given that it no longer serves the Harbour).

Welwyn North was certainly in GNER’s sights for closure in the late 1990s, though never to a point where it became a serious proposal.
 

61653 HTAFC

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I kind of agree. I used to work near the White Rose Centre, and whilst it was a big shopping centre, the shops were very same old, same old compared to what you'd get in any other medium sized town centre. It seems difficult to see why anyone would want to catch a train there, particularly when Leeds City Centre has been developed as such a high end/specialist retail destination.

Ballsing up the trans Pennine main line with a station there would serve no purpose IMO.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==



I suppose the office park is a bit more of a trek than where I worked.
You're echoing many of my concerns here. Up until the current situation, WRC itself has had a bit of investment and has improved a little, but it still has nothing on Leeds city centre itself, and for indoor malls can't compete with Meadowhall either. Besides which, the idea is apparently that the station will be focused on the office park more than the mall... in which case it shouldn't be named after the shopping centre. The equivalent would be if instead of building Meadowhall Interchange, Sheffield council had just renamed Brightside and called it a day.
 

yorksrob

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You're echoing many of my concerns here. Up until the current situation, WRC itself has had a bit of investment and has improved a little, but it still has nothing on Leeds city centre itself, and for indoor malls can't compete with Meadowhall either. Besides which, the idea is apparently that the station will be focused on the office park more than the mall... in which case it shouldn't be named after the shopping centre. The equivalent would be if instead of building Meadowhall Interchange, Sheffield council had just renamed Brightside and called it a day.

I suppose I'm the wrong person to comment as I've never seen the overwhelming attraction of shopping centres. I'm always surprised when I get on the Hallam train at Sheffield and see as many, if not more passengers get on at Meadowhall.
 

61653 HTAFC

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I suppose I'm the wrong person to comment as I've never seen the overwhelming attraction of shopping centres. I'm always surprised when I get on the Hallam train at Sheffield and see as many, if not more passengers get on at Meadowhall.
We're drifting further off topic (apologies) but it's hard to overstate the negative impact Meadowhall has had on Sheffield city centre as a retail destination. Leeds hasn't suffered in the same way from White Rose, at least in part because WRC is more modestly sized. Indeed up until the pandemic Leeds city centre has grown into one of the country's leading retail draws, and it wasn't unheard of for London folks to book a train trip to Leeds so they could have more leisurely browse of Harvey Nick's than was possible in the capital. It's almost as if Leeds council are trying to screw themselves over by encouraging people to use White Rose instead... and that's before looking at the issues with capacity on that railway route.
 

nr758123

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I kind of agree. I used to work near the White Rose Centre, and whilst it was a big shopping centre, the shops were very same old, same old compared to what you'd get in any other medium sized town centre. It seems difficult to see why anyone would want to catch a train there, particularly when Leeds City Centre has been developed as such a high end/specialist retail destination.

Ballsing up the trans Pennine main line with a station there would serve no purpose IMO.
A few years back WYCA commissioned a study into the viability of 61 potential new station sites across West and North Yorkshire. White Rose Centre came in at a lowly 57th out of 61.
 

yorksrob

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We're drifting further off topic (apologies) but it's hard to overstate the negative impact Meadowhall has had on Sheffield city centre as a retail destination. Leeds hasn't suffered in the same way from White Rose, at least in part because WRC is more modestly sized. Indeed up until the pandemic Leeds city centre has grown into one of the country's leading retail draws, and it wasn't unheard of for London folks to book a train trip to Leeds so they could have more leisurely browse of Harvey Nick's than was possible in the capital. It's almost as if Leeds council are trying to screw themselves over by encouraging people to use White Rose instead... and that's before looking at the issues with capacity on that railway route.

That's an interesting insight. I like Sheffield centre generally, and hadn't realised that it had been damaged by Meadowhall (albeit I prefer architecture to shopping). I don't see why a City would damage itself in that way. Unless White Rose has changed massively in the last ten years since I've seen it, I can't see it challenging Leeds. It's quite suburban in nature.

A few years back WYCA commissioned a study into the viability of 61 potential new station sites across West and North Yorkshire. White Rose Centre came in at a lowly 57th out of 61.

Doesn't surprise me !
 

backontrack

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Abererch, Llandecwyn, Tygwyn, and Tonfanau were all earmarked for closure back in the 1990s, I think?
 

SeanG

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All of the stations Carlisle to Skipton were famously proposed for closure, along with the line.
 
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