Stations which became the victim of circumstance

[richard1976]

Brightside, closed a few years after the nearby Meadowhall station opened

 

[M-Train]

Aldwych, perhaps? It was essentially a ruse….

 

[LUYMun]

Ongar would fit as a perfect candidate. An over-optimistic potential for Ongar to turn into a New Town must've rendered the electrification of that stretch of line useless.

 

[MarkRedon]

Removal of the Stockport-Stalybridge hourly service which was, prior to everything being moved to Piccadilly, a useful interchange between south and north Manchester services. With many TPEs going via Vic it would once again be fairly useful, though Stockport-Vic probably more so than Staly.

I used it to interchange Altrincham - S - S - Leeds every Friday evening and every Monday morning in the mid-70's. Bonus: the café-bar at Stalybridge, since service frequencies were very poor then.

 

[richard1976]

Fairlie Pier, closed because the ferry service had moved to Largs ?
Liverpool Riverside, closed when the transatlantic shipping ceased ?

 

[Lloyds siding]

There were still a few transatlantic sailings from Liverpool until December 1971. However Riverside station (and the link to the British Rail owned network was owned by Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. It was the MDHB that decided to close the station in 1970 (the last train was a troop train in February 1971).

 

[Springs Branch]

Pendleton Broad Street's once-healthy service level (for the time) declined down to a handful of trains per day after opening of Salford Crescent - a result of the centre-of-gravity of travel to the area moving towards Salford University, plus BR's decisions around infrastructure & resignalling associated with opening of the Windsor Link. Pendleton could have been developed as the interchange between Victoria and Oxford Road trains (with more elbow-room at the former four-platform site) if Crescent had not been built and the Brindle Heath - Agecroft line had stayed open in preference to the direct route from Bolton).

Pendleton really did become a "victim of circumstance" with an arson attack in 1994, after which the station was "temporarily" closed for four years until final closure in 1998.


Salford Central went full circle, from a historically busy station, down to trains only during M-F peaks (and only in the peak direction), dodging the closure bullet and back to all-day-every-day services today (and maybe platforms on the Chat Moss line), following regeneration in that part of Salford.

The original Godley station. Located on a railway junction that ceased to be a junction when one of the routes that branched off it was closed. Station was in due course renamed Godley East, services were reduced to a token (once weekly?) working and the station was eventually put out of its misery and closed.
Simultaneously, a more useable "new" / replacement Godley station was being built / opened half a mile away, closer to/adjacent to the main A57 road in the area.

A very similar thing happened on the Oldham Loop line at Royton Junction station. . . .
- Royton Junction was originally the junction station for short branch to Royton (surprisingly enough!)
- Branch line closed in 1966, Royton Junction stayed open & eventually re-named as just Royton (but was only really usefully situated as the former rail junction, and definitely not convenient for Royton)
- Derker station opened in 1985, ½ mile down the line & better positioned for local settlement.
- Royton (Junction) closed in 1987.
- Oldham/Rochdale line subsequently converted to Metrolink over the period 2009 - 2012.

 

[OuterDistant]

Wedgwood. The throngs of factory workers travelling there are long gone, and the remaining ones plus other visitors all drive.

 

[alangla]

Dalmarnock is an interesting one. Always pretty scruffy, limited opening times because it’s underground and needs continuous staffing, housing around it being cleared etc etc, a continued downward spiral. Then the Commonwealth Games happened, it got totally rebuilt at surface level at least and a new road made it far easier to walk to the new Emirates Arena and Celtic Park area. Add in new housing at the Athletes Village site and surrounds and it’s probably busier than ever.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Filton closed following the opening of the better located Filton Abbey Wood.

 

[Class800]

Broad Clyst (itself a centre of a naming argument, as the railways wanted and used this spelling, but the Post Office insisted on Broadclyst, and the village itself was therefore named Broadclyst) fell to Beeching - in 1966, as the downgrading of the West of England Line (singling of large sections west of Salisbury) resulted in the closure of several local stations. There remains to this day a hamlet of Broadclyst Station (note the spelling is not as the railway wanted). Today there is little to see. The line continues to pass the site. The station building is in private use, and no longer is that recognisable as a station. A small trading estate uses the area of the former goods yards. In 1998, the House of Commons discussed a proposal to re-open the station in response to new housing developments in the area, but ultimately these discussions led to a new station further up the line at Cranbrook. This replaces the Broad Clyst stop in terms of its line positioning between Pinhoe and Whimple, but has through London trains, while Broad Clyst was served by local stations part-line shuttles

 

[Falcon1200]

Another football-related one, Ramsline Halt built to serve Derby County's Baseball ground. The ground is no longer there, and only four trains ever stopped at the station !

 

[mrcheek]

Parson Street in Bristol saw its use decline dramatically as the tobacco factories declined.
At one point barely anything stopped there. Now the hourly service has returned, its much better used

 

[xotGD]

Manors became a shadow of its former self after the Metro opened.

 

[SargeNpton]

Is it a structural or economic development that's affected this railway halt/station?

Thought the temporary (maybe permanent?) closure was ostensibly due to supposed health and safety concerns raised by the football club.

The Manchester United station closed after the Manchester Arena bombing, the reason being given as safety concerns for the numbers arriving by train all in one go within the environs of the stadium without being able to do bag searches.

 

[Whisky Papa]

Did Park station, Newton Heath, close because of the decline of industrial works in the area? I seem to remember there being a factory immediately to the north of the station.

Yes, Mather & Platt had a very large foundry there. It was the subject of a 1943 work by LS Lowry.

 

[GordonT]

Singer Works station - included in the Glasgow North Clyde electrification c. 1960 and closed in 1967 due to the decline of sewing machine manufacture. Had 6 bay platforms at one time, previously called Kilbowie Road (Old).

 

[miklcct]

Similarly Blackpool Central. A victim of the motor car and later the reduction in appeal of British seaside holidays with the coming of first affordable charter flights and then low cost airlines.

How do flights and low cost airlines relevant to people who have British seaside holidays? It's impossible to take a flight from London to Blackpool, right?

Or do you mean people no longer want to have British seaside holidays?

 

[krus_aragon]

That, and most of the Conwy Valley line, was a victim of circumstance from the moment it opened. The line's on the wrong side of the river. It would have been more difficult to put it down the other side, so what you've always had is very lightly used stations in inconvenient locations, unfortunately.

The two larger intermediate towns (Llanrwst, Betws y Coed) are reasonably well served, but yeah, the rest isn't. The big motivation for the line was freight, of course: breaking the Ffestiniog Railway's monopoly on slate from Blaenau.

 

[Western Sunset]

Spondon - used to see heavy traffic to the (now closed) Celanese works - even had a bay platform for trains starting there.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

You can add Holborn Viaduct (replaced by City Thameslink), and the Stratford-North Woolwich branch stations (replaced by Crossrail one day).
Reading Southern was absorbed into Reading General (and then became its new concourse).
Several terminal stations were relocated in lesser form away from their original site so they could be sold/redeveloped.

 

[Mikey C]

You can add Holborn Viaduct (replaced by City Thameslink), and the Stratford-North Woolwich branch stations (replaced by Crossrail one day).
Reading Southern was absorbed into Reading General (and then became its new concourse).
Several terminal stations were relocated in lesser form away from their original site so they could be sold/redeveloped.

And the DLR branch to Woolwich

 

[steamybrian]

Dover Western Docks closed following opening of the Channel Tunnel followed later by Folkestone Harbour.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

In a few years, Cottingley.

 

[Elecman]

Workington North

 

[Lloyds siding]

Arguably every closed station or, once busy, but now little used station is the 'victim of circumstance'.
Manchester Central was doomed once the decision had been made to electrify to Piccadilly and move the expresses to there.
Many industrial/recreational/military stations have been closed as demand drops.
Near me there's Aintree Race Course, Altcar Rifle Range, Formby Power House halt, Sealand Rifle Range halt,
Further afield there's Singer Works (already mentioned), Sinfin North and Sinfin Central.

Morecambe Euston Road could so easily have survived: British Rail planned to rationalise the lines around Morecambe, creating a direct link to Heysham, so avoiding the reversal at Morecambe Promenade. Morecambe Promenade woud then have closed, and a rebuilt Euston Road would have been the Morecambe terminus...but it never happened that way.

 

[D6130]

Arguably every closed station or, once busy, but now little used station is the 'victim of circumstance'.
Manchester Central was doomed once the decision had been made to electrify to Piccadilly and move the expresses to there.
Many industrial/recreational/military stations have been closed as demand drops.
Near me there's Aintree Race Course, Altcar Rifle Range, Formby Power House halt, Sealand Rifle Range halt,
Further afield there's Singer Works (already mentioned), Sinfin North and Sinfin Central.

Morecambe Euston Road could so easily have survived: British Rail planned to rationalise the lines around Morecambe, creating a direct link to Heysham, so avoiding the reversal at Morecambe Promenade. Morecambe Promenade woud then have closed, and a rebuilt Euston Road would have been the Morecambe terminus...but it never happened that way.

There was a direct link to Heysham via the Torrisholme triangle....but it was only accessible from the Midland line - and, at one time electrified. Presumably BR wanted to have a direct line connected to the ex-LNWR route via Bare Lane.

 

[py_megapixel]

Middlewood. Interchange with a line that has closed.

Quite good if you like being in the middle of a wood though!

 

[Lloyds siding]

There was a direct link to Heysham via the Torrisholme triangle....but it was only accessible from the Midland line - and, at one time electrified. Presumably BR wanted to have a direct line connected to the ex-LNWR route via Bare Lane.

Yes, closure of the Midland line through to Lancaster Green Ayre was the plan.

 

[d9009alycidon]

Coatbridge Central is an interesting one, it was once a busy station with three through platforms and one bay which had various stopping train services to Glasgow, Hamilton and others plus four or five Anglo Scottish expresses calling. The station declined in the 1960s with the stopping services being culled after the Blue Trains started and BR concentrated on services into and out of Glasgow rather than those going round the city, express services also declined and have now all gone as the line from Motherwell to Greenhill Junction went out of favour for express services north of the central belt, all services now going via Edinburgh. Closure was proposed in the 1970s and the main building at street level was sold off and platform buildings demolished, the new service via the Rutherglen and Carmyle was also routed to Whifflet instead of Coatbridge Central due to the single lead junction at Coatbridge Junction. Thankfully the Cumbernauld to Motherwell service was introduced which has kept the station open.