Stations that should be renamed to a more suitable name.

[Basil Jet]

Preston Park would be Brighton North. If you're renaming London Road it's Brighton East or Ditchling Rise/Road

London Road station is actually nearer to Preston Park (the park) than Preston Park station is. Google Maps suggest that London Road station is on the northern boundary of "Round Hill" - Round Hill seems like a fair name.

 

[David Burrows]

Lincoln lost its "Central" suffix years ago.

Lincoln may have lost 'Central' sometimes, but a few weeks ago Leicester and Loughborough (and presumably other EMR stations) departure indicators were showing trains calling at Lincoln Central.

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Colchester Town - Colchester City/Colchester Central (Colchester is no longer a town) - or alternatively it could just revert back to its former (and still locally used) name of St Botolph's.
Colchester - Colchester North - also its local name, but also quite useful for anyone wanting to go into Colchester, given Colchester (North) station is quite some way from the city centre.
Mansfield could also revert back to its former name of Mansfield Town (which is also its locally used name).
I agree with the idea of renaming Acton Main Line station Acton Elizabeth - it's not handily situated for the town centre, it's not an important station on the "Main Line", and all the geographic possibilities have been taken already. Farnborough's stations could also do with a tweak - looking at Google Maps, might Farnborough Park (Main) and Farnborough Street (North) work, or do the areas of town named that only exist in Google Maps's imagination?

Colchester, which I agree should definately be renamed Colchester North, is always referred to by locals as North Station, local buses always showed as via or to 'North Station' on indicators and in official timetables (not even Colchester North, just North Station), however latest versions of timetables on line show it as Colchester station. It is a good 20 min walk to the town (or city) centre,whereas Colchester Town is in the town. Please don't revert Colchester Town to 'St Botolphs' as that is meaningles to most people, since there is nothing to suggest that is in Colchester town centre.

 

[bussnapperwm]

If they would have built the HS1-HS2 link then Old Oak Common could have been named Wormwood Scrubs International.

 

[Mike99]

A few station names locally to me-
Edenbridge Town to Edenbridge South???? Edenbridge Town is centrally situated for the the town not south of it.
Edenbridge (on Redhill- Tonbridge line) is actually situated in Marlpit Hill.

As mentioned in previous discussion groups many stations are sited in different places than the station name.
Penshurst station is in the village of Chiddingstone Causeway
Frant station is in Bells Yew Green
Wadhurst station is nearer to Durgates village
Knockholt station is 3 miles from the village of that name. It is situated between the delightfully named Pratts Bottom and Badgers Mount.

One I would agree with renaming is Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks North. The pub called " Bat & Ball" was closed many years ago and the station name gives little clue of the location. The main road junction near the station is called "Bat & Ball Junction" but little else reflects that name.

Bat & Ball is so quirky it should stay. In your earlier sentence Knockholt could be renamed Badger Pratts or Bottom Mount !!!

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Are names like Darlington Bank Top and Hull Paragon still used locally?

I was once asked to sell a ticket from Hull Paragon!!

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Thanks, I didn't know about New Pudsey. Perhaps it should belatedly be renamed Pudsey Parkway?

Or Pudsey Bear, No thats silly

 

[duncanp]

So how about Lille Europe then? That’s a similar concept to calling it Lille International!

Lille Europe has the suffix "Europe" to distinguish it from Lille Flandres.

Both stations have international trains. (from Lille Flandres there are local services across the border to Belgium)

You could have called Lille Europe "Lille TGV" instead, but this would confuse matters as TGV services, particularly to Paris, operate from both stations.

 

[mrcheek]

Given the purpose of a parkway station (to suck up commuters and long-distance travellers who might have otherwise used the motorway), you'd think locals are the main target audience for the suffix?

That said, I am coming around to renaming the station in Stoke Gifford to "M4 Junction 19", though. It does fit the vibe!


But it's the name of the place, not a contrivance of the railway's. In line with your 'COMMONNAME' policy by which the full names of places can be contracted, should Weston-super-Mare become 'Weston'? Should Newton Abbot become 'Newton'? Come to think of it, maybe Okehampton should be 'Oakey' and 'Oxford' should be 'Ox'.

I was going to mention Weston-super-Mare. If we're dropping "by-Sea"s and "on-Sea"s, then the fact that this one is in Latin should not make a difference.

Most of us living here would not be bothered, we all just call it "Weston" anyway. Although we do get very annoyed when anybody spells the "super" with a capital "s"

Conversely, if it is insisted that the station keeps its full name, then surely Weston Milton should be renamed as "Weston-super-Mare Milton"

On a side note, the town also has Worle station on its outskirts. When the station was being built, a small business park was opened next to the site, called "Worle Parkway". So as a result, plenty of people locally still use that as the station name.....

 

[bluenoxid]

There's also another "Stanningley" on the edge of central Leeds (roughly where the lines to Harrogate and Shipley diverge) which it could be confused with. Then again there's a Cottingley in Bradford which doesn't seem to cause any problems with the one with a station (for the time being) near Leeds.

I am not aware of another Stanningley there. Most people would call that area Armley and some people would call it Kirkstall.

Stanningley itself stretches quite some distance depending on the person. I am aware that in terms of formal postal areas, Stanningley is allocated as the sub location for quite a few places that aren’t really in Stanningley.

 

[zwk500]

London Road station is actually nearer to Preston Park (the park) than Preston Park station is. Google Maps suggest that London Road station is on the northern boundary of "Round Hill" - Round Hill seems like a fair name.

I'll be honest, I lived 30 mins from Brighton for 20 years and used London Road station a fair few times, and couldn't tell you where Round Hill was even with a map. Maybe people more local to Brighton can say if it is a name in regualr use or not.

 

[Halifaxlad]

Thanks, I didn't know about New Pudsey. Perhaps it should belatedly be renamed Pudsey Parkway?

Come to think of it, New Pudsey - opened in 1967 - should have been named Stanningley, after the village (now suburb) in which it is situated. It's quite a distance from most parts of Pudsey.

I once thought about rebuilding it further East by Asda and renaming it Farsley. The bit between the station and the ring road ought to be in Farsley anyway!

 

[D6130]

The bit between the station and the ring road ought to be in Farsley anyway!

True....although the big building on the opposite side of the road from the station - formerly the venue for Leeds Beer Festival, incidentally - is know as Pudsey Civic Centre....even though it's technically in Farsley!

 

[urbophile]

One I would agree with renaming is Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks North. The pub called " Bat & Ball" was closed many years ago and the station name gives little clue of the location. The main road junction near the station is called "Bat & Ball Junction" but little else reflects that name.

Old Roan in Merseyside is similarly named after a defunct pub. I'm not sure if the name also attaches to the area, but if not 'Aintree North' would be better.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Old Roan in Merseyside is similarly named after a defunct pub. I'm not sure if the name also attaches to the area, but if not 'Aintree North' would be better.

The road signs call it Aintree Village, but in the 1980s when I lived there it was known as "the Old Roan" (always with the definite article) after the pub and station. Most of the housing in that area is 1930s, so no doubt there was nothing but the pub to name the station after when it opened. The other side of the railway bridge was Netherton.

The term "Aintree" was more used for the area of primarily terraced housing the other side of the racecourse (near the current Aintree station, once called Aintree Sefton Arms I believe, after a pub that no longer exists), but further from Fazakerley and Orrell Park stations. Though it did also come up for the part of that settlement away from the station. Looking at a Google map showing the name of businesses, it seems Old Roan comes up roughly west of Eton Drive, while Aintree is used for places further towards the racecourse.

Though in the end it's a "local station for local people" not a destination, so it could, as someone said, just be called "the station" for all it matters. In terms of renaming it you could call the two Aintree Village and Aintree Racecourse*, but I don't see a massive point in bothering as neither is fundamentally inaccurate.

* The Cheshire Lines Committee station actually called that was further from the racecourse and would have probably been better called Walton Vale or Melling Road, apart from that it was used racedays only!

 

[urbophile]

Having just got back from a short trip to Germany, how about renaming some settlements’ most important stations to include ‘Hauptbahnhof’ as a suffix?

Birmingham New Street
Bristol Temple Meads
Colchester
Edinburgh Waverley
Exeter St Davids
Liverpool Lime Street
Manchester Piccadilly
Milton Keynes Central
Newcastle
Reading
Southampton Central
Stratford
Warrington Bank Quay
Watford Junction

Any bits not in bold would be removed from the station name, although this proposal is all tongue in cheek anyway.

Assuming 'Central 'to be the English equivalent, this might make sense. The current 'Liverpool Central', while geographically central to the city, is a subsidiary metro station, so it's never seemed to me the right name. There already is a 'Warrington Central' so if it was proposed to rename Bank Quay some creative thinking would be needed. The main station in Leeds was always known as 'City' but it officially lost that some time ago, just as Newcastle Central exists as a station on the Metro but the mainline station is simply Newcastle.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Assuming 'Central 'to be the English equivalent, this might make sense.

The Dutch use "Centraal" for that purpose (i.e. it's central to the area's rail network, not necessarily the city), but it's not a particularly English usage. To the extent that the UK has ever had that, "General" is probably the closest translation of Hauptbahnhof, or you could use "Main" e.g. Farnborough.

The current 'Liverpool Central', while geographically central to the city, is a subsidiary metro station, so it's never seemed to me the right name.

Of course it takes the name from the mainline station above it that no longer exists. It is also most central, and I'd rather we used the Central term in its normal English meaning of "the one you want if you want to be right in the middle".

The UK also had a secondary usage of "Central", which meant "station of the Great Central Railway", e.g. Rugby Central.

There already is a 'Warrington Central' so if it was proposed to rename Bank Quay some creative thinking would be needed.

Warrington General would work fine if it was worth bothering, which it probably isn't. And Chester General recognises that it's a heck of a hike to the centre! (Is Wrexham the only one left?)

 

[urbophile]

So, by this reasoning you would have to rename Clapham Junction, which is not in Clapham

Except that the town centre around it is known as Clapham Junction and has been for many years. Hence though it isn't in 'Clapham' it sort of is.

 

[NSE]

As frequent drinker and socialiser in both, we refer to both as Clapham but when differentiation is needed we refer to Clapham as Clapham Town or Clapham Old Town or Clapham High Street or Clapham not Junction. and then Clapham Junction as Clapham Junction or like, you know, Junction side.

 

[Jimini]

Old Roan in Merseyside is similarly named after a defunct pub. I'm not sure if the name also attaches to the area, but if not 'Aintree North' would be better.

Similarly, round the corner from here, we have Charlie Brown’s roundabout on the north circ., which is named not after the pub that was demolished to allow the junction to be expanded in the ‘70s, but the landlord!

Meanwhile, back on topic… (sorry)

 

[zwk500]

Except that the town centre around it is known as Clapham Junction and has been for many years. Hence though it isn't in 'Clapham' it sort of is.

Sort of similar to Llandudno Junction and Berwock Station settlements

 

[Bletchleyite]

Similarly, round the corner from here, we have Charlie Brown’s roundabout on the north circ., which is named not after the pub that was demolished to allow the junction to be expanded in the ‘70s, but the landlord!

And Kelly's Kitchen Roundabout on the end of the MK stretch of the A5. It now has a McDonald's (using, I understand, the modular McDs from the Olympic site which was purchased by MK's prolific McD's franchisee and moved there), before that it was a Little Chef. It's not played host to a Kelly's Kitchen since the early 1990s if that.

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Sort of similar to Llandudno Junction and Berwock Station settlements

Rainford Junction, Widdrington Station, Tring Station.......

There are loads of them.

 

[D6130]

Rainford Junction, Widdrington Station, Tring Station.......

....and - harking back to long-closed stations in Co. Durham - you have settlements called Ferryhill Station, Trimdon Station, Wingate Station and even Station Town!

Meanwhile, still very much in the present, we have the settlement known as Carstairs Junction....over a mile from Carstairs village.

 

[Purple Train]

....and - harking back to long-closed stations in Co. Durham - you have settlements called Ferryhill Station, Trimdon Station, Wingate Station and even Station Town!

Meanwhile, still very much in the present, we have the settlement known as Carstairs Junction....over a mile from Carstairs village.

Cue for a new thread perhaps? Micheldever Station is another settlement named after the station.

 

[Western Lord]

And Kelly's Kitchen Roundabout on the end of the MK stretch of the A5. It now has a McDonald's (using, I understand, the modular McDs from the Olympic site which was purchased by MK's prolific McD's franchisee and moved there), before that it was a Little Chef. It's not played host to a Kelly's Kitchen since the early 1990s if that.

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Rainford Junction, Widdrington Station, Tring Station.......

There are loads of them.

And Halwill Junction, which hasn't been a junction for a very long time.

 

[zwk500]

Rainford Junction, Widdrington Station, Tring Station.......

There are loads of them.

Well yes, but I wanted to avoid listing every single settlement that's taken on the name of an adjacent station.

 

[redengine]

I'd add:

Elimination of pointless suffixes:

Filton Abbey Wood → Filton

Shortening of very long station names with "and" in them:

Energlyn and Churchill Park → Churchill Park
Lisvane and Thornhill → Thornhill

Acknowledging that the centre of Barry moved about 150 years ago:

Barry → Barry West
Barry Docks → Barry Central

Eliminating some names that cause confusion with better-known places:

Aber → Trecenydd
Dinas (Rhondda) → Trealaw
Penybont (Powys) → Crossgates
Ystrad (Rhondda) → Ystradyfodwg

Admitting where some stations actually are:

Llandaff → Llandaff North
Saundersfoot → Pentlepoir
Tir-Phil → New Tredegar
Whitchurch (South Glamorgan) → Manor Way

And finally changing one back to what it should be:

Cardiff Central → Cardiff General

 

[SargeNpton]

Eliminating some names that cause confusion with better-known places:

Aber → Trecenydd
Dinas (Rhondda) → Trealaw
Penybont (Powys) → Crossgates
Ystrad (Rhondda) → Ystradyfodwg

That leaves the possibility of it then getting confused with Cross Gates in Leeds.

 

[PGAT]

Loughborough Junction should be renamed to Camberwell

 

[leytongabriel]

Loughborough Junction should be renamed to Camberwell

Yes. Always been puzzled by that one. And Wandsworth Rd isn't very helpful as its a long road and the station isn't near Wandsworth. Don't know the area well enouh to suggest a better name though.

 

[NSE]

Yes. Always been puzzled by that one. And Wandsworth Rd isn't very helpful as its a long road and the station isn't near Wandsworth. Don't know the area well enouh to suggest a better name though.

Nine Elms would’ve worked but the Tube has grabbed that. Tbh, you could go with something Battersea, Battersea East or North maybe. But it’s one of those that’s used by locals and is rarely, if ever, a long distance destination so those that use it know it’s not in Wandsworth etc.

 

[Basil Jet]

[Of Wandsworth Road] Nine Elms would’ve worked but the Tube has grabbed that. Tbh, you could go with something Battersea, Battersea East or North maybe.

Heathbrook has a nice sound to it.

 

[zwk500]

Nine Elms would’ve worked but the Tube has grabbed that. Tbh, you could go with something Battersea, Battersea East or North maybe. But it’s one of those that’s used by locals and is rarely, if ever, a long distance destination so those that use it know it’s not in Wandsworth etc.

Battersea South or Clapham West, I'd have thought would be most logical. Not that it's going to change.