Closed stations with open lines running through

[JoeGJ1984]

I was thinking that there are lots of closed stations around with the line still running through and open. And I wouldn't have thought it would be difficult at all to reopen these stations - all that's needed is a platform. There's a former station fairly near where I live at Baschurch on the Shrewsbury to Chester Line (that said, I wouldn't use it myself as I don't live near enough). You can see the former station here. How much would it cost to put a couple of platforms in? (Because that is all that actually would need doing - the line itself is operational).

See here for more about Baschurch station and there seems to be a campaign to reopen it. It says the cost is estimated to be about £5m. (Seems a lot to me!).

There are lots of stations like this with an open line through them, and I would think a lot of them could be fairly easily reopened - this may reduce carbon emissions because then more residents of these places would use the train when they would have otherwise had to travel everywhere by car.

 

[connor7777]

Norton Bridge, but it would have to be a single line platform on the slow lane in both directions.

 

[merlodlliw]

I was thinking that there are lots of closed stations around with the line still running through and open. And I wouldn't have thought it would be difficult at all to reopen these stations - all that's needed is a platform. There's a former station fairly near where I live at Baschurch on the Shrewsbury to Chester Line (that said, I wouldn't use it myself as I don't live near enough). You can see the former station here. How much would it cost to put a couple of platforms in? (Because that is all that actually would need doing - the line itself is operational).

See here for more about Baschurch station and there seems to be a campaign to reopen it. It says the cost is estimated to be about £5m. (Seems a lot to me!).

There are lots of stations like this with an open line through them, and I would think a lot of them could be fairly easily reopened - this may reduce carbon emissions because then more residents of these places would use the train when they would have otherwise had to travel everywhere by car.

There is a campaign to open it, but Salop CC is cash strapped, knowing Network Rail it will cost in the region of £1M minimum to satisfy current requirements.


Bob

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Norton Bridge, but it would have to be a single line platform on the slow lane in both directions.

Indeed, the prposed remodelling will either give it a new chance of life or confine it to history. I think the latter is the more possible, no services to call there (I doubt the LM Trent Valley would) and not many to use it. Then you've got the mass expanses of disabled access in the middle of 25kV OHLE etc. Would be nice to see, but I think many are more likely.

 

[142094]

Reopening a station is actually quite a hard thing to do. It might seem easy enough to reinstate a couple of platforms with minimum amount of effort and expense, but it takes years planning, doing cost-benefit analysis, applying for funding then getting the ball rolling after that, as anyone who has dealt with planning applications before will tell you.

 

[causton]

I was going to talk about the ones on the Metropolitan line... then I remembered there are so many on the Underground that there's a whole website worth of them, so I don't think any Underground stations should be mentioned :P

Other than that, I thought I knew a load but either the whole track is closed or the track has been removed/realigned

 

[JoeGJ1984]

Kenilworth is another example between Coventry and Leamington Spa. (You'd think it would be easy to slap down a single platform - it would be well-used, particularly by commuters).

 

[EM2]

MattE 2010 makes a good point. Any new station (and that includes reopening) would have to be DDA compliant, and that can add a big chunk to any costs, especially on an island platfrom.

 

[The Planner]

Indeed, the prposed remodelling will either give it a new chance of life or confine it to history. I think the latter is the more possible

Not a chance after re-modelling.

 

[WillPS]

Attercliffe and Brightside, both between Sheffield and Meadowhall.

 

[sprinterguy]

Kenilworth is another example between Coventry and Leamington Spa. (You'd think it would be easy to slap down a single platform - it would be well-used, particularly by commuters).

The Crosscountry services that use the Coventry to Leamington stretch would have to be retimed though, tightening up the northbound service by a couple of minutes by the time it reaches Leamington Spa, and/or adding a couple of minutes extra dwell time at Coventry (if platforms are available for this) for the southbound, to account for the couple of minutes that would be added on to the journey time by making a station stop at Kenilworth, given that the hourly train service that uses this line basically crosses the service travelling in the opposite direction at Coventry.

Kenilworth does have a very good case for reopening though, but some retiming of trains over the route, or redoubling of the line would be required for it to work operationally IMO.

Reopening stations on busy or high speed routes eats into the available train paths and capacity by having trains call there, which is part of the reason why stations such as Attercliffe and Brightside on the congested section of line between Sheffield and Meadowhall, and smaller intermediate stations on the ECML and WCML (Seen most recently in the form of Norton Bridge and some of the smaller stations in the vicinity of Crewe), have been closed down and not considered for reopening.

Some station buildings at locations that lost their train services in the fifties and sixties have passed into private hands, so reopening a station serving the same communities would require a new site on Network Rail owned land to be sought nearby, adding to the cost. As 142094 says, a detailed cost benefit analysis of the forecasted patronage at the reopened station is required, which must be approved by DfT and funding applied for. Many now closed stations are also no longer located in the appropriate area to be useful to local people, as changes in land uses and demand for travel have occurred in the intervening years since the station was open.

There are quite a few potential station reopening that offer a lot of merit and would probably yield good levels of patronage, but it is rarely as easy as simply sticking a couple of platforms back in. For one, accessibility to the station has to be considered for both pedestrians and car users, as well as the needs of the disabled, and safety and information requirements need to be thought about, encompassing the need for lighting, station amenities, information displays and CCTV.

 

[swt_passenger]

There is a campaign to open it, but Salop CC is cash strapped, knowing Network Rail it will cost in the region of £1M minimum to satisfy current requirements.

Chandlers Ford (Hants) was a fairly recent (2006 ish) re-opening of only one previously closed platform on an operational single line, and it was generally reported as costing the local council £2 million - although that may have included ample car parking and road improvements. The earlier station had two platforms on the then double track railway.

IMHO the station building was a bit OTT though, and the footbridge giving a short cut pedestrian access to the north side of the area was not necessarily essential - but on the other hand it makes it much easier for pedestrians. I'll expand on that point, there is a footpath on the platform side alongside the line leading up to the local main road, probably about 100 yards or so, the footbridge saves a walk of about 200 yards for people on the other side of the line.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Beeston Castle station at Tarporley should be looked at for re-opening, and have the Crewe - Chester shuttle call there.

Taxi drivers at both Crewe and Chester have told me on more than one occasion that their busiest single destination ( excluding the immediate local areas within each town ) is the Wild Boar Hotel; this place is very popular and is more or less equidistant from both stations and the local area seems to pull in quite a few visitors as well.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

There are quite a few not used or very under used Stations in the Stoke on Trent area eg Wedgewood etc and a bit further down the line at Atherstone, Polesworth etc.
I think too there is talk of reopening a line from Stoke that connects to the Churnet Valley Railway, Leek & Alton Towers. There are also a few stations West Of Salisbury on the LSWR route to Exeter that are easy to spot.

 

[mumrar]

There are a lot dotted around the country, Church Road and Somerset Road between University and Five Ways and Stoke Works and then all the stations between Kings Norton and New Street via the Camp Hill route local to me.

 

[34002salisbury]

Wilton South-A station west of Salisbury on the LSWR. Although the station hosue is now private proety and teh carpark is an industrial estate

Also i'm back after a long absence

 

[class156]

Irvine Bogside and Gailes are two closed stations that are close to me, Bogside would possibly be worth reopening as it would be a 5 min walk from the nearest houses and there is a half finished housing development next to the old station site. It wouldn't be worth reopening Gailes as it is in the middle of nowhere.

 

[12CSVT]

There's about half a dozen closed stations just north of Aberbeen on the Inverness line

 

[WL113]

Atherstone still sees reasonable use. Polesworth is effectively useless as the footbridge was removed during the west coast upgrade. One train a day calls there.....

 

[jopsuk]

There's quite a few up the ECML, but to be reopened without causing massive long term disruption the platforms would need to be on lengthy loops with (expensive) high speed turnouts. 125mph double track isn't a good place for local trains to be stopping

 

[button_boxer]

As others have said, increasing linespeeds on main lines increases the penalty for having local trains stop at intermediate stations. There were once 3 intermediate stations between Sheffield and Dore, arguably Millhouses would be a candidate for reopening as a park and ride station (or more likely a new site backing onto the Tesco car park between the old Beauchief and Millhouses sites) but that stretch is already a bottleneck.

Another example from that area, the hope valley stopping service means that there's only capacity for two fast trains an hour from Sheffield to Manchester. One goes out just ahead of the stopper and the other almost catches it up by new mills.

 

[Rhydgaled]

Reopening a station is actually quite a hard thing to do. It might seem easy enough to reinstate a couple of platforms with minimum amount of effort and expense, but it takes years planning, doing cost-benefit analysis, applying for funding then getting the ball rolling after that, as anyone who has dealt with planning applications before will tell you.

On the Fishguard branch there's two stations ('Fishguard & Goodwick' and 'Wolfscatle' (which was suffixed 'for Treffgarne Rocks')) which have intact platforms (some of the other halts on the branch never even had a full-height platform). All you would have to do at Fishguard & Goodwick is throw up one of those metal fences around the station building until somebody finds some spare cash to restore it. Neither would need a footbridge now the line is single, and access to the platform is level (although at Wolfscastle you have to go down a steep hill to get there). Now that the line may be getting a worthwhile service, it could be worth re-opening a station or two.

Other than that, I thought I knew a load but either the whole track is closed or the track has been removed/realigned

That's what's happened at Wolfscastle, the line was double track and there were two platforms, now the single track is halfway between the two. The line has also been raised to almost the height of the platform by a large amount of extra ballast.

 

[Invincibles]

As others have said, increasing linespeeds on main lines increases the penalty for having local trains stop at intermediate stations. There were once 3 intermediate stations between Sheffield and Dore, arguably Millhouses would be a candidate for reopening as a park and ride station (or more likely a new site backing onto the Tesco car park between the old Beauchief and Millhouses sites) but that stretch is already a bottleneck.

Another example from that area, the hope valley stopping service means that there's only capacity for two fast trains an hour from Sheffield to Manchester. One goes out just ahead of the stopper and the other almost catches it up by new mills.

I am not sure that the stopper prevents fast trains running between the Norwich - Liverpool and the Cleethorpes - MIA as no fast train after xx40 would catch the Norwich - Liverpool up.

However, the problem then is the freight paths and they are what stops a third service in that gap. Rio ran just behind the Norwich - Liverpool as I remember.

Most important for me is getting Dore back to two platforms.

 

[First class]

Upton-by-Chester platforms still there. Bit pointless re-opening with Bache just up the track.

 

[Southern]

Selsdon station on the Uckfield/East Grinstead line still has it's platforms intact, I believe.

 

[OxtedL]

Selsdon station on the Uckfield/East Grinstead line still has it's platforms intact, I believe.

There are some platforms still intact (along with some random shunting signals, even though it's all disconnected), but on the Oxted line itself the remains are unspectacular.

 

[b0b]

Kings Cross Thameslink - unlikely to ever reopen.

 

[ChrisCooper]

Some closed stations were never viable, and many closed well before Beeching was even born, infact I don't think since grouping that many stations have actually closed on open lines, as opposed to where lines have closed or become freight only. A number of closures have been since privatisation. Around here there are the closed stations at Hathern and Kegworth. Both could be re-opened on the slow lines and see the Leicester-Lincoln call, but I doubt they would get the traffic. Even the Ivanhoe stations south of Loughborough are not that well used, infact the service is very quiet most of the time (service is so slow that through passengers don't use it, infact it's quicker to change at Nottingham than get it direct to Lincoln).

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Tebay, Bay Horse, Forton and Garstang & Catterall on the WCML, Ampthill and Chiltern Green on the MML and Pendleton and Irlam o' th' Heights in Greater Manchester (Atherton Line) all had stations.

 

[Invincibles]

On the issue of closed stations on the MML there are a few between Leicester and Bedford that I think could make interesting reopenings.

My fantasy open access suggestion for Bedford to Manchester would have served all of those and connected in at Leicester, East Midlands Parkway and Chesterfield to the rest of the network. I wonder if there could be a service like the old Leicester to Kettering locals.