Favourite English Station

[kevconnor]

I'll go for Doleham only 50 miles from central london but so isolated. Ive still not seen a passenger alight or board here since the Thumper Days

I must admit I wasn't familiar with this either but a quick perusal on its wikipedia page and noticed the Annual rail passenger usage figures

2004/05 3,027
2005/06 Increase 3,036
2006/07 Decrease 739
2007/08 Decrease 56
2008/09 Increase 634
2009/10 Decrease 628
2010/11 Increase 3,894
2011/12 Increase 38,666

From this I can only draw one of two conclusions about its recent popularity. Either you have been organising private rail tours there in 2011/12 to admire its resplendence. Or more likely Wikipedia cannot be trusted as a reliable source of information.

Also would say my favorite in England, architecture wise would be St Pancreas otherwise would agree with Stalyvegas (AKA Stalybridge).

 

[johnnychips]

The figures on Wikipedia are obtained from National Rail statistics, so unless it's a genuine mistype, I'm sure someone on here will be able to explain.

 

[Hardcastle]

Joint Hebden Bridge/Appleby/Kirkby Stephen.

 

[fowler9]

If I can have a second choice after Crewe I would say West Allerton. I pretty much grew up within a mile of it and still live within a mile. Its as dull as ditch water now but it has its moments.

 

[alwaystouchout]

St Pancras is so charmingly wonderful and a great place to welcome international passengers, although it was a shame to lose Waterloo International and that spectacular Thames vista of Big Ben and the London Eye on the approach.

 

[paul1609]

I must admit I wasn't familiar with this either but a quick perusal on its wikipedia page and noticed the Annual rail passenger usage figures




From this I can only draw one of two conclusions about its recent popularity. Either you have been organising private rail tours there in 2011/12 to admire its resplendence. Or more likely Wikipedia cannot be trusted as a reliable source of information.
.

The increased passengers nearly all seem to hold season tickets so i think it must be some sort of ticketing anomaly. Doleham has 3 trains per day towards Ashford and 4 towards Hastings. The last passengers I saw there were 2 cyclists who loaded their bikes in to the guards van of the Thumper!
I regularly use at least 2 of the trains that call there. Winchelsea has very few passengers outside of the peaks when there are a few school kids. Three Oaks generally has 1 or 2 passengers for each train that calls there.

 

[waterlooroader]

I like different stations for different reasons:

For architecture it's probably York or Stoke-on-Trent (Frontage at least) with an honourable mention for Shrewsbury. Fine examples of the fact that we just don't do architecture like that anymore.

For that indescribable feeling of a station just feeling "right" it's Shrewsbury or Chester. Even at peak times, I find they are pleasant places to spend time.

For the fact that it's where I first fell in loved with all things railways, it's Wolverhampton. My local "big" station (Coseley is my nearest station) good variety of traction, occasional freight, friendly staff (But I admit the 1960s architecture is gloomy and foreboding, even on the best of days!)

 

[RichmondCommu]

My vote goes to Dent. The views are fantastic, the station is a perfect example of Midland Railway architecture and of course there is the famous Station Masters house!

It's such shame that the signal box and refuge sidings are long gone. With this in mind I can understand why others might vote for Kirkby Stephen.

 

[Gathursty]

I have found that stations in the South East tend to have a building associated with it and certainly in London, a taxi firm within or next to the station. Still in the South East, you will often find an independent shop/grocers/drinks van at the station. Beyond here are predominantly bus shelter decorated stops punctuated by bigger town affairs and airport and port interchanges. It is pot luck as to there being other amenities such as a cab office or food nearby or indeed within.

St Ives was stunning, particularly because of the weather that greeted me when I arrived, but if it was cold and I was hungry, needing a ticket and waiting for a train, there's nowhere I'd rather be than Edinburgh Waverley.

 

[GatwickDepress]

The increased passengers nearly all seem to hold season tickets so i think it must be some sort of ticketing anomaly. Doleham has 3 trains per day towards Ashford and 4 towards Hastings. The last passengers I saw there were 2 cyclists who loaded their bikes in to the guards van of the Thumper!
I regularly use at least 2 of the trains that call there. Winchelsea has very few passengers outside of the peaks when there are a few school kids. Three Oaks generally has 1 or 2 passengers for each train that calls there.

In the summer, I usually get the first train of the day to Doleham and then walk back home from there, as a nice little morning walk. Perhaps I confused the ticket counters.

 

[Greaseball3220]

Quite like St Pancras, York, Bristol TM, Cardiff Central

Hate London Victoria, charmless chaotic headless chicken rat race, sh*thole

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Can't explain why but I love Brockenhurst. Bournemouth also has a je ne sais quoi

 

[transmanche]

From this I can only draw one of two conclusions about its recent popularity. Either you have been organising private rail tours there in 2011/12 to admire its resplendence. Or more likely Wikipedia cannot be trusted as a reliable source of information.

Wikipedia is only as good as the information that's sourced and the people who edit the article. In this case, the information is properly cited as being sourced from the ORR and includes a link so that the casual reader can verify the facts.

And according to the ORR, 38,666 is the correct figure. In fact the ORR even highlights it as one of the top ten large increases in usage, with an increase of 893% - noting that "Large increase consistent with previous year and appears to be driven by timetable improvements."

 

[Ant158]

I would say York and Manchester Piccadilly.

 

[Capvermell]

I'll go for Doleham only 50 miles from central london but so isolated. Ive still not seen a passenger alight or board here since the Thumper Days

Why did passenger numbers increase from only 56 in 2007/08 to 38,666 in the last 12 months!!

Was the "ongoing campaign by local people which seeks to restore a regular service to this station" finally successful? Or is this simply an accounting error by Network Rail (which is actually where the nearly always highly accurate Wikipedia sources its figures from). I hope its nothing as silly as the way the combined Dorking Stations ticket data is still to this day split by Network Rail (despite many previous comments to them on its inaccuracy) for Dorking West. In reality this station has considerably more than the 16 passengers per day reported for the last 12 months on just one weekday. If the passenger numbers were really as low as Network Rail records then Southern wouldn't actually have bothered providing a ticket machine at this station, let alone a rail service. I have almost seen the 16 passengers quoted for the whole year by Network Rail get off a single train at Dorking West at the busiest time of day! Ok its not usually any more than five or six people on the busiest trains in the rush hour but I think you get my point.

Coming back to my favourite station I vote for my local one of Ockley. Obviously I'm attached to it because the original 1867 station masters house building has survived as have the white wooden platform canopies (thanks to Grade II listing by English Heritage chased by an assiduous local resident when Network Rail murderers arrived by stealth one night with chain saws intent on the death of all historic wooden structure) but in many respects its setting makes it feel like somewhere more remote and its frustratingly irrational and eccentric service pattern in spite of my best efforts (including no mid to late evening weekday service apart from the late night train I helped create and the oddity of the last direct service out of London Victoria on Saturday being at 17.30 and there being no Sunday service - despite massive shifts in living habits, especially on Sundays, since that service pattern was originally established) are I suppose all part of its charm. It would be better if the original direct carriage drive route to my home from the station was also still available (sadly it is now part of various local people's gardens) rather than having to walk up the side of the A24 dual carriageway with no footpath (if not driving and using the free car parking) but then you can't have everything can you.

The next station down the line at Warnham with its lovely old white wooden signal box and level crossing could also have been in the running for favourite station until five years ago on aesthetic grounds but its sad murder as a historic station by heartless morons from Network Rail (sadly nobody got the Grade II listing protection in time on that one) mean that it now no longer has most of its former character as a living time capsule station. The disgusting and completely out of keeping bare unpainted metal pallisade fencing they have installed where the level crossing and the signal box used to be has hardly helped in that regard.

 

[transmanche]

Why did passenger numbers increase from only 56 in 2007/08 to 38,666 in the last 12 months!!

Was the "ongoing campaign by local people which seeks to restore a regular service to this station" finally successful? Or is this simply an accounting error by Network Rail (which is actually where the nearly always highly accurate Wikipedia sources its figures from).

See post #43.

 

[Capvermell]

See post #43.

There is no Dorking Stations factor here though (if you read the rest of my post it should have been obvious my question was rhetorical) and I can't see how Season Tickets suddenly generated that many extra journeys. Unless that is certain die hards all went and brought season tickets to the next stop in order to improve their case to bring back regular services during the day?

These figures are certainly subject to anomalies. For instance annual use figures from Ockley went up over 50% after Southern put in the Permit To Travel machine in the mid 2000s instead of no tickets at Ockley and pay at destination - it will be interesting to see whether the installation of a real ticket machine that takes credit cards etc just over a year ago leads to a further uplift in journey numbers. Also a lot of people bought online tickets in the two or three years when Southern made it 15% cheaper to buy a Super Off Peak Ticket onlne instead of on arrival at London Victoria. Unfortunately that discount now seems to have gone.

As to Dorking West the company that does the figures should be sacked. The anomalous and completely wrong allocation of revenues between the three stations at Dorking was pointed out to Network Rail several years ago and yet still they continue to pump out these laughably wrong figures that would only be believable for some extremely minor station in the far North of England or the remoter parts of Wales and Scotland.

Where a station is not part of a group and also has its own ticket machine the figures are on the whole pretty accurate.

 

[transmanche]

There is no Dorking Stations factor here though (if you read the rest of my post it should have been obvious my question was rhetorical) and I can't see how Season Tickets suddenly generated that many extra journeys.

The reason for pointing you to post #43 was to highlight there was no need to call the figures on Wikipedia into question (as they were properly cited and linked); that the reasons for the huge uplift in the figures has been considered when they were compiled; and also to point out that the figures are published by the ORR and not Network Rail.

The anomalous and completely wrong allocation of revenues between the three stations at Dorking was pointed out to Network Rail several years ago and yet still they continue to pump out these laughably wrong figures that would only be believable for some extremely minor station in the far North of England or the remoter parts of Wales and Scotland.

It's pointless pointing out any errors to Network Rail, as the figures are collated by Steer Davies Gleave on behalf of the ORR.

 

[Starmill]

I don't understand the approach to 'stations' and other general ticketing destinations we have in this country. The Dorking ones are on different lines, so how could there be any loss to passengers to change it to Dorking West/Deepdene and just Dorking. That works just fine in St Albans! In Cardiff, where Cardiff Stations would be fine, you get a named ticket to Central or Queen Street, and a price differential which seems very odd given their proximity to each other. Glasgow went for 'CEN/QST' which is presumably because of the issue posed by Anderston, Argyle St, Charing Cross and High St (Glasgow). Couldn't all 6 just be 'Glasgow Stations'? Or you could just have Central and Queen St as 'Glasgow Stations' to keep the price differentials? Bedford Stations is slightly odd too, I think. St Johns could be separate to aid counting and just keep them the same price? Do people from the main line really want to go to St Johns? Or you could just have Central and Queen St as 'Glasgow Stations' to keep the price differentials? There will be good and historical reasons why they've grown up so strangely but it's no less confusing and inconsistent for it. I think Gainsborough got the right idea. It's just 'Gainsbrough' no matter which you go to

 

[Capvermell]

The Dorking ones are on different lines, so how could there be any loss to passengers to change it to Dorking West/Deepdene and just Dorking.

I suppose the thinking must have been to let someone arriving at Dorking North and then take a free journey from Dorking Deepdene to Dorking West if they needed to. But as there are steep steps at Dorking Deepdene and the service is infrequent to Dorking West from Dorking Deepdene most people heading to that end of town are likely to walk or get a bus or taxi.

Certainly Dorking West would end up with a much larger number of passengers (at least 12,000 per annum in my view) if it was separately ticketed. I would however expect it to have less passengers than both Gomshall and Shalford (still quiet stations on the same line but with several tens of thousands more passengers per annum) as most people travelling on the line do tend to get off at Dorking Deepdene.

In the various cities you mention it does seem odd the stations are not grouped in view of the existence of "London Terminals" although train companies can still ticket to say "London Victoria" only on some lower priced fares only allowing travel with one train operator (eg Southern).

 

[Grumpy]

I like different stations for different reasons:

For architecture it's probably York or Stoke-on-Trent (Frontage at least) with an honourable mention for Shrewsbury. Fine examples of the fact that we just don't do architecture like that anymore.

For that indescribable feeling of a station just feeling "right" it's Shrewsbury or Chester. Even at peak times, I find they are pleasant places to spend time.

For the fact that it's where I first fell in loved with all things railways, it's Wolverhampton. My local "big" station (Coseley is my nearest station) good variety of traction, occasional freight, friendly staff (But I admit the 1960s architecture is gloomy and foreboding, even on the best of days!)

Completely agree re Shrewsbury.
Nostalgia for the 1960's-Castles, Kings, Counties, Manors , Duchesses, Warships, Westerns etc with a wonderful milk vending machine on the platform that sold flavoured milk.
Still looks and feels special.

 

[Blaahh]

St Pancras, its gorgeous, awe inspiring.

 

[6Gman]

St Pancras, its gorgeous, awe inspiring.

I much preferred the old St Pancras. Don't like the way they have sliced through (what was) the floor level, to access the undercroft.

For a mix of railway interest, setting and architecture York takes some beating.

 

[EM2]

Always had a soft spot for Maidstone West, even though I used East more often. This was partly influenced by the semaphore signalling but also the excellent refreshment room that was there.
Haven't been there for a long time, so can't say if it's still the same.
Is it odd that I really like Charing Cross?

 

[Johnuk123]

I much preferred the old St Pancras. Don't like the way they have sliced through (what was) the floor level, to access the undercroft.

I agree, it was so much better then.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Is it odd that I really like Charing Cross?

Nope, I quite like it too - probably my favourite London terminal alongside Marylebone. Quite compact, but not uncomfortably so, and also has a decent array of shops for such a 'small' station.

Can't find any love for St Pancras though personally. I get the impression sometimes that they built it with retail in mind first and actual trains second.

 

[balne-wonderer]

I like Cross Gates. Mainly because it means i'm home.

 

[Starmill]

So many forumers live in Leeds, I've started walking down the street wondering if you're coming the other way!

 

[D6975]

Can't find any love for St Pancras though personally. I get the impression sometimes that they built it with retail in mind first and actual trains second.

I agree, it is rather like a shopping mall with trains. Easy to walk up the 'dead end' of shops if you're coming from the KX direction too.
The old station was OK as long as you were looking upwards. At platform level it was all very drab and worn out. The booking office was quite something though.

My favourite used to be Manchester Victoria until it was vandalised modernised.