Inconveniently Sited Stations

[Gareth]

Edge Hill would be way more useful if it had an additional entrance on Wavertree Road by the Matalan. It's potential catchment is severely restricted with the single entrance on Tunnel Road.

 

[satisnek]

Some stations are where they are for a very good reason... For places like Truro, Mansfield and Stockport the most central location for the station would be atop a viaduct!!

Interestingly, some places used to have a more centrally-located station on lines which are still open - see Cheltenham High Street and Derby Nottingham Road.

Coventry is another station that is a bit out of town. A station on the Bedworth branch by Coundon or Radford Roads may be fractionally closer to the Pool meadow part of the city centre.

That's because they put the station where the lines join up - see also Crewe (and Droitwich Spa)

 

[Bevan Price]

Edge Hill would be way more useful if it had an additional entrance on Wavertree Road by the Matalan. It's potential catchment is severely restricted with the single entrance on Tunnel Road.

Edge Hill lost most of its reasons for existence when lots of local housing was demolished, probably 20+ years ago. A direct entrance on Wavertree Road would need a long, expensive footbridge.

 

[andrew bell]

Bradford, both stations. Both lines have been truncated putting both stations away from the city centre.

Really?? I travel there every 2 or 3 weeks and I think the stations are very conveniently located, a matter of 3 minutes maximum walk from the city centre

 

[matacaster]

Ravensthorpe. Station is far too close to Ravensthorpe (which is probably best avoided after dark).

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Edge Hill lost most of its reasons for existence when lots of local housing was demolished, probably 20+ years ago. A direct entrance on Wavertree Road would need a long, expensive footbridge.

It never was much used for local journeys with there being frequent tram then bus services into the city centre - it always seemed more to be used by staff accessing the depot.

 

[greyman42]

Edge Hill lost most of its reasons for existence when lots of local housing was demolished, probably 20+ years ago. A direct entrance on Wavertree Road would need a long, expensive footbridge.

It was used by football specials back in the day.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Really?? I travel there every 2 or 3 weeks and I think the stations are very conveniently located, a matter of 3 minutes maximum walk from the city centre

Both Bradford stations were IN the City Centre until 1973 (Exchange) and 1990 (Forster Square), not 3 mins walk away. Had they still been where they used to be, the lines could have been connected when the Broadway shops were demolished leaving a huge hole in the ground for many, many years. The Westfield shopping centre could then have been built on top of the railway and services concentrated on a single station. But the city planners, as even, lacked the vision.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Cheltenham Spa - well out of town. But, as the station master used to say in Dent, I expect they put the station where the trains go.

 

[Basher]

Heighington , is almost a mile from the village

 

[Ken H]

Cheltenham Spa - well out of town. But, as the station master used to say in Dent, I expect they put the station where the trains go.

Cheltenham Malvern Road was nearer to the town. It was on the line from Stratford upon Avon

 

[camflyer]

Cambridge needs a entrance on the east side, same with Cambridge North. Peterborough could also do with a entrance on the West side it aready has a bridge in place.

Article in today's Cambridge News about the need for an eastern entrance to Cambridge Station

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cambridge-train-station-greater-anglia-15564720

 

[matacaster]

Re: Pontefract stations, both Tanshelf and Baghill are pretty convenient for the town centre... but Baghill has a lousy service on a poor route, and Tanshelf is only one one line route rather than Monkhill which is on two (notwithstanding the recent changes with services to Tanshelf looping round to Westgate and Leeds) but distant from the town.

Deighton is likely to be completely rebuilt as part of the Trans-Pennine Route upgrade: if part of this saw the platforms moved to the other side of the Whitacre Street overbridge where the access ramps currently are, second (or replacement) access could be provided direct from the A62. Move them further still down the line to beyond Bradley Junction, and Brighouse services could either avoid the station entirely or begin serving it at a third platform located on the curve... though it'd be more a station for Bradley than Deighton at that point.

Is Deighton being 4-tracked?

 

[Monarch010]

It depends what you consider to be inconvenient.
On the Bexleyheath line stations such as Falconwood, Welling, Bexleyheath and Barnehurst are not near town or commercial centres but are well placed to serve commuter and leisure travel for passengers from the surrounding areas of housing, largely developed during the 1930s, well after the establishment of the line and stations. TFL have also helped by improving and introducing local bus routes to serve these stations.

 

[leytongabriel]

Inner suburban stations on the old GNR line -Harringay W, Hornsey, Alexandra Palace, New Southgate, Bounds Green are pretty nicely sited for nowhere in particular. So first the trams and then the Piccadilly line and local buses moppeded up most of the traffic. Same could be said for Stroud Green and Crouch End Stations on the Northern Heights branch.

 

[leytongabriel]

Bere Alston in the Tamar Valley?

 

[Dr_Paul]

It depends what you consider to be inconvenient.
On the Bexleyheath line stations such as Falconwood, Welling, Bexleyheath and Barnehurst are not near town or commercial centres but are well placed to serve commuter and leisure travel for passengers from the surrounding areas of housing, largely developed during the 1930s, well after the establishment of the line and stations. TFL have also helped by improving and introducing local bus routes to serve these stations.

These are instances of where a station has become a focus for urban development, or in some cases become the town centre, even though it was originally some distance from the place after which it was named. Wimbledon is a case of the second type: the old village was up on the hill, but the station, a good half-mile down the hill, has become the modern town centre. Raynes Park was originally little more than a junction station set amidst fields on a country road, now it is the centre of a suburban residential area; New Malden station was built halfway along a road between Combe and Malden, and the area now known as New Malden has grown up pretty much because of the station's presence. There was very little development when what is now Surbiton station was built (it was the station for Kingston, a good mile to the north), but it is now also the centre of a suburban residential area.

 

[Ken H]

These are instances of where a station has become a focus for urban development, or in some cases become the town centre, even though it was originally some distance from the place after which it was named. Wimbledon is a case of the second type: the old village was up on the hill, but the station, a good half-mile down the hill, has become the modern town centre. Raynes Park was originally little more than a junction station set amidst fields on a country road, now it is the centre of a suburban residential area; New Malden station was built halfway along a road between Combe and Malden, and the area now known as New Malden has grown up pretty much because of the station's presence. There was very little development when what is now Surbiton station was built (it was the station for Kingston, a good mile to the north), but it is now also the centre of a suburban residential area.

didnt the Southern do something like the Metropolitan, and actually facilitate house building to fill their trains with commuters?

 

[Parallel]

Barnstaple is not overly convenient for the town, but of course there was a town station previously.

 

[30907]

didnt the Southern do something like the Metropolitan, and actually facilitate house building to fill their trains with commuters?

They didn't buy up land like the Met, but ISTR they were hot on the advertising - Live in Kent and be content/live is Surrey, free from worry...

 

[KevinTurvey]

Edge Hill lost most of its reasons for existence when lots of local housing was demolished, probably 20+ years ago. A direct entrance on Wavertree Road would need a long, expensive footbridge.

Hi Bevan, much of the area has been completely re-built in the last few years, (I remember those 1970s grey flats and the tower block all on its own, demolished about 1992 or thereabouts are in loads of my train photographs) Although I guess for those who live there the bus service is possibly much more frequent.

 

[Ken H]

They didn't buy up land like the Met, but ISTR they were hot on the advertising - Live in Kent and be content/live is Surrey, free from worry...

The 19th cent rail companies seemed to disagree about commuters. I know the GW regarded them as something of a nuisance, while others actively encouraged them.

 

[L&Y Robert]

All three Burnley stations are some distance from the centre of town. I suggest sliding Rose Grove up to Gannow junction and arranging decent access from the nearby new roads around there.

 

[HowardGWR]

I am somewhat surprised at the lack of knowledge of railway history here as folk are nominating places that had convenient stations, but they were closed post the Beeching report, sometimes in favour of one perversely more inconvenient, as at Yeovil. If you want to check up on a location in this respect, I recommend this web site, Where's the Path (link follows).
https://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm

You can put (say) the 1930s map alongside the present OS map and see what 'Beeching' did. I put Beeching in quotes as not by any means was all the damage caused by his report. I use this web site a lot in conjunction with the postings here on RailUK.

 

[Dr_Paul]

didnt the Southern do something like the Metropolitan, and actually facilitate house building to fill their trains with commuters?

I shall find my copy of Alan Jackson's book on the London suburbs and have a look.

Further to my earlier comment, I had a look at the Village London Atlas, a collection of 1" OS maps from 1820, 1860 and 1900, which shows the development of London and its surroundings from just before the railway age to the end of the century. Comparing a place at the three dates is often fascinating: many of the early stations were quite a step from the settlement they served. What then happened can be interesting.

The first Harrow station, now Harrow and Wealdstone, was in open countryside halfway between Harrow on the Hill and Harrow Weald; by 1900 it was surrounded by the new settlement of Wealdstone. A similar process occurred with Barnet station on the Great Northern, with New Barnet appearing between Chipping Barnet and East Barnet. So here the railway started the development of a new settlement.

With some towns and villages where the station was a mile or so away, the land in between the settlement and station became developed; for example, Lower Tooting, centred on the crossroads where Tooting Broadway station was eventually built, expanded towards Tooting station. This also happened in Hounslow, which grew towards the LSWR station to the south of the town centre, and Isleworth, starting with a ribbon of development along the road between the riverside settlement and the LSWR station to the west. Sometimes new stations were opened to serve development between existing stations, such as North Sheen, opened when much of the land along the line between Richmond and Mortlake had been developed.

Other stations, for example, Richmond, Barking, Edgware, were conveniently close to the old town centre. Barnes, on the other hand, is to this day in the middle of Barnes Common and is a fair walk from anywhere, and Barnes Bridge is closer to the original village centre.

I've just realised that I'm straying well away from the original subject of this thread, so I'll stop here.

 

[Ken H]

...
Further to my earlier comment, I had a look at the Village London Atlas, a collection of 1" OS maps from 1820, 1860 and 1900, which shows the development of London and its surroundings from just before the railway age to the end of the century. Comparing a place at the three dates is often fascinating: many of the early stations were quite a step from the settlement they served. What then happened can be interesting.....

My great grandad had a dairy company, and owned a dairy herd, in Camberwell. At some time he moved his business to Lee- dont know why. He died of a heart attack just before WW1. Amazing farming was still happening there so recently.

 

[Lemmy99uk]

Bootle (Cumbria) isn’t in Bootle (Cumbria), it’s in the village of Hycemoor.
If they renamed it “Hycemoor (for Bootle)” it would be slap bang in the middle of the village it was named after.

 

[apinnard]

Clacton on Sea. It's inconveniently located in Clacton.

 

[northwichcat]

Northwich - close to the border between Northwich and Rudheath rather than near the centre of the town.

 

[daodao]

Northwich - close to the border between Northwich and Rudheath rather than near the centre of the town.

But it can't be any nearer. The line crosses London Road (the nearest it gets to the town centre) and the Weaver and Dane rivers on a viaduct. It is convenient for Tesco.