Least useable station?

[Phil.]

Don't try using Dorking Deepdene if you're wheelchair bound.

 

[reb0118]

Heysham Port must be amongst them. You can spend 16 minutes there before you have to catch the train back.

Time for tea & a biscuit at the café at the ferry terminal.

 

[greaterwest]

Don't try using Dorking Deepdene if you're wheelchair bound.

Or Dorking West if you want a decent train service

 

[Mojo]

Whilst well served in comparison to the above, Angel Road in North London must be a contender for the south of the country. A pretty poor service that dumps you in the middle of a scrap yard. You then have to walk about a quarter of a mile along a footpath / jungle assault course to the station entrance, which is a hole in the wall of a busy road just off the N Circular. And then, when you think you have reached civilisation, you realise you are in the *rse end of Tottenham.

Yep, it took me a while to find it, but I have actually used Angel Road for genuine transportation purposes! I had visited Ikea and the big Tesco, and was on my way to Stratford afterwards!

 

[crispy1978]

Not when the Ferry leaves an hour before the train arrives. :roll:

Seriously? What's the point of the service at that time then?

Edit: Yep - 12:00 departure, gets in at 11:30. Latest check-in 25 minutes before departure as well.

 

[MassDiscussion]

I've never been there, but Teesside Airport is apparently the UK's least used railway station.

 

[jamesr]

Seriously? What's the point of the service at that time then?

Edit: Yep - 12:00 departure, gets in at 11:30. Latest check-in 25 minutes before departure as well.

The Isle of Man ferry is on an unusual schedule at the moment; the Ben-My-Chree which normally sails Douglas to Heysham is in for its biannual check-up for a fortnight, and has been replaced temporarily by the Liverpool boat on an earlier (and faster) sailing. Normally arrives 1215 and leaves 1415 which fits with the rail timetable.

 

[bnm]

A fair number of the stations on the Severn Beach line would qualify as fairly uselessly situated, Clifton being an exception. The same is true in the westerly direction (Bedminster and Parsons St) . The reason is that they are not ringed by useful busy facilities but tend to be in remote unfriendly situations (like Angel Road described earlier). You would not want your teenage daughter going anywhere near them.

No? Yet passenger numbers on the Severn Beach Line are increasing year on year. Remote and unfriendly couldn't be further from the truth. I've used this line at least weekly since 2007, often daily, and don't see it as useless at all. Neither do many many more. Station usage figures for the line in 2013/2014 totalled 1.5 million. In 2002/2003 that figure was 0.5 million. Pretty impressive growth (300% over 11 years) for 'fairly uselessly situated' stations. Growth has slowed in the last couple of years, not because of poor stations, but because of capacity constraints. Greater frequency and longer trains are now needed.

Local authority subsidy on the line was £450,000 in 2008. Today it is nil. Farebox has replaced subsidy.

In 2010 this line with 'remote unfriendly' stations got a Sunday service for the first time in it's history.

The line has been a real success. Thanks to the combined efforts of local authorities, the train operator, the Severnside Community Rail Partnership and Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways. The dark days of Wessex Trains are long gone. Your comments HowardGWR could not be further from the truth.

Incidentally it's Clifton Down. If you want Clifton you'd be better off on the bus.

And I'd be happy for my 14 year old daughter to use the line and its stations. As many parents patently are too, purchasing scholars passes in their hundreds.

 

[birchesgreen]

Smallbrook Junction, no way off the station except by train

Danzey seems to be in the middle of nowhere with the nearest village a long walk away along a country lane

 

[cool110]

Reddish South and Denton both get just the one train per week on Friday mornings from Stockport to Stalybridge.

 

[DarloRich]

Hello
I was thinking of / sort of planning a walk NW down the Irwell valley to see the Meccano Bridge at Nob End (I assure you that they both really do exist) and picked the closest station to start from, Clifton.

It turns out that it has just 1 train Southbound (~7am) and 1 northbound (1821) each day. Not much use for my needs, but have we got a lot of these? Tees-side airport has no trains at all (today anyway) and I know intermediate stations on the Stockport to Stalybridge line have one train, one way only, one day a week.

Are there any others that are as useless? If the cost of maintaining the station is there (& I presume it is totally unmanned) why not have it as a request stop on a suitable service?
It's not Norton Bridge...

It depends what you mean by usable. Not all stations are usable by all passengers.

 

[30907]

You can catch tomorrow's ferry...

Or travel when the ferry is running its normal timetable again from next month. It's the overhaul season (do I recall that Steam Packet have had the odd encounter - brief of course -with non-floating objects this winter?)

 

[tellytype]

do I recall that Steam Packet have had the odd encounter - brief of course -with non-floating objects this winter?

If you count the harbour wall, then yes...

 

[Deepgreen]

Aside from being in superb countryside, Dent is about four miles (and about 500 feet vertically) from the village it serves.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Clifton is a bit of an oddity in that it's not really surrounded by very much. It sort of serves Clifton Green (at the top of a massive hill) but most of the area is best served by Swinton station instead. It's a former junction that had a role as that but now doesn't really have much of one.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Whilst well served in comparison to the above, Angel Road in North London must be a contender for the south of the country. A pretty poor service that dumps you in the middle of a scrap yard. You then have to walk about a quarter of a mile along a footpath / jungle assault course to the station entrance, which is a hole in the wall of a busy road just off the N Circular. And then, when you think you have reached civilisation, you realise you are in the *rse end of Tottenham.

It's pretty convenient for the huge Ikea though, better than elbowing on to the minibus from Tottenham Hale, which is why I've used it. Have to agree about the walk from the station though- let's just say I walked pretty briskly to the main road.

I'd say Sudbury and Harrow Road wins the south east round of the least usable station competition.

 

[infobleep]

Don't try using Dorking Deepdene if you're wheelchair bound.

Not to worry, they tell you at Dorking Deepdene that Dorking West is nearby and offers step free access. What they don't tell you is that trains only run every 2 hours off peak and all weekend.

So could be a lengthy wait! Even more so if your trying to get to Gomshall or Chilworth. In fact during the middle of the day, they suggest going via Dorking Deepdene. Perfect change in one's wheelchair.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Or travel when the ferry is running its normal timetable again from next month. It's the overhaul season (do I recall that Steam Packet have had the odd encounter - brief of course -with non-floating objects this winter?)

Or change the train timetable to reflect the current ferry timetable or amend the ferry timetable to match the train timetable.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[mbreckers]

Breich

 

[HowardGWR]

Incidentally it's Clifton Down. If you want Clifton you'd be better off on the bus.

Yes I knew that, (born and bred in Bristol). However, I have a subconscious objection to Clifton Down, as it's a hike up the hill to get to the Downs (the 's' on the end would perhaps have been better). Blackboy Hill would have been a better name. It was always a challenge to remember one's way to the zoo from there!

Sorry about my T.I.C. troll but pleased that your answer was so interesting and helpful.

I still think many of the station environments are pretty miserable and remote and that will go for the re-opened Ashley Down too. I suppose that greater footfall to and from them will make them safer and seemingly less intimidating. A few neighbourhood shops next to stations would help.

 

[Envy123]

Whilst well served in comparison to the above, Angel Road in North London must be a contender for the south of the country. A pretty poor service that dumps you in the middle of a scrap yard. You then have to walk about a quarter of a mile along a footpath / jungle assault course to the station entrance, which is a hole in the wall of a busy road just off the N Circular. And then, when you think you have reached civilisation, you realise you are in the *rse end of Tottenham.

It's pretty convenient for the nearby warehouses, one of them where I work at.

You'd think that an employment hub would have good public transport, but no, I have to do a long walk, bus to Tottenham Hale if I want to go to central London. :roll:

 

[Clip]

It's pretty convenient for the nearby warehouses, one of them where I work at.

You'd think that an employment hub would have good public transport, but no, I have to do a long walk, bus to Tottenham Hale if I want to go to central London. :roll:

Really? theres about what tops of say 2000+ people who work there overall maybe and you think its a hub and needs a direct link to central London? To be fair its what 20 mins to Silver street then change at seven sisters to get central? Its not that arduous surely?

 

[Deepgreen]

Not to worry, they tell you at Dorking Deepdene that Dorking West is nearby and offers step free access. What they don't tell you is that trains only run every 2 hours off peak and all weekend.

So could be a lengthy wait! Even more so if your trying to get to Gomshall or Chilworth. In fact during the middle of the day, they suggest going via Dorking Deepdene. Perfect change in one's wheelchair.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Or change the train timetable to reflect the current ferry timetable or amend the ferry timetable to match the train timetable.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

Better off going via Reigate where there is SFA from both platforms, albeit with a longish route from one to the other.

 

[IanM]

Heysham Port must be amongst them. You can spend 16 minutes there before you have to catch the train back.

Far better to spend several days on the wonderful Isle of Man - and the train timetable is actually well integrated with the boat, except when Ben-My-Chree is in dry dock which she is just now, so that one's actually not as silly as it looks.

 

[bramling]

Hello
I was thinking of / sort of planning a walk NW down the Irwell valley to see the Meccano Bridge at Nob End (I assure you that they both really do exist) and picked the closest station to start from, Clifton.

It turns out that it has just 1 train Southbound (~7am) and 1 northbound (1821) each day. Not much use for my needs, but have we got a lot of these? Tees-side airport has no trains at all (today anyway) and I know intermediate stations on the Stockport to Stalybridge line have one train, one way only, one day a week.

Are there any others that are as useless? If the cost of maintaining the station is there (& I presume it is totally unmanned) why not have it as a request stop on a suitable service?
It's not Norton Bridge...

Lapford on the Barnstaple line is not particularly user-friendly. The station itself is perfectly fit for purpose, except that the access is via a stairway that emerges straight on to a pretty busy A road with no pavement, and the need to cross an awkward bridge, also with no pavement, to reach the village. There's no parking, nor even a safe place to stop a car outside the entrance.

 

[Kite159]

It's pretty convenient for the huge Ikea though, better than elbowing on to the minibus from Tottenham Hale, which is why I've used it. Have to agree about the walk from the station though- let's just say I walked pretty briskly to the main road.

I'd say Sudbury and Harrow Road wins the south east round of the least usable station competition.

The trains which arrive at Sudbury are quite busy with commuters, as it saves the long drag on the Piccadilly line.

On that grounds Angel Road probably wins the least usable station in London.

 

[6Gman]

Smallbrook Junction, no way off the station except by train

Dyfi Junction?

Long walk to ... well, anywhere.

 

[Parallel]

A fair number of the stations on the Severn Beach line would qualify as fairly uselessly situated, Clifton being an exception. The same is true in the westerly direction (Bedminster and Parsons St) . The reason is that they are not ringed by useful busy facilities but tend to be in remote unfriendly situations (like Angel Road described earlier). You would not want your teenage daughter going anywhere near them.

I agree that some of the Severn Beach Line stations don't feel particularly friendly, but the only one I'd try and avoid at night where possible would be Stapleton Road.

Some good stations have been mentioned! I was going to suggest Sugar Loaf and Lympstone Commando but Lapford was a good one - And I have been there too (after dark) and you really need a torch or something if you're planning on walking along that main road.

Coombe Junction Halt can't be particularly usuable either. 4 trains a day stop there (two to Looe, two to Liskeard), but the second is in the afternoon as the platform has no lighting, so not useful for commuting. And it is in the middle of nowhere and serves like 3 houses at the bottom of the valley.

Tygwyn on the Cambrian Coast doesn't look too great on Google maps - Station is literally to the side of the level crossing with a ramp straight down onto an A road with no pavements.

 

[tsr]

I think one of the most inhospitable locations I've been to wasn't on one of my adventures to a remote Scottish station, or somewhere with a Parly service, or anything like that.

It's Millbrook in Bedfordshire. Unless you either a) like bus-shelter-style waiting facilities or b) are visiting one of the few immediately nearby houses, it's at the very least a bit of a long-winded trudge down the side of a busy main road to get to any of the nearest settlements of any size. Which I have done, on a cold December evening, in the dark, with a massive suitcase. Not recommended, as I've once or twice posted before!

Also, you can only cross the track via the level crossing, which, not being a quick AHBC or similar automatic crossing, is a sure way to make people miss their trains!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Whilst well served in comparison to the above, Angel Road in North London must be a contender for the south of the country. A pretty poor service that dumps you in the middle of a scrap yard. You then have to walk about a quarter of a mile along a footpath / jungle assault course to the station entrance, which is a hole in the wall of a busy road just off the N Circular. And then, when you think you have reached civilisation, you realise you are in the *rse end of Tottenham.

About a year ago, I found myself between Northumberland Park and Angel Road. Never been in the area previously and needed to get home. As it happened I chose to walk to Northumberland Park. As I was walking up to the station I saw a train departing. I wasn't particularly worried - after all, this is London. Bound to be another train within 15 minutes or so. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I had an hour's wait! But at least the station was reasonably pleasant and accessible. I'm guessing from your description that if I'd chosen Angel Road, I'd have had even more of a shock...

 

[stuart100100]

Stanlow & Thornton. Four trains a day in each direction at inconvenient times. In the middle of an oil refinery on a private road you can't access by vehicle