Station names on the UK rail network that you would change

[Dr Hoo]

New Pudsey = Pudsey (or Pudsey and Farsley)

The station was Pudsey's "new station", opened on 6 March 1967.

I think it may have now completed its "run in period".

Well, the New Street in Birmingham was first laid out in the 11th century and was named in Latin. People alive today should live to see its millennial anniversary.

Perhaps it should be renamed as Old Street .

 

[61653 HTAFC]

New Pudsey = Pudsey (or Pudsey and Farsley)

The station was Pudsey's "new station", opened on 6 March 1967.

I think it may have now completed its "run in period".

Surprisingly you only rarely hear people referring to the area around the station as "New Pudsey"- and that's usually just in reference to the nearby Owlcotes Centre retail park. Even the bus companies (particularly First WY who seem to like inventing place names) haven't tried it. Arriva's 205 always had "Pudsey Owlcotes" as the destination.

 

[bramling]

The first Parkway stations were Bristol Parkway, opened in 1972, followed by Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway, opened in 1973.

The original concept was new stations near to motorway junctions, to help Inter City compete with the motorways for London traffic.


Didcot station does not just serve Didcot, it is also the parkway station for Abingdon and Wantage.


East Midlands Parkway now performs the same function for which Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway was originally constructed, though at junction 24 of the M1, not junction 28.


I think you are right that Parkway means that now. I think that's useful, and that's why I think that Audley End should be Saffron Walden Parkway, and should have been renamed when Whittlesford became Whittlesford Parkway in 2006, if not before.

I’ve never really understood the point of Whittlesford Parkway, that always seemed like an utterly pointless renaming.

How many people actually know what parkway even signifies?

As for Audley End, surely anyone that lives in or near Saffron Walden knows that Audley End is the nearest station? It isn’t like the station is *that* far out anyway - it’s just about walkable for the average person, and easily done by cycle.

 

[Djgr]

Is Liverpool South Parkway unique in not allowing overnight parking?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Is Liverpool South Parkway unique in not allowing overnight parking?

Amongst Merseyrail stations? No
Amongst Parkways? I wouldn't know

 

[Bletchleyite]

Amongst Merseyrail stations? No
Amongst Parkways? I wouldn't know

I have never heard of any TOC other than Merseyrail having this utterly ridiculous policy which is tantamount to encouraging drink driving* and encourages people to park on residential streets instead of in the station, annoying those living nearby. I could understand a reasonable fee being chargeable for parking for more than one day (Merseyrail parking is generally free) but not offering the option to park overnight at a railway station is just a ludicrous policy.

Metrolink is the same apart from Friday-Sunday I think.

* Yes, I know this is the driver's responsibility, but if someone had parked there and had a couple they would be more likely to drive home on the basis that they're probably under the limit and are unlikely to get caught, whereas if parking overnight was permitted they'd be more likely to leave the car overnight and come back for it in the morning. Financially disincentivising good behaviour is just ridiculous as a policy.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I have never heard of any TOC other than Merseyrail having this utterly ridiculous policy

Should you ever have cause to try to use the north car park at Slough overnight, you may have an unpleasant surprise. When I last used it (admittedly a few years ago before Covid) it was charged - but there was no facility to buy an overnight ticket. So if you needed to park overnight (as you might well need to do if you were staying in the adjacent Holiday Inn Express which has a miniscule car park) you would be hard pressed to avoid getting in trouble with the car parking company.

Returning to Merseyrail, for most of their car parks refusing overnight parking isn't daft in that they're overwhelmingly small car parks for a dozen or so cars. Essentially shoppers and commuters park up there and then go home after going into town. I am inclined to say that (in general - there are always exceptions) Merseyrail stations are frequent enough that anyone going into town for a drink can choose to walk to the station and not worry about their car which they will have left safely at homw.

I think the exceptions are Parkway and St Helens Junction - and for Parkway in particular if I were Merseyrail I would be concerned about in the summer it turning into an unplanned temporary caravan park. Like it or not, Liverpool is now a tourist attraction - and there are plenty of people who want to do Liverpool on the cheap. A free caravan site would suit many of them nicely - to the detriment of the locals.

 

[Bletchleyite]

New thread for the parking discussion:

Overnight parking at Merseyrail stations

Should you ever have cause to try to use the north car park at Slough overnight, you may have an unpleasant surprise. When I last used it (admittedly a few years ago before Covid) it was charged - but there was no facility to buy an overnight ticket. So if you needed to park overnight (as you...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[AY1975]

On the London Underground Turnham Green and Chiswick Park have always seemed to be the wrong way round. Chiswick Park station is nearer to the open space called Turnham Green. Turnham Green station is opposite Chiswick Common and the nearest station for the High Street.

And how about renaming Putney Bridge as Fulham South, Bishops Park (after the park located close to the station) or Craven Cottage (after Fulham FC's ground located at the opposite end of Bishops Park from the station)?

Its current name, Putney Bridge, is accurate in that it is located adjacent to Putney Bridge, but can be confusing for anyone who doesn't know the area as they might alight there thinking that they were in Putney when they are actually in Fulham.

This thread from 2018 on the procedure for renaming a station (or rather the lack of a set procedure for doing so) may also be of interest: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/renaming-a-station.159873/

 

[urbophile]

I do think that the Liverpool/ Liverpool Street thing is really not helped by the Liverpool station being Lime Street. I can easily imagine someone unfamiliar and/or in a hurry at Norwich getting mixed up between "London Liverpool Street" and "Liverpool Lime Street", especially since it's common to drop the "London" from such stations.

I wouldn't change either station name to avoid that necessarily as it's very much an edge case, might just be better to change how trains are advertised at Norwich (and if there are any other stations with links to both - Ely?).

It's probably far too entrenched to change now, but there was an opportunity when Liverpool Central ceased to be a mainline terminus that it could have been renamed something like Bold Street or Lyceum. Then Lime Street could have become Liverpool Central. Ticket booking websites will offer 'Liverpool Central' as a destination which may well confuse people into thinking it is the city's main station. It's probably not a major problem though except for travellers from Norwich, as Lime Street is fairly well known nationally.

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At least they had a competition for this name, unlike the unfortunate Headbolt Lane.

And it didn't end up being Station McStationface. But I still can't understand why the 'Liverpool'. It niggles.

 

[Zomboid]

It's probably far too entrenched to change now, but there was an opportunity when Liverpool Central ceased to be a mainline terminus that it could have been renamed something like Bold Street or Lyceum. Then Lime Street could have become Liverpool Central

Given Exchange has also gone, it could probably just be "Liverpool" now as it's the only city station with services beyond the Merseyrail network.

 

[urbophile]

Carlisle to Carlisle Citadel.

I realise it was originally called that, but why revert? There is only one station in Carlisle isn't there?

 

[Mikey C]

The 2 main stations in Cambridge and Oxford should be renamed...

Cambridge Central(ish) and Oxford Central(ish)

 

[William3000]

The first Parkway stations were Bristol Parkway, opened in 1972, followed by Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway, opened in 1973.

The original concept was new stations near to motorway junctions, to help Inter City compete with the motorways for London traffic.


Didcot station does not just serve Didcot, it is also the parkway station for Abingdon and Wantage.


East Midlands Parkway now performs the same function for which Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway was originally constructed, though at junction 24 of the M1, not junction 28.


I think you are right that Parkway means that now. I think that's useful, and that's why I think that Audley End should be Saffron Walden Parkway, and should have been renamed when Whittlesford became Whittlesford Parkway in 2006, if not before.

Audley End station despite being quite close to the M11, is a long way from a junction as it’s next to one of the longest stretches of motorway in the country without a junction.

 

[75A]

Portsmouth & Southsea back to Portsmouth Town as it was in the last century and what the locals have always called it, even though the town was given 'City Status' in 1926.

 

[Djgr]

It's probably far too entrenched to change now, but there was an opportunity when Liverpool Central ceased to be a mainline terminus that it could have been renamed something like Bold Street or Lyceum. Then Lime Street could have become Liverpool Central. Ticket booking websites will offer 'Liverpool Central' as a destination which may well confuse people into thinking it is the city's main station. It's probably not a major problem though except for travellers from Norwich, as Lime Street is fairly well known nationally.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Sep 2025 ==


And it didn't end up being Station McStationface. But I still can't understand why the 'Liverpool'. It niggles.

Fundamentally none of these things could or should happen just to cater for the odd lost East Anglian.

The three choices for the name for the new station all had Liverpool as the prefix. Anyway I quite like it.

 

[MadMac]

What about...

Pollokshields East becomes Polloksheilds
Pollokshields West becomes Strathbungo
Pollokshaws East becomes Newlands
Pollokshaws West becomes Pollokshaws

Would this make things clearer or more confusing?

Langside was “Langside and Newlands”. On Colchester: the present Dunfermline City was previously Dunfermline Town, Dunfermline and Dunfermline Lower.

 

[Miles Bown]

I’ve never really understood the point of Whittlesford Parkway, that always seemed like an utterly pointless renaming.

While it probably doesn't merit changing again, if anything it should've been renamed Sawston Parkway, given that (along with adjacent Pampisford) it's a much larger settlement roughly the same distance from the station as Whittlesford itself. It's also the closest station to Duxford IWM which is next to the motorway - I wonder if this deserves a mention on the station nameboards à la 'Audley End for Saffron Walden'.

 

[xotGD]

It's probably far too entrenched to change now, but there was an opportunity when Liverpool Central ceased to be a mainline terminus that it could have been renamed something like Bold Street or Lyceum. Then Lime Street could have become Liverpool Central. Ticket booking websites will offer 'Liverpool Central' as a destination which may well confuse people into thinking it is the city's main station. It's probably not a major problem though except for travellers from Norwich, as Lime Street is fairly well known nationally.

Another example of where a UK-equivalent of Hauptbahnhof would come in useful. "Liverpool Main".

 

[Turtle]

Another example of where a UK-equivalent of Hauptbahnhof would come in useful. "Liverpool Main".

The two "Cs", Croydon and Crawley could do with rationalisation:-
East Croydon to Croydon Central
West Croydon to Croydon West
South Croydon to Croydon South
Three Bridges to Crawley East
Crawley to Crawley Central
Ifield to Crawley West

 

[Bletchleyite]

Another example of where a UK-equivalent of Hauptbahnhof would come in useful. "Liverpool Main".

Interestingly the Dutch use Centraal for that even if it isn't. We could too - you'd perhaps have to rename the current Liverpool Central to Liverpool Bold St or something, but that wouldn't be disastrous. Exeter Central is the only other one I can think of that would break it, but you could rename it to Exeter City. Or use General, though it sounds dated.

Of course historically Central in the UK also meant "of the Great Central Railway" - and ironically most of their stations, like those on the Midland Mainline, were very much *not* central compared to other railways!

 

[Fawkes Cat]

West Croydon to Croydon West
South Croydon to Croydon South

Kindly provide an analysis of how the benefits of these changes would outweigh the costs.

 

[zwk500]

Three Bridges to Crawley East
Crawley to Crawley Central
Ifield to Crawley West

I suspect the users of Three Bridges and Ifield would prefer not to be reminded of their proximity to Crawley, even as a warning!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Sep 2025 ==

Interestingly the Dutch use Centraal for that even if it isn't. We could too - you'd perhaps have to rename the current Liverpool Central to Liverpool Bold St or something, but that wouldn't be disastrous. Exeter Central is the only other one I can think of that would break it, but you could rename it to Exeter City. Or use General, though it sounds dated.

Central is probably the nearest the UK could reasonably use, unless it went for a policy of using 'Town/City' exclusively for stations that perform a Hbf-type role.

 

[Gloster]

Interestingly the Dutch use Centraal for that even if it isn't. We could too - you'd perhaps have to rename the current Liverpool Central to Liverpool Bold St or something, but that wouldn't be disastrous. Exeter Central is the only other one I can think of that would break it, but you could rename it to Exeter City. Or use General, though it sounds dated.

Of course historically Central in the UK also meant "of the Great Central Railway" - and ironically most of their stations, like those on the Midland Mainline, were very much *not* central compared to other railways!

What! Name a Southern station with the word used by that other railway. Heresy!.

More seriously, Central is close to the centre and, unless things have changed since I lived there forty plus years ago, St David’s is beyond the edge of the city at the bottom of a hill. I presume that the hill is still there, even if there have been other changes.

 

[Djgr]

Interestingly the Dutch use Centraal for that even if it isn't. We could too - you'd perhaps have to rename the current Liverpool Central to Liverpool Bold St or something, but that wouldn't be disastrous. Exeter Central is the only other one I can think of that would break it, but you could rename it to Exeter City. Or use General, though it sounds dated.

Of course historically Central in the UK also meant "of the Great Central Railway" - and ironically most of their stations, like those on the Midland Mainline, were very much *not* central compared to other railways!

Of course last time I looked at the passenger numbers, Liverpool Central was the "main" station in the city.

 

[Zomboid]

What! Name a Southern station with the word used by that other railway. Heresy!.

More seriously, Central is close to the centre and, unless things have changed since I lived there forty plus years ago, St David’s is beyond the edge of the city at the bottom of a hill. I presume that the hill is still there, even if there have been other changes.

I don't think the names in Exeter really cause much confusion, do they? Even if you alight at the wrong Saint then you're still in the right city, and long distance IC services only really call at St Davids so those less likely to be familiar with it aren't going to be able to arrive at the wrong station.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Of course last time I looked at the passenger numbers, Liverpool Central was the "main" station in the city.

It's the busiest, but it's not what Germany would call the Hauptbahnhof; it's an "S-Bahn" station. The Hbf isn't necessarily the busiest one, it's the best connected one, and that's Lime St.

In Germany it would probably be Liverpool-Mitte/Liverpool-Zentrum or Liverpool-Boldstrasse, whereas Lime St would definitely be the Hbf.

 

[urbophile]

Of course last time I looked at the passenger numbers, Liverpool Central was the "main" station in the city.

I thought of pointing that out. But of course from the point of view of travellers from the rest of the UK it is insignificant (unless they are coming south from Scotland and end up via Ormskirk).

 

[Bletchleyite]

I thought of pointing that out. But of course from the point of view of travellers from the rest of the UK it is insignificant (unless they are coming south from Scotland and end up via Ormskirk).

As I said it's the busiest station, but in many German cities that might well be a similar U- or S-Bahn station. It is not however the *main* station, which would typically be the one with the InterCity services, or if they're split across two like Manchester the one with the London service. In most cities there's an obvious one, the key exceptions probably being Glasgow (Central has the London and Manchester trains but mostly just stoppers otherwise, while Queen St has the main Scottish IC services) and London itself.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

(unless they are coming south from Scotland and end up via Ormskirk).

And there's a persistent worry on this forum (even on this thread) about people coming from Blackburn and so on whose train terminates at Headbolt Lane: presumably they could also continue their journey and arrive in Liverpool at Central. If they can't cope with 'Headbolt Lane' are we really being responsible suggesting changing the name of Liverpool Central - how could they possibly cope?