The Largest Town most Isolated from the Rail Network

[ValleyLines142]

Fleetwood 28,000, should have its railway reinstated. Being a port, it is surprising it lost it in the first place. The line, disused, is still laid as Thorton Cleveleys by the Old ICI plant.
Closest station, Blackpool North around 8 miles.

Do you know, what an absolutely coincidence! I was just going to mention Fleetwood!

I suppose it's the same for towns further up the coast as well, unless you count Barrow-in-Furness as a nearby station as the crow flies.

 

[tbtc]

Always makes me smile when cross border issues arise, to see the big English hubs Chester/Shrewsbury/Hereford stations managed from Cardiff Bay

Yup - it just shows how railways don't tie neatly up with politics (like Merseyside PTE liveried Pacers being seen all over northern England)

But it would be so much quicker if we had a line going straight around the Brecon Beacons (not through it as it would destroy its natural beauty!)

I don't think a line through the hills would be particularly fast though - compare the line speeds on the "direct" HoWL from Swansea/Llanelli to Shrewsbury with the "less direct" service via Cardiff/ Newport.

I can't see any line through the Welsh countryside being a very fast one.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

15,000 is hardly big.

Kenilworth is twice the size of those and has a through line, but still no station (yet).

It is daft that Kenilworth has no station when a railway line passes through the town, but if you live in Kenilworth and have a car then at least you can be at Warwick Parkway or Tile Hill (Coventry) in 10-15 minutes. Not so good if you are trying to travel into Kenilworth from elsewhere I guess.

 

[Eagle]

It is daft that Kenilworth has no station when a railway line passes through the town...

A long stretch of single-line railway which carries no local traffic, to be fair. And the bus links to Coventry and Leamington stations are extremely frequent.

 

[ValleyLines142]

I can't see any line through the Welsh countryside being a very fast one.

Not slow like the Heart of Wales Line, that is just something else that line

I think it would be fast.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

The terrain would suggest otherwise!

 

[ValleyLines142]

The terrain would suggest otherwise!

Not going directly through the Brecon Beacons!!

 

[MidnightFlyer]

So which way do you propose then? Not very much of Wales is flat and as I recall many of the old lines in the South / South West were slow and windy...

 

[ole man]

Lets do a HS2 style railway and go straight through Wales with tunnels

 

[tbtc]

Not slow like the Heart of Wales Line, that is just something else that line

I think it would be fast.

The terrain would suggest otherwise!

Not going directly through the Brecon Beacons!!

So which way do you propose then? Not very much of Wales is flat and as I recall many of the old lines in the South / South West were slow and windy...

You'd either have to hug the coast (with all its twists and turns) or force it through the hills. Both would be very slow routes, and maybe no faster than the current Cardiff - ENGLAND - Holyhead service.

Since there's not a lot of population in the middle of Wales (compared to the population of Hereford/ Shrewsbury/ Chester etc) you'd be spending millions to save maybe a couple of minutes at very little benefit. But, you could dress it up as some parochial thing, I guess...

 

[Schnellzug]

Lets do a HS2 style railway and go straight through Wales with tunnels

that's what i was thinking, people seem to be pressing for HS7, or LGV Pays de Galles Est.