Trivia: Counties served by one TOC and the county with the most TOCs

[Lewlew]

So in terms of counties with the fewest, I would imagine there is several with just 2 TOCs operating. Cornwall only has GWR and XC, and as far as I can work out, West Sussex only has GWR and GTR.

Just had a quick look on Google Maps and was interested to see that West Sussex has a very small part of the Portsmouth Direct running through it, no stations though. So do SWR and XC count?

The thin red line on the attached map is the border of West Sussex.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Moray County (Scotland) by scotrail only?

As you say, Moray possibly doesn't count as an English county.

 

[pdeaves]

Heathrow Express is run by GWR now so does that make it similar to Gatwick/Stansted Express?

I would say no. Gatwick/Stansted are branded TOC services. Heathrow is a separate company's operation that happens to be outsourced to GWR for actual train running (fares, advertising, setting the timetable, etc. are still Heathrow responsibility). It could just as easily have been contracted to West Coast Railway or anyone else! Obviously, there are advantageous synergies using GWR.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

It all gets stupid at "county" level with the continual carving up of the medieval counties into autonomous unitary authorities.
Wales and Scotland have also had their own re-invention of counties inside different boundaries.
What is "Cheshire" any more, now it has been stripped of Wirral, Altrincham, Stockport and Stalybridge and what remained divided between East and West+Chester?
But we do have a Cheshire Day Ranger (other railway counties are available - although not "Yorkshire"), which allows some nostalgia.

 

[Parallel]

Wiltshire only has 2 TOCs; GWR and SWR. XC trains do call at Swindon when on diversion though but that’s not very often.

Previously it would have had 4. Wessex Trains, First Great Western, Thames Trains (Bedwyn)? and South West Trains.

 

[mrcheek]

It all gets stupid at "county" level with the continual carving up of the medieval counties into autonomous unitary authorities.
Wales and Scotland have also had their own re-invention of counties inside different boundaries.
What is "Cheshire" any more, now it has been stripped of Wirral, Altrincham, Stockport and Stalybridge and what remained divided between East and West+Chester?
But we do have a Cheshire Day Ranger (other railway counties are available - although not "Yorkshire"), which allows some nostalgia.

There are many who would argue that current counties mean nothing, and that only ancient historical counties count.
In which case, Russell Grant is the leading authority thanks to his great book "The Real Counties of Britain"

 

[thenorthern]

Most has to be Greater London.

Isle of Wight has one.

I take it we are doing ceremonial counties? Blackburn with Darwen for example is a Unitary Authority and only has one operator.

 

[dan4291]

Caithness and Sutherland up at the top of Scotland are counties served only by Scotrail.

EDIt: can disregard as just noticed the (English) in the original post.

 

[Right Away]

I was just waiting for it all to kick off when I saw that the question included 'county' in it! The current system is a mess with historic, ceremonial, administrative and metropolitan/non-metropolitan and subsequent unitary authority versions available to argue over. You have places such as Bournemouth. It was historically in Hampshire but now falls in the ceremonial county of Dorset but is administered as a local unitary authority as part of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and not as part of Dorset Council! Some counties also had exclaves detached from the rest of the area.

 

[37 418]

Elgin and Nairn railway stations in Moray are only run by Scotrail

Nairn isn't in Moray, it's in Highland (traditionally in Nairnshire). Forres however is in Moray

 

[thenorthern]

Administrative counties from what I can see Blackburn with Darwen, Isle of Wight, Thurrock, Central Bedfordshire, West Berkshire all are only served by one operator.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Surely the answer to the county with the most TOCs this is the same answer to what station has the most TOCs calling at it - I think Manchester Piccadilly, Doncaster, and Stockport were up there:

I suggest not necessarily - what about counties with several different lines, each with different TOCs, passing through? Of course, there's a much better chance of this if the pre 1974 counties are used (generally larger/ more sprawling).

 

[si404]

Central Bedfordshire

Leighton Buzzard, Aspley Guise, Ridgmont, Lidlington and Millbrook wave hello (presumably you got Harlington, Flitwick, Arlesey, Biggleswade and Sandy as Thameslink)

West Berkshire

The Berkshire unitaries are not their own non-metropolitan counties.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

West Berkshire

The Berkshire unitaries are not their own non-metropolitan counties

Although of them, Slough is also only served by GWR.

 

[si404]

Although of them, Slough is also only served by GWR.

The local service has been provided by TfL Rail since December.

 

[pinkmarie80]

Leicestershire only has two also- EMR and XC.

 

[cav1975]

A clarification of what you meant by counties would have been nice to begin with if we're only counting certain types of counties. (It's definitely not your fault the whole thing is a mess!)

Medway wouldn't count anyway due to Thameslink's Luton-Rainham service.

As a Medway resident I also found the definition of counties in post 1 less than obvious, hence my comment. To be fair however, I did forget about the (almost useless as it is so slow) Thameslink service.

 

[thenorthern]

I suggest not necessarily - what about counties with several different lines, each with different TOCs, passing through? Of course, there's a much better chance of this if the pre 1974 counties are used (generally larger/ more sprawling).

The last ceremonial county changes were in 1996 so that is the definition of what a "county" normally is.

The 1974 counties however are a better example of counties than the 1996 ceremonial counties. This will make me very unpopular but the 1974 counties are much better for things like this. For example despite what is written on paper South Gloucestershire is more a part of the former county of Avon than it is Gloucestershire.

 

[si404]

The last ceremonial county changes were in 1996 so that is the definition of what a "county" normally is.

they were invented as a separate category in 1996. The last change was 2019, when Dorset was redefined. Borders didn't change (unlike the 3 non-metropolitan counties that were abolished and replaced with two new ones at the same time) though.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Although of them, Slough is also only served by GWR.

The local service has been provided by TfL Rail since December.

Ah. Forgot about that. Sorry.

 

[59CosG95]

Just had a quick look on Google Maps and was interested to see that West Sussex has a very small part of the Portsmouth Direct running through it, no stations though. So do SWR and XC count?

The thin red line on the attached map is the border of West Sussex.

View attachment 80966

You could argue that Rutland is also "served" by LNER, Hull Trains, Grand Central and even Caledonian Sleeper if you use this as a precedent - a short section of the ECML passes through the eastern corner of the county!

 

[paul1609]

Medway is part of the ceremonial county of Kent so not counted (as well as Thurrock, Milton Keyness, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole etc)
I forgot about Island Line too, but I kinda regarded it as part of SWR (lack of distinct branding) but that technically counts.

Medway is also served by Thameslink /GTR

 

[paul1609]

The following counties (in England) have 6 or more TOCs serving it:

Cheshire - 8 (TfW, EMR, Caledonian Sleeper, WMT, Northern, CrossCountry, Avanti West Coast, Merseyrail)

Greater London - 17 (Southeastern, WMT, Avanti West Coast, Overground, Caledonian Sleeper, c2c, LNER, Thameslink-GN, Hull Trains, Grand Central, Greater Anglia, Tfl Rail, Chiltern Railways, GWR, Southern, SWR, Eurostar)

Greater Manchester - 6 (Northern, TransPennine Express, TfW, CrossCountry, EMR, Avanti West Coast)

Hertfordshire - 10 (Avanti West Coast, WMT, Southern, LNER, Hull Trains, Thameslink-GN, EMR, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Overground)

City of London - 6 (TfL Rail, Thameslink-GN, Southeastern, Greater Anglia, c2c, Overground)

Merseyside - 7 (Merseyrail, EMR, WMT, Northern, TransPennine Express, TfW, Avanti West Coast)

North Yorkshire - 6 (CrossCountry, EMR, TransPennine Express, Grand Central, LNER, Northern)

South Yorkshire - 7 (CrossCountry, EMR, Hull Trains, TransPennine Express, Grand Central, Northern, LNER)

West Yorkshire - 6 (CrossCountry, LNER, EMR, TransPennine Express, Northern, Grand Central)

Southern should really count as GTR now but Hertfordshire also has Caledonian Sleeper (Watford Junction) and if you are including open access North Yorkshire should include NYMR (Whitby)