Trivia: Largest population served by single track line

[HMS Ark Royal]

What about the joker in the pack - Stourbridge Town

 

[najaB]

What about the joker in the pack - Stourbridge Town

Way too short. Nice try though.

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Way too short. Nice try though.

I refer you to your opening post

Rather a random trivia question but it occurred to me today that Inverness is possibly the largest population centre in the UK that is served by predominantly single-track railways.

Are there any larger places that share the honour (I'm excluding Aberdeen because while Usan-Montrose is single track, that's a very short section of a long railway).

The line from the Junction to the actual town itself is single track and Stourbridge has a larger population then Inverness according to the last set of valid figures

 

[muddythefish]

How about Aberdeen - population circa 200,000 ?

 

[Railsigns]

I refer you to your opening post

The line from the Junction to the actual town itself is single track and Stourbridge has a larger population then Inverness according to the last set of valid figures

Stourbridge is also served by Stourbridge Junction station, which is on a double track line and so is disqualified.
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How about Aberdeen - population circa 200,000 ?

Is served by a double track railway coming in from the south and so is disqualified.

The challenge is to find the largest town that is served exclusively by predominately single track railways.

 

[atillathehunn]

I could be wrong but from Google maps it looks like the line north from Corby is mainly double?

Indeed, however it has no/very limited passenger services in that direction. The majority come from the south and terminate. How do you deal with this situation?

 

[james60059]

I could be wrong but from Google maps it looks like the line north from Corby is mainly double?

I think it's double track to a point just before Manton Junction where it meets the Peterborough - Leicester line when it becomes single track again, and makes a single lead junction. I think - but not 100% certain - trains accessing the line from Leicester such as the steel coils to Corby have to run "wrong line" from just outside Manton Tunnel, through the tunnel then onto the Corby line, although I did hear there was some improvements to be done on Manton Jct.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Manton Junction was re-doubled a couple of years ago under the Strategic Freight Network scheme.

 

[james60059]

Manton Junction was re-doubled a couple of years ago under the Strategic Freight Network scheme.

Oh I didn't know that , I should pay more attention to what's going on.

Cheers

 

[urpert]

Cheating a bit but nobody's mentioned Windsor (though only 27,000 population).

 

[Ianno87]

Cheating a bit but nobody's mentioned Windsor (though only 27,000 population).

If you ignore the double track route into Windsor & Eton Riverside...

 

[urpert]

Also, Isle of Sheppey (via Sheerness): 40,300
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If you ignore the double track route into Windsor & Eton Riverside...

Hence cheating. The single track route is the quickest way to London though...

 

[Argosy]

The one you've all missed.

Stansted Airport.

 

[Railsigns]

The one you've all missed.

Stansted Airport.

What's the population of Stansted Airport? Bigger than Inverness?

 

[yorksrob]

What's the population of Stansted Airport? Bigger than Inverness?

On the one hand, you could argue that its the population of the rest of the world.

On the other hand, you could also argue that that population is also reached via the quadruple track to Gatwick Airport !