Trivia: Minor stations on the approach to major stations

[Springs Branch]

Did Park station go at the same time as Miles Platting and for the same reasons? Does it have an equivalent Metrolink station?

According to this list*, Park station closed on the same day as Miles Platting (27 May 1995 - this date also saw the closure of Godley East on the Hadfield line).

According to the Wikipedia article for Park station, it closed for similar reasons to Miles Platting.

The Metrolink line to Oldham & Rochdale is not particularly close by - though there are reasonably frequent buses along nearby Briscoe Lane, which probably contributed to the demise of the station.

* Source: http://webarchive.nationalarchives....erbrstations/ofclosuredatestopassenge2682.pdf

 

[Thebaz]

Many major termini have one station on the lines out of them which is very small & usually receives fewer trains than most stations on the line:

• Queenstown Road (London Waterloo)
• Wandsworth Common (London Victoria)
• Queens Park (London Euston)
• Acton Main Line (London Paddington)
• Adderley Park (Birmingham New Street)
• Bordesley (Birmingham Moor Street)
• Ardwick (Manchester Piccadilly)
• Manors (Newcastle Central)

In a few cases there was once such a station, but no longer:

• Spa Road (London Bridge/CX/CST)
• Bishopsgate Low Level (London Liverpool Street)
• Holloway (London Kings Cross)
• Westbourne Park (London Paddington)
• Holbeck (Leeds Central)
• St Dunstans (Bradford Exchange)
• Bridge Street (Glasgow Central)

Feel free to add to this list. Is there a reason for this or is it just a coincidence?

When you say Wandsworth Common, do you mean Battersea Park perchance? WC is three stops out from Victoria whereas Battersea Park is first stop out just across the Thames. It still gets a relatively decent service though. Without checking I'd say it has at least 4tph maybe 6.

 

[Taunton]

There are a few such that are the opposite, where the first inner station is heavily used. Haymarket is probably the most prominent, given that most trains which call there terminate at Edinburgh Waverley. London has developed a fair few, often in more recent times, Clapham Junction or Stratford. Notable about these is that almost all the demand is outward, rather than to the terminus.

 

[Leisurefirst]

Although there is now no station at Westbourne Park on the main line into Paddington, the station is still served by the Hammersmith and City and Circle Line services. So apart from those who wish to travel west who need to double back from Paddington there is no loss of amenity for local residents at all. If anything the service is better as eastbound the trains go past Paddington.

Ah, but the thing was you could travel from Westbourne Park to Ealing Bdy very quickly with just a zones 2 & 3 travelcard.
There was an easement for about a year after closure IIRC but after that you needed the much more costly zones 1 to 3 travelcard instead to double-back.
(Or go by tube via Hammersmith & District - much longer. Not so bad post Wood Lane opening now can change to Central at White City). Still a lot longer though!

 

[Springs Branch]

Adding to the OP's original list under "In a few cases there was once such a station, but no longer", going west from Manchester on the Chat Moss line towards Liverpool, there was a station in inner Salford at Ordsall Lane, which was little used in later years and closed in 1957.

Ordsall Lane was the first station 1 mile out from the terminus - Manchester Exchange in those days - but there were several more closely-spaced local stations between Manchester & Eccles which all closed on different dates between 1942 and 1959 - well before the Beeching era.
These were located at Cross Lane, Seedley and Weaste.

Probably the main reason for closure was cheaper and much more frequent buses along the parallel main road (Regent Rd & Eccles New Rd) which took you to more convenient destinations in central Manchester (see the Disused Stations webpages for examples of the infrequent timetables in later years). Closure of Ordsall Lane and the other stations seems to have occurred a few years before slum clearance and later urban blight depopulated this part of Salford, and well before the M602 or Windsor Link came through the area.

 

[faltskog36abba]

Park station used to primarily serve the Co-op jam factory, I think, and when it closed - don’t know when - it lost most of its purpose.

Park station was my local station in the 80s and it did indeed cater for the CO OP. It also had Mather and plat engineering and Manchester Abbatoir next door- All gone now. Miles platting was the same with - Mathew Swayne, Wilsons brewery, Monsall hospital and Moston brook high school, There was also Sharp electrical up the road-all gone.

 

[D365]

Cambridge Heath and London Fields before London Liverpool Street

I would have named Bethnal Green? Adjacent to the Great Eastern but no platforms on either of the pairs.

 

[Killingworth]

Closed since the 1960s and long forgotten is Heeley elevated above the A61 midway between Millhouses station and the locomotive depot and Sheffield Midland. Not much to see now to remind of 4 tracks, platforms and signal box; https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/wp...eeley-station-abandoned-railway-sheffield.jpg

An old picture is in Sheffield Archives' see; http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=zoomWindow&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s14710&prevUrl=

 

[700007]

I would have named Bethnal Green? Adjacent to the Great Eastern but no platforms on either of the pairs.

I thought about Bethnal Green, don't know if you would count it? It sees a train every 7-8 minutes (8 out of 16 trains per hour off-peak) on the West Anglia lines, whereas London Fields and Cambridge Heath only see 4 out of 16 trains).