Trivia: Stations that are electrified but have no electric trains calling.

[stadler]

Millbrook is electrified but has zero electric trains booked to call. The entire timetable in both directions and on all days of the week is diesel trains. Is this the only one on the network? Can anyone think of any other electrified stations with zero electric trains booked to call?

 

[steamybrian]

Needham Market on the electrified Ipswich to Norwich line is (or was) only served by cross country DMUs from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds- Cambridge- Ely and beyond.
The intermediate stations between Newcastle and Chathill (except Morpeth and Alnmouth) are served by DMUs only. I am open for correction.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Millbrook is electrified but has zero electric trains booked to call. The entire timetable in both directions and on all days of the week is diesel trains. Is this the only one on the network? Can anyone think of any other electrified stations with zero electric trains booked to call?

Chathill, Pegswood, Widdrington, Acklington, Manors,
Heath High Level-Rhymney (bit cheeky that one)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Mar 2026 ==

Needham Market on the electrified Ipswich to Norwich line is (or was) only served by cross country DMUs from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds- Cambridge- Ely and beyond.

Needham Market is now served entirely by bi-modes that use electricity when calling.
One call by an 802 on weekday evenings is the only thing stopping Thirsk from being one.

 

[stadler]

Needham Market on the electrified Ipswich to Norwich line is (or was) only served by cross country DMUs from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds- Cambridge- Ely and beyond.
The intermediate stations between Newcastle and Chathill (except Morpeth and Alnmouth) are served by DMUs only. I am open for correction.

For years there used to be a once a day in each direction 360 that called at Needham Market until around 2019 and then it got scrapped. It ran Stowmarket to London in the morning peak and London to Stowmarket in the evening peak. So it meant Needham Market always got two electric trains a day.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

May I suggest Fairfield station, in East Manchester? It's on the electrified Manchester Piccadilly to Glossop/Hadfield line, but the only trains that ever call at Fairfield are normally Northern DMU's working from Manchester Piccadilly to/from Rose Hill Marple.

 

[VT 390]

The new stations at Darlaston and Willenhall are only served by Birmingham to Shrewsbury stopping services formed on diesel class 196 units.

 

[imagination]

Chathill, Pegswood, Widdrington, Acklington, Manors,
Heath High Level-Rhymney (bit cheeky that one)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Mar 2026 ==


Needham Market is now served entirely by bi-modes that use electricity when calling.
One call by an 802 on weekday evenings is the only thing stopping Thirsk from being one.

Another cheeky one is Carnforth - not only the west coat mainline's unused platforms are electrified but also the the line to Barrow is through the station.

 

[Kite159]

Newcraighall & Brunstane

West Allerton

Fairfield, I'm sure it used to have a couple 323s calling there in the peaks, but seems those no longer run.

 

[mlambeuk]

Ulleskelf

 

[Kite159]

Rotherham Central & Sunderland

 

[Thornaby 37]

Rotherham Central & Sunderland

I'm sure the Tyne & Wear Metro and South Yorkshire Supertram are both electric

 

[GraphitProjekt]

Davenport, Woodsmoor and Hazel Grove don't seem to get any electric services on the Hazel Grove stoppers.
Also in the Manchester area, the Stalybridge to Southport/Wigan Northwestern trains don't seem to be using class 769 bimodes at all. Unless I'm wrong on this and RTT simply describes them for some reason as a class 15x. If so this brings in Ashton-under-Lyne as well as Westhoughton, Hindley and Ince.
As a former example, South Tottenham was electrified in 1989 as part of a connection between Southbury Loop and WAML, there was occasional parliamentary use with Enfield to Stratford trains but I think they'd ceased for many years by the time the whole route was electrified in 2018.

Newcraighall

History of this one surprised me. The Millerhill avoiding line was not (as I had assumed) electrified with ECML but instead only much later by "Edinburgh Crossrail" in 2002 but only from Newcraighall to Portobello Jnc, not sure what electric service used that but I think it would have been overridden by Borders Railway. Electrification was extended from Newcraighall back round to Monktonhall Jnc as part of the EGIP project in 2017 for the Millerhill depot.

For years there used to be a once a day in each direction 360 that called at Needham Market until around 2019 and then it got scrapped. It ran Stowmarket to London in the morning peak and London to Stowmarket in the evening peak. So it meant Needham Market always got two electric trains a day.

Wow, I never knew about this, couldn't easily find any video evidence of it on youtube but I'm sure someone must have filmed it at some point, what was the point of the move!?

 

[waverley47]

History of this one surprised me. The Millerhill avoiding line was not (as I had assumed) electrified with ECML but instead only much later by "Edinburgh Crossrail" in 2002 but only from Newcraighall to Portobello Jnc, not sure what electric service used that but I think it would have been overridden by Borders Railway. Electrification was extended from Newcraighall back round to Monktonhall Jnc as part of the EGIP project in 2017 for the Millerhill depot

I'm going to have to check your facts on this one I'm afraid.

The line was electrified back in 1991, and somewhere I have pictures to back that up. The line was first regularly used to shuttle electric locos backwards and forwards from Millerhill, and electric freight via Waverley, to and from Carstairs.

The first regular passenger associated workings were the 90s and mk. 3 sets while they were working the North Berwick turns. The locos, sets, and the 90s working the sleepers, were stabled at Millerhill between turns.

Although the line was electrified for the entire direction of operations to Newcraighall, no electric unit ever ran the shuttle, mainly because they were usually extended through to Dunblane, Bathgate, or latterly Fife, interworking with pure DMU routes on the other side of Waverley.

Furthermore, ScotRail didn't have enough EMUs over at Waverley, with the North Berwick line worked by the shortened rockets mentioned above, or with EMUs from Shields, cycling through on "via Carstairs" turns.

That led the line to be a bit of an oddity, with the decline in ECML electrified freight and the reversion to EMU operations meaning that the wires through Millerhill were basically unused for about a decade.

The building of the Millerhill EMU stabling sidings led to the wires being used very regularly indeed, however the Monktonhall to Millerhill sections remains poorly used.

However one particular oddity of EGIP was the provision of a fully signalled route through the yard, up to passenger standards, which may be where the confusion is coming from. In the end, the fully signalled route is in limbo, and is only needed fully in association with a future Waverley to Craigentinny blockade, but work has been done and it is still there, sitting not yet commissioned on top of the existing signalling.

 

[Paul AC]

Also in the Manchester area, the Stalybridge to Southport/Wigan Northwestern trains don't seem to be using class 769 bimodes at all. Unless I'm wrong on this and RTT simply describes them for some reason as a class 15x. If so this brings in Ashton-under-Lyne as well as Westhoughton, Hindley and Ince.

You are over-relying on the "pathed as" details in the scheduling system (which RTT reports as you've said). Stalybridge, Ashton-under-Lyne, Westhoughton, Hindley and Ince(*) all get called at by electric trains when a class 769 is working a given service. For example today (30 March 2026), 2W05 0752 Stalybridge to Southport is being worked by 769450 (RTT link: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L05435/2026-03-30/detailed).

(*) The 769s change mode during the station call at Ince when working from or to Wigan Wallgate. Note the two 'oddball' evening Stalybridge - Wigan North Western workings, scheduled this way as they run to Allerton for maintenance, don't call at Ince.

 

[jfollows]

Davenport, Woodsmoor and Hazel Grove don't seem to get any electric services on the Hazel Grove stoppers.

Not none, 323 208 on 2H92 08:10 Hazel Grove to Piccadilly today, https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L07044/2026-03-30/detailed#allox_id=0

This unit comes into Manchester from Macclesfield, goes empty to Hazel Grove, works 2H92 back to Manchester and then goes empty to Ardwick.

Earlier it started as two sets from Ardwick, splits in Piccadilly with one going to Crewe and the other empty to Macclesfield.

Later in the day the Hazel Grove services interoperate with the Buxton services, so have to be DMU.

See also 2H08 17:58 to Hazel Grove, https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L07431/2026-03-30/detailed#allox_id=0, also 323 208. Returns empty to Ardwick via Piccadilly.

 

[d9009alycidon]

I'm going to have to check your facts on this one I'm afraid.

The line was electrified back in 1991, and somewhere I have pictures to back that up. The line was first regularly used to shuttle electric locos backwards and forwards from Millerhill, and electric freight via Waverley, to and from Carstairs.

The first regular passenger associated workings were the 90s and mk. 3 sets while they were working the North Berwick turns. The locos, sets, and the 90s working the sleepers, were stabled at Millerhill between turns.

Although the line was electrified for the entire direction of operations to Newcraighall, no electric unit ever ran the shuttle, mainly because they were usually extended through to Dunblane, Bathgate, or latterly Fife, interworking with pure DMU routes on the other side of Waverley.

Furthermore, ScotRail didn't have enough EMUs over at Waverley, with the North Berwick line worked by the shortened rockets mentioned above, or with EMUs from Shields, cycling through on "via Carstairs" turns.

That led the line to be a bit of an oddity, with the decline in ECML electrified freight and the reversion to EMU operations meaning that the wires through Millerhill were basically unused for about a decade.

The building of the Millerhill EMU stabling sidings led to the wires being used very regularly indeed, however the Monktonhall to Millerhill sections remains poorly used.

However one particular oddity of EGIP was the provision of a fully signalled route through the yard, up to passenger standards, which may be where the confusion is coming from. In the end, the fully signalled route is in limbo, and is only needed fully in association with a future Waverley to Craigentinny blockade, but work has been done and it is still there, sitting not yet commissioned on top of the existing signalling.

Millerhill was live before Craigentinny, I have photographs of class 91s stabled in the yard during driver training runs.

 

[tom1649]

Although the line was electrified for the entire direction of operations to Newcraighall, no electric unit ever ran the shuttle, mainly because they were usually extended through to Dunblane, Bathgate, or latterly Fife, interworking with pure DMU routes on the other side of Waverley.

Class 322s have worked to Newcraighall in the past. See the lead article in this newsletter: http://www.rages.org.uk/downloads/Rag16.PDF

The main event in recent weeks was
the four day closure of the line from
January 4th to 7th for engineering work to
take place at Dolphinstone. Passengers
required to catch a shuttle train between
Edinburgh and Newcraighall and
undertake the rest of the journey by bus.
The Class 322s were used, with the
through service from Bathgate and
Dunblane becoming a connection at
Waverley for the duration of the works.

 

[waverley47]

Class 322s have worked to Newcraighall in the past. See the lead article in this newsletter: http://www.rages.org.uk/downloads/Rag16.PDF

Well there you go, you learn something new every day.

 

[A S Leib]

Rotherham Central & Sunderland

I would add Harrow-on-the-Hill, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Chalfont & Latimer and Amersham, but "no electric National Rail trains" wasn't the specification.

Whilst IBM may not have any electric services now, I'm guessing electrification was done before it became unused.

 

[Mag_seven]

I'm guessing electrification was done before it became unused.

The branch was electrified in 1967!

 

[Harpo]

Until the T&H was electrified through to Gospel Oak, Woodgrange Park spent more than half a century with OHLE but only DMUs regularly calling there.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Fairfield, I'm sure it used to have a couple 323s calling there in the peaks, but seems those no longer run.

Did wonder about that, but can't see anything other than DMU's calling there (= Fairfield) in the current Winter 2025/26 timetable.

 

[Farigiraf]

Salwick is on the electrified Preston-Blackpool North line but it only has DMU services to Blackpool South.

 

[Kite159]

Salwick is on the electrified Preston-Blackpool North line but it only has DMU services to Blackpool South.

Another one which used to have a couple of token calls by 319s heading towards Blackpool North, although that would be a couple of years ago.

 

[barbette165]

The new stations at Darlaston and Willenhall are only served by Birmingham to Shrewsbury stopping services formed on diesel class 196 units.

Although from the May timetable change, the class 730 operated 22:27 from New Street to Wolverhampton (2W99j will call at both stations, it currently passes through non-stop.

 

[Ian Hardy]

West Allerton & Mossley Hill are only served by trains that also serve Warrington Central so they are all diesel (Allerton would have been the same before it was renamed Liverpool South Parkway and more services now call).

Before the North West Triangle Electricification:
Euxton Balshaw Lane
Leyland
Newton le Willows
Earlestown
Edge Hill

 

[Kite159]

West Allerton & Mossley Hill are only served by trains that also serve Warrington Central so they are all diesel (Allerton would have been the same before it was renamed Liverpool South Parkway and more services now call).

Before the North West Triangle Electricification:
Euxton Balshaw Lane
Leyland
Newton le Willows
Earlestown
Edge Hill

Mossley Hill gets an hourly call from London Northwestern with the semi-fast Liverpool - Birmingham service

 

[Robert Carroll]

Very historic now but for 20 or so years following the Bournemouth line electrification, Branksome saw lots of electric trains every day but none called there. The line from Bournemouth Central to Branksome was electrified as the depot access was (and is) from Branksome down the remains of the line that ran to Bournemouth West. The direct curve towards Central was taken out of use and the depot partially built across its formation.

 

[Falcon1200]

Also historical; Although the line through it was electrified in 1974, for many years Holytown station was served by diesel trains only (the Glasgow/Edinburgh via Shotts service). Thankfully that is no longer the case.

 

[brad465]

Millbrook is electrified but has zero electric trains booked to call. The entire timetable in both directions and on all days of the week is diesel trains. Is this the only one on the network? Can anyone think of any other electrified stations with zero electric trains booked to call?

Redbridge would also count were it not for one or two peak services to/from Poole/Bournemouth calling.