Trivia: Stations that were open/closed for the shortest time

[backontrack]

1) Which stations in the UK were open for the shortest time before being closed?

2)And, which stations were closed, before being reopened, for the shortest time?

Station refurbishments and engineering works do count, as long as the station was completely closed for any amount of time.

Workington North is an obvious example for the first - opened 30 November 2009, closed 8 October 2010.

Rogart for the second - closed 13 June 1960, reopened 6 March 1961.

Any more?

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Meikle Ferry?
I had actually thought it was a shorter time, but according to Railscot, it was open for 5 years before closing in 1869.

 

[northwichcat]

Workington North?

Opened 30 November 2009, closed 28 May 2010.

 

[DeeGee]

Something like Hatfield and Stainforth then for the second? Feb 2013 - Jul 2013. I'm guessing it was closed then.

 

[O L Leigh]

Ely Temporary Station at Chettisham would top the lot being open only from 11 April to 10 May 1992 while Ely was being remodelled during electrification.

O L Leigh

 

[gordonthemoron]

Leeds Whitehall, opened 1999, closed 2002

 

[mirodo]

All the stations mentioned so far have been temporary (and intended as so upon opening). What about stations which were meant to be permanent, but had a short life?

 

[thedbdiboy]

I'm pretty sure nothing beats Salcey Forest and Stoke Bruerne, on the Stratford & Midland Junction Railway 'cut-off' between Towcester and Olney (Northants). These were substantial, permanent stations that both opened on 1 December 1892, and after a life of a few months closed on 31 March 1893, having been used by pretty much nobody. The line itself was used for goods traffic until 1958.
Stoke Bruerne survives as a private house, but there is no trace at all of Salcey Forest, and if you find the location on a map it seems pretty amazing that a station ever got built there, it really is in the middle of nowhere.

 

[cjohnson]

Heathrow Junction was open for only 5 months in 1998.

 

[mikeg]

I don't really know any but the shortest opening of a station that was not intended to be temporary I can think of is Trouble House Halt, open for about 5 years.

 

[Busaholic]

4/5/1859 TO 27/6/1859 Respryn station on Cornish main line, built by Cornish Railway because Bodmin Road wasn't ready for the opening of the line on 4th May.

 

[plarailfan]

There was a station, not far from the 256 yards, Butternab tunnel, which opened and closed within the space of a month way back in June 1874.
The station was intended to be permanent and it was on the Huddersfield / Lockwood to Meltham branch line. It was named "Dungeon Wood" at first, but the name was soon changed to "Woodfield"
Apparently, the customers, were, in the main, a few workers, employed at a nearby mill !

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Perhaps I have an unfair advantage, running the Closed Stations Journey Quiz on the Quizzes and Games forum. Be that as it may, the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway opened its Howood station on 21st July 1840, but then closed it three weeks later on 11th August 1840.

A later station, with the slightly different spelling of Howwood opened 36 years later, 200 metres south-west of the original site on 1st December 1876 which was closed on 7th March 1955 and it was on the site of that second station that the current station on the Ayrshire Coast Line was opened on 12th March 2001.

 

[racyrich]

In my neck of the woods, Essex, what is now Hainault tube station closed after 5 years in 1908 and reopened in 1930.
Cannon Street Road, just out of Fenchurch St, managed 6 years, 1842-1848.
Acrow Halt survived 7 years.
Tollesbury Pier managed 14 years.
The Southbury Loop stations had an initial 18 years open, then 6 closed, then 4 open, then 41 closed again until reopening permanently in 1960.

 

[thenorthern]

The shortest station I can think of is Settle Junction which was open for one year with the line but closed because of lack of usage.

The shortest lived station recently I can think of is Sinfin North and Sinfin Central which had regular services for only 17 years from 1976 to 1993 and then became taxi only until 1998. A hole new line with two new stations for just 22 years of services, what a waste.

 

[RichmondCommu]

The shortest lived station recently I can think of is Sinfin North and Sinfin Central which had regular services for only 17 years from 1976 to 1993 and then became taxi only until 1998. A hole new line with two new stations for just 22 years of services, what a waste.

What you have posted is incorrect. The line is still used to deliver fuel to Rolls Royce but more importantly the route was actually built in the 19th century.

 

[KeithP]

Watford Stadium Halt didn't last long.
Opened: 4 December 1982.
Last train to stop there was probably in 1993.
I.e. about eleven years.
Only used on Watford FC home match days.

 

[edwin_m]

What about Ramsline Halt in Derby, used twice I think.

 

[backontrack]

Workington North?

Opened 30 November 2009, closed 28 May 2010.

Erm - I mentioned it in my initial post.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

Corby was reopened by British Rail for a short time then closed until EMT reopened it again. Midland Mainline did run a bus service in the meantime though.

 

[IanD]

Towcester and Olney (Northants)

Towcester (Northants) and Olney (Bucks)

 

[Strathclyder]

Glasgow Dunlop Street (or just Dunlop Street) was opened on 12th December 1870 by the City of Glasgow Union Railway. It was closed by the Glasgow and South Western Railway on 17th October 1876, the same day that St. Enoch was opened to passengers.

 

[dzug2]

Warmsworth station at one end of the Doncaster avoiding line was fully built to open on 1 May 1916 - but never did for passengers

There were apparently some other stations on the avoiding line that suffered the same fate but I can't identify them

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

What you have posted is incorrect. The line is still used to deliver fuel to Rolls Royce but more importantly the route was actually built in the 19th century.

If I may intercede here with some historical information, The Melbourne Line was opened in two time periods:-
The section from Derby Midland to Melbourne was opened in 1868
The section from Melbourne to Ashby-de-la-Zouch was opened in 1874.

We used the Melbourne Line very recently on a leg on the Closed Stations Journey Quiz on the Quizzes and Games forum.

 

[Chris M]

The first Canary Wharf station on the DLR was built but never opened before being demolished to make way for the large station there today.

 

[Hornet]

Finningley Temporary Platform. Opened for one day on the 19th September 1981 for an air display at RAF Finningley.

(Source:- Disused Stations Website).

 

[341o2]

Shirley Holms on the Lymington branch lasted a bit longer than I thought - 1860 to 1888 when closed in favour of Sway on the main line

Boscarne exchange platform also qualifies as a station with no other access by rail 1964 to 1966 to run a shuttle railbus off the Padstow to Bodmin line to serve Bodmin North station - line closed 1966

 

[theageofthetra]

Island Gardens DLR was open at its original position on the viaduct from 1987-1999. Wasn't there a station on the line out of Waterloo that was near Wandsworth which was only open for a short period during WWI to take injured servicemen to a hospital beside the line?

 

[thenorthern]

North End was going to be a station I think and some refer to it as Bull and Bush. I think it was going to be the deepest on the whole tube network but it was never opened but the platforms were built.

 

[plarailfan]

I just realised - there's a similar thread here http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=98817