Which stations/services have seen the seen the worst decline since privatisation?

[TUC]

It would be just as valid however to highlight the stations which have seen significant improvements in service since privatisation. As well as all the places benefiting from open access operators to London, such as Halifax, Hull and Hartlepool, it is often forgotten that much of the ECML previously had barely any Sunday morning services. That changed with privatisation.

 

[Falcon1200]

The Fishguard branch used to have overnight trains which it doesn't anymore.

I recall, way back in the 1980s, using the Fishguard-Paddington overnight train, having arrived at Fishguard off the ferry. But I also recall that when my train from Dublin arrived at Rosslare Harbour, I was the one and only passenger alighting from it to catch the ferry! And that was before the days of low cost airlines.

 

[30907]

The Fishguard branch used to have overnight trains which it doesn't anymore.

That's because the ferry sailings were retimed a couple of years ago.

It has significantly more trains overall though.

 

[nw1]

Brighton's a big winner, overall. Very few people travelled on the long-distance stuff and the frequencies it now enjoys to both London Bridge and London Victoria are enviable for much of the country. It also has brand new 12-car trains and good connections along the coast.

It doesn't have fast connections to Hampshire anymore, though (hopefully) this is just a Covid-related temporary state of affairs.

 

[wilbers]

Norton Bridge is a relic of the old Grand Junction Railway which went on to become the LMS and then the West Coast Mainline. It’s glory days would have been before the Second World War (so more than a hundred years of service) but increased car ownership from the 1950s onwards electrification of the West Coast in the 1960s saw it lose platforms and suffer a huge decline in services. It had the most sparse parliamentary service of Stafford to Stoke shuttles for years before they finally killed it, but the rot was in years and years before privatisation.

I was just having a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Bridge_railway_station

Usage figures for the 2 years after it closed were higher than 0. Was there a journey in 2005-7 where it was possible to use as an origin/destination enroute but for a cheaper fare and those usage figures are from the handful of people that knew about it? Suppose a few could have been people buying a ticket to the next station as a souvenir rather than wanting it to travel.

 

[Ken H]

I was just having a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Bridge_railway_station

Usage figures for the 2 years after it closed were higher than 0. Was there a journey in 2005-7 where it was possible to use as an origin/destination enroute but for a cheaper fare and those usage figures are from the handful of people that knew about it? Suppose a few could have been people buying a ticket to the next station as a souvenir rather than wanting it to travel.

Train tickets were useable on a bus service.

 

[70014IronDuke]

... Similarly, a few of the services from St Albans northwards went to places well north of Bedford,...

I think St Albans lost its last HST services before privatisation. Once Thameslink was up and running, or v soon after, BR cut all main line trains bar a token one morning in the down and one evening in the up.

ICBW, but I think it was like that by about 1990 or 91.

 

[Recessio]

Newhaven Marine.

 

[frodshamfella]

What about Hartford? It used to have a mix of Intercity and local services, that included calls on Liverpool to London and Liverpool to Cardiff services. Now there's an hourly Liverpool to Birmingham, that's effectively a stopper until it gets south of Crewe.

I would think Liverpool Lime Street itself has been short changed quite a bit since privatisation .

 

[urbophile]

privatisation was the first time that we opened more stations than we closed for about a hundred years

Correlation is not causation. The (re)opening of more stations has been driven by demographic change, the problems of road transport and (mostly local) government policy. A nationally owned rail service would arguably have been even better placed to do this. I say 'arguably' because unimaginative management could equally well block such initiatives.

 

[43074]

privatisation was the first time that we opened more stations than we closed for about a hundred years

I'm pretty sure that started happening in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Would Alton and Bentley (Hampshire) count?

As I recall, in BR days through the 1970s and 1980s, they both had a half-hourly service to Waterloo with journey times from Alton of just over an hour. Today the journey is nearer an hour 20 minutes. In recent years, Alton has tended to have an almost-half-hourly service but with some gaps during the day, while Bentley has dropped to hourly. I'm not entirely sure though to what extent those changes happened pre or post privatisation.

 

[jackot]

Would Alton and Bentley (Hampshire) count?

As I recall, in BR days through the 1970s and 1980s, they both had a half-hourly service to Waterloo with journey times from Alton of just over an hour. Today the journey is nearer an hour 20 minutes. In recent years, Alton has tended to have an almost-half-hourly service but with some gaps during the day, while Bentley has dropped to hourly. I'm not entirely sure though to what extent those changes happened pre or post privatisation.

Yes good candidate. I live very close to Bentley and it has seen quite a sizeable decline - despite nearby Farnham still having a half-hourly London service, as well as getting a new direct service to Guilford in 2017

 

[tbtc]

Correlation is not causation. The (re)opening of more stations has been driven by demographic change, the problems of road transport and (mostly local) government policy. A nationally owned rail service would arguably have been even better placed to do this. I say 'arguably' because unimaginative management could equally well block such initiatives.

You can say that all of the good things that happened under privatisation would have happened anyway if you want

But I’d present Exhibit A - the way that the DfT/ Government have been running the railway over the last couple of years (since they swapped “franchises” for “concessions”, so that all significant decisions reside with the DfT/ Government rather than TOCs/ franchise bids)

If you can look at the penny pinching and heel dragging and sly cuts (pushing commitments into the long term, cutting services and not being in any particular hurry to reinstate them…) and tell me that you’d be confident with the railway being run like this since the 1990s then fair enough, I’ll not try to argue the point any further

(Obviously we’d all love an enlightened Government who invested huge sums in Rail to secure a long term plan for improvements, and who let railway professionals get on with things without interference, but realistically I think that we have to look at the mess that the government has made over health/ education/ other public services over the past dozen years and accept that of Rail had similarly been at the mercy of zealous Ministers/ reluctant civil servants then it wouldn’t resemble the enlightened ideal that we all might wish for!)

I'm pretty sure that started happening in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

I’d be interesting to confirm - I remember putting together a list of the various stations/ lines that were closed in the final decade of BR, only to get the response on here that “oh, but that wasn’t BR’s fault, they were forced into these closures by the government trying to ensure that privatisation would look good”

(because, as I’ve said many times, nothing was ever BR’s fault in the eyes of some people, e.g. Beeching/ Tories/ Labour closed lines but BR deserve credit for reopening routes, all new trains were because BR were great at investing but the cuts to proposed fleets we’re all the fault of baddie politicians interfering and penny punching…)

Certainly Woodhead was closed in the 1980s and the Settle’n’Carlisle nearly closed, as well as many smaller scale cuts - Sinfin North/ Attercliffe/ Brightside etc

 

[Kingston Dan]

I don't recall that ever being the case, even with HSTs on the ECML.

There's a discussion here from 2019 that covers the KX-GLA services: https://railforums.co.uk/threads/gner-to-glasgow-central.181338/

 

[Bevan Price]

St. Helens Junction.
It had an hourly semi-fast service to Manchester Airport plus an hourly stopping service to Manchester Victoria.

Now reduced to an hourly stopping service to Manchester Airport, with most trains continuing to Crewe or Wilmslow. Plus a handful of peak hour stopping trains to Manchester Victoria. Best journey time to Manchester increased by about 10 minutes. And reliability now very erratic.

 

[Grecian 1998]

You could make an argument for the Westbury - Dorchester section of the Heart of Wessex line. Same frequency as pre-privatisation (8 tpd), same stopping pattern (all stations) but longer journey times (at least 2h 21m as opposed to 2h 11m in 1992) as virtually every service seems to have a lengthy wait at one or more of Yeovil PM, Castle Cary, Frome or Westbury. Annoyingly trains still seem to lose 5-10 minutes on just about every journey I make anyway.

The line has gone from using largely 150s with 2+3 seating pre-privatisation to using largely 150s with 2+2 seating and now 165s or 166s with 2+3 seating. An upgrade followed by a downgrade IMHO (although better than the un-refurbished 150s). 165s do at least have fairly reliable air cooling but the air con on the 166s tends to make that on the 158s look reliable.

The Bristol - Westbury section has in fairness seen an improvement as it now has a clockface hourly service. Previously places like Keynsham and Bradford on Avon had a very inconsistent timetable with some lengthy off-peak gaps.

The other frustration is that virtually every other ex-Wessex route operated by GWR has seen a significant frequency improvement post-privatisation, even the Melksham route (eventually, after a major downgrade) but not this one.


Another candidate might be the Wick branch of the Far North Line, as it has significantly increased journey times now a single 158 provides the service and goes via Thurso rather than 2 x 156s splitting at Georgemas Junction. 158s are more comfortable (and at least ropey air con isn't generally a problem that far north) but at the cost of a significantly longer journey.

 

[Falcon1200]

There's a discussion here from 2019 that covers the KX-GLA services: https://railforums.co.uk/threads/gner-to-glasgow-central.181338/

Thanks, interesting discussion there. One service not mentioned, now sadly lost, was an overnight seating train; On Summer Fridays GNER's 2000 ex Glasgow Central ran through to Kings X, albeit arriving there at an unearthly hour!

 

[Kingston Dan]

Thanks, interesting discussion there. One service not mentioned, now sadly lost, was an overnight seating train; On Summer Fridays GNER's 2000 ex Glasgow Central ran through to Kings X, albeit arriving there at an unearthly hour!

Never used that one - but certainly used to use the GNER service which took around 50 mins several times on Hampden trips - particularly on the way back as it got to the pub to drown your sorrows quicker than waiting in the queue at Queen Street for only a slightly faster service.

 

[ashkeba]

When did Lakenheath lose most of its services?