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Trivia: stations which seem small for the town/city they serve (UK/rest of Europe)

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duesselmartin

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Both Dublin stations are probably appropriate in size given the nature of the Irish Rail network though.

Waterford is as a result of the rockfall from the cliff face some time ago. A new station is to be built with two platforms further east along the river.
Waterford. Former Platform 3 & 4 is still a through road to the port, with only the former through tracks removed. It would have to be used by trains to the new station, making the cliff arguement invalid.
Platform 6 could have been re-instated.
There seems to be a general trend in created cheap options in Ireland. Look at Rosslare Europort, Kilkenny or Tralee for example.
 
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berneyarms

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Waterford. Former Platform 3 & 4 is still a through road to the port, with only the former through tracks removed. It would have to be used by trains to the new station, making the cliff arguement invalid.
Platform 6 could have been re-instated.
There seems to be a general trend in created cheap options in Ireland. Look at Rosslare Europort, Kilkenny or Tralee for example.
The signal box at Waterford Station was damaged in the rockfall, which meant that significant expense would have been required to reinstate the through platform, full in the knowledge that it would be a short term measure before the new station was built. Trains use one of two tracks from Waterford West cabin (controlled from there) to go to the port or the station.

Unfortunately it has taken longer than anticipated for the funding for the new station to come through, but that development is about to start and it will have two platforms.

I don't really see what the issue is here? Kilkenny has two platforms and so has Tralee which are more than adequate for the services on those lines. Rosslare Europort was moved to create a secure shipside environment at the port, as it was bisected by a level crossing previously.
 

dutchflyer

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A former capital-as it was just a small provincial town before it came to be that; BONN in [West]Germany, mostly 2 thorugh platforms and a side one for a sideline.
The winner for me is one is lamenting the last year as being the ONLY town in all of Europe with >100.000 people and no station: VISEU in Portugal. Its former station is now covered up by a traffic roundabout.
The next winner with still a more or less real stop with the odd trains; TIRANA, Albania, when it still had the now broken up in town stop it had 1 or maybe 2 platforms and less as hourly departures.
In HUngary: Szeged, forgot how many platfs, but most of the day only the hourly train to Bpest, whereas its HU's 3d or 4th town in size.
Another capital; SKOPJE of the North-macedonia: half of the rather dilapidated train-station was hived off and nicely refurbished to become the main BUSstation-with many, many more deps/hr as the old train side.
Then the 3 capitals of the newly formed (years ago by now) Baltic republics: Tallinn must be the lesser of these 3.
 

duesselmartin

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I guess most of the Balkans have poor rail stations as rail has become less relevant.
In Greece rail never had a big share of the market and so Athens is in railway terms also underwhelming.
 

stuu

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A former capital-as it was just a small provincial town before it came to be that; BONN in [West]Germany, mostly 2 thorugh platforms and a side one for a sideline.
The winner for me is one is lamenting the last year as being the ONLY town in all of Europe with >100.000 people and no station: VISEU in Portugal. Its former station is now covered up by a traffic roundabout.
Marbella is even bigger and has never had any railway. The whole southern coast of Spain has a number of towns with >50,000 inhabitants and no rail access
 

MarcVD

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What really gets me amused is stations like Killarney in Ireland where trains have to back out in order to get back on the main line. Also in Valencia in Spain. Other examples of that ?
 

johncrossley

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The winner for me is one is lamenting the last year as being the ONLY town in all of Europe with >100.000 people and no station: VISEU in Portugal.

Reykjavik also has no station. The population according to Wikipedia is at least 131,136.


With a population of around 131,136 (and 233,034 in the Capital Region)
 

87015

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What really gets me amused is stations like Killarney in Ireland where trains have to back out in order to get back on the main line. Also in Valencia in Spain. Other examples of that ?
Just off top of my head in Czech happens at Turnov and Mlada Boleslav for various routes, Zubrinice branch at Velke Brezno for three. Cadca (SK) too when they aren’t using the carpark platform but shunting into main station.

Old Limerick Jn double shunt made Killarney dull anyway!
 

stuu

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What really gets me amused is stations like Killarney in Ireland where trains have to back out in order to get back on the main line. Also in Valencia in Spain. Other examples of that ?
Trains serving a terminus in a big city and reversing like in Valencia isn't that unusual, that happens at Frankfurt, Munich, Milan Centrale and I'm sure plenty of others. Reversing and then changing direction again like at Killarney is very rare though, why not just build a platform on the through line and save people 10 minutes on their journeys
 

ashkeba

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Belgrade! Topčider is tiny and the misnamed Central is a depressing underground station which has waited years for the surface building to be built. Imagine the old Birmingham New Street if they simply never got around to building the shops and just left a concrete slab with bolts and wires sticking up.
 

berneyarms

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Reversing and then changing direction again like at Killarney is very rare though, why not just build a platform on the through line and save people 10 minutes on their journeys
The vast vast majority of passengers on the Kerry line are going to/from Killarney with much lower numbers going on to either Farranfore or Tralee.

Relocating the station to alongside the through line would make it further from the town centre in Killarney (it’s currently within easy walking distance) and all of the hotels.

Given that tourism is the lifeblood of the town I doubt that relocating the station would be seen as a positive development.
 

Bigman

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I would put Wakefield on that list. Only 5 platforms between the 2 stations. Bradford not much better either.
 

MarcVD

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Trains serving a terminus in a big city and reversing like in Valencia isn't that unusual, that happens at Frankfurt, Munich, Milan Centrale and I'm sure plenty of others. Reversing and then changing direction again like at Killarney is very rare though, why not just build a platform on the through line and save people 10 minutes on their journeys

Just reversing once isn’t unusual but when I went in Valencia, my train reversed *twice*, first to get out of the station, and then a second time once on the main track, to continue our journey. It was a train from Barcelona to Malaga, named "Garcia Lorca", ans contained also sections to Sevilla and Granada that were detached en route. The loco remained attached to the same end of the train, it just pushed the train back out from the station, with a railway employee controlling the brakes from the rear end with a hand-held brake lever attached to the air hose. I have never seen that anywhere else, but have read that it was quite common on US railroads.
 

johncrossley

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But Reykjavik is not a TOWN in Europe, being a city. I suspect a couple of points like that and maybe a limit to "mainland" Europe were behind the original claim, just not quoted here

I don't believe there is a consistent definition of the difference between town and city internationally. Few countries make city status such a big deal like Britain. In many places, town and city can be used interchangeably, or the word in the local language for city is just 'big town'.
 
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Am I allowed Gateshead (Metrocentre)

I would put Wakefield on that list. Only 5 platforms between the 2 stations. Bradford not much better either.
Ah yes but Wakefield Kirkgate was originally much larger and Westgate became the main station as a smaller ‘principal station’ on the mainline (and if you count more than one station can we also count castleford , featherstone, sandal and Agbrigg etc)
 

DanielB

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Trains serving a terminus in a big city and reversing like in Valencia isn't that unusual, that happens at Frankfurt, Munich, Milan Centrale and I'm sure plenty of others. Reversing and then changing direction again like at Killarney is very rare though, why not just build a platform on the through line and save people 10 minutes on their journeys
Ok, it isn't a very important through service. But the trains serving Utrecht Maliebaan station (serving the Dutch national railway museum) have to reverse and then change direction again in both directions!
Utrecht Maliebaan is also a very small station for a station located in the middle of the city, a remnant of the times with multiple railway operators before they merged into NS.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Am I allowed Gateshead (Metrocentre)


Ah yes but Wakefield Kirkgate was originally much larger and Westgate became the main station as a smaller ‘principal station’ on the mainline (and if you count more than one station can we also count castleford , featherstone, sandal and Agbrigg etc)
Don't start down that road, or someone will count all the platforms within the Borough (i.e. not the city) of Bradford! <D :lol:
 
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Don't start down that road, or someone will count all the platforms within the Borough (i.e. not the city) of Bradford! <D :lol:
I agree , I was just using it to illustrate my point in that Wakefield originally had ample station coverage, and with two stations still does!
 

Greetlander

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Many stations with 2 platforms serve more passengers - Brixton manages to move 30 million pa
I don't disagree - Durham and Wakefield Westgate are both two platform stations serving intercity and local services also, but I think being side platforms helps. I think the issue with Halifax is that it is a cramped, single Island platform, one staircase up and down and hemmed in from expansion by a huge drop on one side and a tatty disused platform with a listed building on the other.
 

Bungle158

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Surely Southampton with 4 platforms has a station a little small for the size of the city it serves. The site is cramped and further constrained by a tunnel immediately to the East
 

Jim the Jim

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Oxford, already mentioned in the 'dismal stations' thread, though I would not call it dismal, just relatively small, seems small relative to the importance of the city.
As well as the size of the city, you might also expect a bigger station at Oxford given it's one of the larger settlements on not one but two intercity routes, and if you've come via Reading it's disappointingly small in comparison even though the two places aren't that much different in size from one another.
 
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Another vote here for Southampton. It always strikes me as remarkably small for the size of the city, not to mention the number of services that pass through or terminate, plus a decent amount of freight rumbling through. By and large it seems to work in quite a slick manner most of the time though.
 

nw1

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As well as the size of the city, you might also expect a bigger station at Oxford given it's one of the larger settlements on not one but two intercity routes, and if you've come via Reading it's disappointingly small in comparison even though the two places aren't that much different in size from one another.

Interestingly the first time I saw Oxford (in 1982) was about half an hour after seeing Reading, on the sadly-long-gone Portsmouth-Manchester Cross-Country service. Reading struck me as large, and I knew Guildford, so I was probably expecting Oxford to be another 8-platformer or thereabouts. Bear in mind I knew nothing about the railway network in the Oxford area at this stage (i.e just the main line and infrequent DMU services along the Worcester branch) - for all I knew in 1982, five lines each with frequent service may have converged there, as was the case in Guildford and Reading.

Surely Southampton with 4 platforms has a station a little small for the size of the city it serves. The site is cramped and further constrained by a tunnel immediately to the East

True - I suspect the former Southampton Terminus had something to do with it, as that previously handled all the terminating trains, I guess.

The main constraint in the Southampton area is indeed the tunnel to the east and the lack of four tracking up towards Eastleigh - considerable delays can build up if anything goes wrong. Luckily they do seem to be able to use a 2-minute headway through the tunnel which helps things a bit.
 
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peteb

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Ok, I realise Gateshead city centre is probably so close to Newcastle station intending rail passengers probably would use that, but it appears not to have its own network rail station, except Gateshead Stadium shared with Metro? Very small scale compared to the population (202,000).
 
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