Stations which have declined/increased in importance

[Brissle Girl]

I always find Pilning a surreal spot. So close to the edge of Bristol, but feels like miles from anywhere.

Pilning is just 500m from the edge (and around 1km from the centre) of a massive industrial and distribution centre (eg Tesco, Amazon etc), which is growing like topsy. For those of you that know the area, this where the DoT built a new motorway junction on the M49 but the developers have inconveniently not agreed to provide a short link road to it, so it remains unopened two years later, and all the HGVs have to go a much more circuitous route. So transport planning generally in the area is a bit rubbish, but I digress.

So you would have thought that there would be plenty of scope to build a short walking route or even link road for a shuttle bus to and from Pilning. But there again, if the developers can't even be a**ed to cough up for a 150m link road to the new junction, I guess hell will freeze over before they invest in a public transport enhancement for the area.

 

[faltskog36abba]

Which will eventually be lost again to Piccadilly, it’s role needs to change.

Why will TPE revert back to Piccadilly, When millions have been spent upgrading the curve in miles platting/When a new bridge was also built and the line speeded up?. Surely TPE will continue via Victoria as its faster than the Guide bridge route.

 

[davetheguard]

When HSTs started running, Slough was served by them once an hour in each direction. At some stage those trains ceased to stop there - not sure of the date.

The only long distance trains now stopping at Slough are the Paddington to Oxford/Worcester/Gt. Malvern/Hereford IETs. I think this was originally because of a Network SouthEast desire to link the two tourist hotspots of Windsor (change at Slough) & Oxford that has been continued by subsequent operators.

 

[greyman42]

I'd also say City Thameslink is more "on the map" than it used to be as well.

The same with Farringdon, and even more so when Crossrail opens in the very near future.

 

[Acton1991]

When HSTs started running, Slough was served by them once an hour in each direction. At some stage those trains ceased to stop there - not sure of the date.

The only long distance trains now stopping at Slough are the Paddington to Oxford/Worcester/Gt. Malvern/Hereford IETs. I think this was originally because of a Network SouthEast desire to link the two tourist hotspots of Windsor (change at Slough) & Oxford that has been continued by subsequent operators.

These are now twice an hour though, so a pretty good service alongside the stoppers.

 

[greyman42]

I believe Durham now has more passengers than Darlington.
Dunbar is now a busy commuter town for Edinburgh and a desirable place to live.
Dumfries has lost its Inter-City services.

 

[Western Sunset]

Harder to find places on the "up", but Birmingham Moor Street is one surely? Not just a terminus for suburban services from North Warks nowadays, but loco-hauled services to Marylebone, as well as the new platforms on the mainline, with through services to Snow Hill and beyond.

 

[Falcon1200]

Tottenham Hale will give grown in importance since the construction of the Victoria Line, and later the introduction of Stansted Express.

Agree, and I would add that conversely Seven Sisters, while still of course a busy interchange, has declined in importance now that the only main line services calling there are the Cheshunt and Enfield Town every lamppost stoppers.

As I said, Anglo - Scottish expresses no longer stop at Crewe. Something that spends half a day trundling around the West Midlands isn't an express.

Those trains are formed of 125mph tilting stock as are the Euston/Glasgow direct services, and north of Crewe stop at the same, if not on occasion fewer, stations. They are certainly express trains in my book !

 

[greyman42]

Stockton has gone downhill.

 

[Flange Squeal]

In the 2000s, South West Trains' Kempton Park was served on race days only, and Longcross had just a handful of trains per day. Since 2006 Kempton Park has been served by all but just a handful of weekday peak hour trains, while the last few years has seen Longcross now served by the vast majority of services passing through it Monday to Saturday and hourly on Sundays.

 

[greyman42]

Linlithgow, Polmont and Croy are all much better served on the Edinburgh to Glasgow line.

 

[Ianno87]

As I said, Anglo - Scottish expresses no longer stop at Crewe. Something that spends half a day trundling around the West Midlands isn't an express.

Last time I checked, Birmingham is part of "Anglo".

 

[tbtc]

Some interesting examples which show the way that people prioritise a handful of long distance services to a variety of far flung destinations over a regular "metro" service to nearby places, given that a few places have been listed which see more trains and more passengers nowadays than a generation ago, but to a limited number of places

Carstairs, whose importance declined hugely when the route to Edinburgh was electrified and trains no longer had to stop there anyway to change locos, and divide in many cases.

This is a great example (and I say this as someone who grew up watching the Anglo-Scottish services splitting and joining at Carstairs - showing my age) - partly because it's an example of somewhere that is now worse off without any lines being closed or a nearby station taking a chunk of the passengers (whereas some of the examples on this thread are understandably places which have lost their "junction" status as lines have been closed and interchanges no longer possible)

Carstairs has been the "victim" of improvements to both infrastructure (electrification of the line from the junction to Edinburgh) and frequency (significantly more Anglo-Scottish services meaning that there's now separate services from Glasgow to Manchester/ Birmingham/ London and from Edinburgh to Manchester/ Birmingham/ London that generally run non-stop through Carstairs rather than the lower number of services in the 1980s which joined/split at Carstairs)

Crewe has decreased in importance as an interchange. Liverpool locals used to start there, they now run from Birmingham, many South Wales services started there, they now all run from Manchester, and North Wales services started there, there are now many more through services to Chester and North Wales from London (or there were up until Covid). Also Anglo – Scottish expresses no longer stop at Crewe.

Crewe is another interesting example, as the local infrastructure hasn't changed (no new electrification in the area, no local branch lines closed etc) - it's a combination of the speeding up of (some) Anglo-Scottish services and diverting the Birmingham - Holyhead trains via Wrexham

It's unfortunate that the opportunity to do the same at West Hampstead, where the Midland, the London Overground, Chiltern, and two Underground lines are next to one another, was lost to the intervening railway-owned land being sold off for development. It was proposed more than once, but I believe the suggestions were lost in a turf war between BR and ths Underground over who should bear what part of the costs.

That's a shame as it could be a great interchange if things had been different - a version of Finsbury Park/ Clapham Junction in terms of interchanges etc

Mind young given how little some stations were used in the early 1980s, it's probably for the best that Thameslink didn't open until 1988 - if it had opened a decade earlier then there may have been even more pressure on closing Marylebone and diverting trains to a very quiet St Pancras

 

[backontrack]

Stations on the up:

- Morpeth now has a two-stop service to London Kings Cross, courtesy of Lumo
- Edinburgh Waverley is now served by as many TOCs as Crewe and Doncaster. (So is Liverpool Lime Street, depending on your attitude towards Merseyrail)
- Any of the Highspeed-served East Kent stations, but particularly Canterbury West as @yorksrob stated
- Cumbernauld, Greenfaulds, Gartcosh, Stepps, and Springburn - now all have trains to Edinburgh (pending daft cuts)

 

[Taunton]

In the 2000s, South West Trains' Kempton Park was served on race days only, and Longcross had just a handful of trains per day. Since 2006 Kempton Park has been served by all but just a handful of weekday peak hour trains, while the last few years has seen Longcross now served by the vast majority of services passing through it Monday to Saturday and hourly on Sundays.

Same for Newbury Racecourse. I can't remember when it went from race specials only to a regular intermediate stop, possibly in the NSE era.

Crewe is another interesting example, as the local infrastructure hasn't changed (no new electrification in the area, no local branch lines closed etc) - it's a combination of the speeding up of (some) Anglo-Scottish services and diverting the Birmingham - Holyhead trains via Wrexham

Crewe used to have a surprisingly large hinterland, business travellers I knew from The Wirral used to drive there to go to London, principally because they could return from Euston much later on the Anglo-Scottish overnight trains than was possible to Liverpool.

 

[fat_boy_pete]

I do think the standout example of a station that has changed enormously is Stratford. Only the Central line is basically the same frequency from the 60's/70's/80's as today. I remember using it in the 70's and it was a very quiet station, with a tiny entrance practically hidden down a pedestrian underpass slope, which itself was a long distance down narrow passageways to the platforms ( Some would say what's changed! )

I checked an online timetable of 1963 to verify the historic BR frequencies, off peak Mon-Fri. 3 an hour to Gidea Park, 3 an hour to Southend, 1 an hour to North Woolwich and 1 every two hours to Cheshunt, and that's it! It's now the eighth busiest station (2019 figures) and if the growth rates of the last few years continue ( and with the pipeline of local development, it will), it will soon overtake Euston, Birmingham New St and Paddington, to become the fifth busiest. There isn't a comparable transformation in the UK in last 25 years.

 

[Purple Orange]

Why will TPE revert back to Piccadilly, When millions have been spent upgrading the curve in miles platting/When a new bridge was also built and the line speeded up?. Surely TPE will continue via Victoria as its faster than the Guide bridge route.

Because the fast trans pennine services will run in to Piccadilly HS2, then reverse out towards the airport.

 

[Glenn1969]

Because the fast trans pennine services will run in to Piccadilly HS2, then reverse out towards the airport.

Not convinced. But Victoria lost its importance as soon as it lost it's inter city service to anywhere other than Yorkshire and Liverpool. They aren't coming back so Vic will always be a backwater

 

[RT4038]

My vote for going downhill would be Boston, in the same vein as Spalding. It has gone from a large Junction station with works, depot, yards, and many converging branch and mainlines to being a crossing point on a single line that somehow retained it's docks branch and exchange sidings. Boston was a humongous railway undertaking in it's day and now boasts one mechanical signalbox, a part time manned station and carriage sidings and EMR's smallest traincrew depot.

Going back to the OP, I don't think Boston or Spalding have declined particularly in the last 30 years? Surely both places ceased to be junctions etc 39+ years ago?

 

[Ianigsy]

Southport has lost its Liverpool expresses and services to Yorkshire as Manchester’s stockbroker belt has moved from the coast to Cheshire.

Before the completion of electrification to Chester, Hooton had half-hourly services to Helsby and a news stall which did very well out of the number of people changing between Merseyrail and the Chester/Helsby units - not least in the afternoons when the Liverpool Echo and the Chester Chronicle arrived.

 

[thenorthern]

Pendleton station lost almost all it's importance when Salford Crescent opened. That is why it was closed instead of being rebuilt when it caught fire.

 

[Killingworth]

Manors. 9 platforms down to two with a fairly limited service.

A very limited service, although my memory from the 1950s says only 5 platforms were bring used for passenger services even then. 2 each for the coast bound services via Heaton and Benton and one for the 'Blyth Flyer'.

Most of the old services are now better served by the more frequent Metro at Monumenr.

 

[satisnek]

The relative importance of intermediate stations on the Stourbridge line has shifted over the years. Back in the 1980s the fast service stopped only at Cradley Heath between Stourbridge Junction and Birmingham New Street (as it was then). Nowadays, only the Chiltern services can be considered 'limited stop' and they tend to favour Rowley Regis over Cradley Heath.

 

[Strathclyder]

Stranraer took somthing of a nosedive in importance when the adjecent ferry terminal was shut. With that in mind though, passenger numbers were slowly on the rise pre-COVID, barring the 2018/19 period where passenger numbers decreased to 56,386 (from 69,964 the pervious period) due to the Ayr station hotel fiasco; they increased to 65,862 in the 2019/20 period.

 

[Springs Branch]

Manchester Oxford Road is a station which has increased in importance quite significantly in my lifetime.

Up until the 1950s, Oxford Rd was just a city centre station for the suburban electric line to Altrincham, plus a few infrequent steam trains to Warrington Arpley and Ditton Junction. Some of the services many people have probably long associated with Oxford Rd were routed into Manchester Central back then, and in the easterly direction the Altrincham line came to a dead end (as far as passenger trains were concerned) at the MSJ&A platforms at London Road.

"Old" Oxford Rd was busy enough at peak commuting & shopping times, but outside these it was a bit of a sleepy, down-at-heel backwater.

Oxford Road saw step-change improvements in its services during the 1960s:- station rebuild, arrival of 25kV electrification, becoming the city terminus for suburban trains on the Crewe, Styal & Buxton lines and taking the Chester, Warrington Central & Lime St services after Manchester Central closed.

The next step-change increase in importance - as a city-centre station for longer-distance trains - came during the late 1980s/early 1990s, facilitated by opening of the Hazel Grove chord, Windsor Link, Airport branch and after Metrolink took over the Altrincham line.

Subsequent improvements in services from Oxford Rd have been more incremental and driven by improved rolling stock rather than infrastructure - Chat Moss and Bolton electrification has meant more services use electric trains, but it's debatable how many brand-new destinations across the region now get access to Oxford Rd by virtue of the Ordsall Curve (although that was not the prime aim of building the Ordsall Chord).

Although the greater fraction of improvements took place between 60 & 30 years ago (rather than in the past 30) MCO has certainly seen a great increase in importance as a central Manchester station for passengers from all over the north and North Wales compared to what it used to be.

 

[Johnny Lewis]

Hartford on the WCML has had mixed fortunes. In 1988, it was re-launched as a "proper" InterCity station, with long-distance services to places such as Birmingham, Reading, Poole, Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth added to the long-established London services (this is essentially why the platforms were originally so long, so that a full Mk 3 rake of coaches could be accommodated). An hourly Regional Railways service to Stansted Airport via Birmingham also called there and there were a handful of direct trains via Shrewsbury and Hereford to Cardiff. There were more limited links to the North, including, for a while, a direct service to and from Scotland.
By the early 2000s, all such services had been removed, with through London trains ending in 2001, all remaining CrossCountry services withdrawn in 2002 and the last remaining Cardiff trains disappearing in 2004.
Now the station gets just an hourly service between Liverpool and Birmingham, which stops far more frequently than the former InterCity services on this route. For a short time, these were extended south of Birmingham to and from London Euston but these cross-Birmingham links are unlikely ever to return. I also wonder if Liverpool to Birmingham will ever return to half-hourly.

 

[Paula hewson]

If we look at the balance of stations within a town/city, in Worcester, for example, it's shifted more to Foregate Street, than Shrub Hill.

Cant see the point of Shrub Hill anymore too be honest. Gridlocked with cars in its approaches as hospital traffic increases, fast services to New St mainly from Foregate St and superceded by Parkway for London services. Its sadly looking extremly run down too.

 

[Ken H]

Morecambe. More the decline of the town. But the services from Leeds are an afterthought now after the Lancaster stop. And the truncation away from the prom has made it more irrelevant.

 

[Purple Orange]

Not convinced. But Victoria lost its importance as soon as it lost it's inter city service to anywhere other than Yorkshire and Liverpool. They aren't coming back so Vic will always be a backwater

There is not much more that can done to convince you. That’ll be the plans for future trans pennine fast services, hence why Victoriacwill go back to serving regional traffic. Technically, the services between Liverpool & Leeds might still continue via Victoria and be faster than they are today due to TRU, but they won’t be the fastest Intercity service between Manchester & Leeds.

Manchester Oxford Road is a station which has increased in importance quite significantly in my lifetime.

Up until the 1950s, Oxford Rd was just a city centre station for the suburban electric line to Altrincham, plus a few infrequent steam trains to Warrington Arpley and Ditton Junction. Some of the services many people have probably long associated with Oxford Rd were routed into Manchester Central back then, and in the easterly direction the Altrincham line came to a dead end (as far as passenger trains were concerned) at the MSJ&A platforms at London Road.

"Old" Oxford Rd was busy enough at peak commuting & shopping times, but outside these it was a bit of a sleepy, down-at-heel backwater.

Oxford Road saw step-change improvements in its services during the 1960s:- station rebuild, arrival of 25kV electrification, becoming the city terminus for suburban trains on the Crewe, Styal & Buxton lines and taking the Chester, Warrington Central & Lime St services after Manchester Central closed.

The next step-change increase in importance - as a city-centre station for longer-distance trains - came during the late 1980s/early 1990s, facilitated by opening of the Hazel Grove chord, Windsor Link, Airport branch and after Metrolink took over the Altrincham line.

Subsequent improvements in services from Oxford Rd have been more incremental and driven by improved rolling stock rather than infrastructure - Chat Moss and Bolton electrification has meant more services use electric trains, but it's debatable how many brand-new destinations across the region now get access to Oxford Rd by virtue of the Ordsall Curve (although that was not the prime aim of building the Ordsall Chord).

Although the greater fraction of improvements took place between 60 & 30 years ago (rather than in the past 30) MCO has certainly seen a great increase in importance as a central Manchester station for passengers from all over the north and North Wales compared to what it used to be.

I’d like to see the importance of Oxford Road rescind to being a suburban station. It’s not the right place for the TPE Scotland & North East services.

 

[Ianno87]

I’d like to see the importance of Oxford Road rescind to being a suburban station. It’s not the right place for the TPE Scotland & North East services.

Even though it enables them to directly serve the Universities? I'd have thought that's exactly where they should be stopping.