(TRIVIA) Smallest station with the best service?

[PGAT]

What is the smallest station (in terms of passengers) with the best train services?

I’ll start with Maryland on the Elizabeth Line. Despite only seeing 1.4 mil annual passengers there are 8tph off-peak 9 carriage trains, with direct services to the heart of London and Heathrow Airport. Not only that, but it gets 14tph in the peak to Stratford, one of the biggest hubs in the UK, and it’s less than 2 minutes away.

 

[philosopher]

Ely must be high the list. Despite only having 2.3 to 2.4 million passengers pre Covid, it has hourly or better services to London, Cambridge, Birmingham, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and Norwich.

 

[W-on-Sea]

Swale must be high on the list. Around 10,000 passengers a year, or fewer, with hourly trains in each direction..

Beaten by Breich though: hourly services, annual usage below 4,000,

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Indeed. Breich in Scotland has an hourly service, and maybe some 35 calls over the course of a typical working day. Annual patronage in 2021/22 was supposedly 3,638, so maybe up to a dozen passengers using the station on a daily basis (or is that just the same six folk travelling out and then returning back the same day?)

 

[RailWonderer]

Indeed. Breich in Scotland has an hourly service, and maybe some 35 calls over the course of a typical working day. Annual patronage in 2021/22 was supposedly 3,638, so maybe up to a dozen passengers using the station on a daily basis (or is that just the same six folk travelling out and then returning back the same day?)

Longcross would be in the same basket. One tpd was upped to a half hourly service. The station only has pathway access to the local film studios and golf course! It has 22k passengers per year and now it’s about 68k.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Longcross would be in the same basket. One tpd was upped to a half hourly service. The station only has pathway access to the local film studios and golf course! It has 22k passengers per year and now it’s about 68k.

22k with one train per direction per day is somehow way more impressive than 68k with two trains in each direction per hour.

 

[PGAT]

22k with one train per direction per day is somehow way more impressive than 68k with two trains in each direction per hour.

22k with 1tpd is around 60 passengers per train assuming it runs every day of the year, compared to 3 passengers per train with 68k and 2tph

 

[RailWonderer]

22k with 1tpd is around 60 passengers per train assuming it runs every day of the year, compared to 3 passengers per train with 68k and 2tph

If memory serves me (I don’t have desktop access right now to access old timetables) it might have received a couple of morning and evening peak extras though it had no weekend service. Still 22k is impressive.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Longcross would be in the same basket. One tpd was upped to a half hourly service. The station only has pathway access to the local film studios and golf course! It has 22k passengers per year and now it’s about 68k.

Be interesting to determine whether the uplift in passenger usage at Longcross in Surrey is due to post COVID recovery or the increase in service frequency (now 60 trains calling per day) or some other local factor (= Longcross Garden Village - or is that still being built?).

Still seems a tad busier than Breich, though.

P.S. Was it two trains per day previously at Longcross (i.e. one each way, every day), or two per hour?

 

[PGAT]

Be interesting to determine whether the uplift in passenger usage at Longcross in Surrey is due to post COVID recovery or the increase in service frequency (now 60 trains calling per day) or some other local factor (= Longcross Garden Village - or is that still being built?).

It’s certainly the Village that has caused the uplift

 

[LLivery]

Other than Maryland, in London I'd guess:
* St Johns - 6-8tph - 1m 2018/19; 0.64 2021/22
* Brondesbury Park - 8tph - 1.12m 2018/19; 0.76m 2021/22

If you're counting the Tube then Theydon Bois probably does very well - what is the frequency on the Epping branch?

 

[PGAT]

Normans Bay also has 10k passengers per year, and has 1tph and excellent direct connections to London, Gatwick, Hastings and Eastbourne. Meanwhile next stop Pevensey Bay with only 1000 less passengers doesn’t get an off peak service

 

[greatkingrat]

The stations on the Greenford Branch (Drayton Green, South Greenford, Castle Bar Park) must be strong contenders for least used station with at least 2tph.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The stations on the Greenford Branch (Drayton Green, South Greenford, Castle Bar Park) must be strong contenders for least used station with at least 2tph.

The first two named stations certainly seem to have low patronage, maybe just one solitary passenger for every two trains calling.

Drayton Green / South Greenford / Castle Bar Park each have some 64 trains calling per weekday.

Drayton Green = 10,846, South Greenford = 13,462 and Castle Bar Park = 41,128 (annual passenger usage in 2021-22).

 

[mrcheek]

Penarth has a pretty good service for a nondescript location

 

[The exile]

Avoncliff with its 41tpd but "local door" only operation and no direct road access must be in the running as well. Just under 9000 in 2021-2022 if I'm reading the table correctly.

 

[Ianigsy]

Some of the stations on the Falmouth branch have annual usages under 125,000 for a half-hourly service.

Streethouse has an hourly service and never seems to reach 25,000.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Some of the stations on the Falmouth branch have annual usages under 125,000 for a half-hourly service.

Essentially, that's just Perranwell, as Falmouth Docks, currently has 125,000 annual patronage, broadly speaking?

And it's only an hourly service at Perranwell for much of the day, isn't it?

 

[D6975]

If you're looking at the number of trains per head of population, Corrour must be in with a shout, local population under 100, 8 trains per day.

 

[Joey Beauchamp]

Normans Bay also has 10k passengers per year, and has 1tph and excellent direct connections to London, Gatwick, Hastings and Eastbourne. Meanwhile next stop Pevensey Bay with only 1000 less passengers doesn’t get an off peak service

As a recent resident of Pevensey Bay, I would love to know the reasons why Southern don't alternate the hourly stops - ie. a two hourly service at each. They do it with Three Oaks and Winchelsea. It was awful sometimes walking back from Pevensey & Westham in all weathers or after midnight when I just wanted to sleep.

 

[PGAT]

As a recent resident of Pevensey Bay, I would love to know the reasons why Southern don't alternate the hourly stops - ie. a two hourly service at each. They do it with Three Oaks and Winchelsea. It was awful sometimes walking back from Pevensey & Westham in all weathers or after midnight when I just wanted to sleep.

If you ask you may receive! Three Oaks and Winchelsea have just recently got an hourly service each, and Normans Bay only had a 3 coach shuttle between Eastbourne and Ashford instead of London

 

[Mcr Warrior]

If you're looking at the number of trains per head of population, Corrour must be in with a shout, local population under 100, 8 trains per day.

Thought we'd been asked to consider the "smallest" station in terms of the numbers of passengers.
(Corrour had over 11,500 in 2021/22, apparently).

 

[IanXC]

Brough has 361,000 entrys and exit yet has:

1tph Hull - Liverpool
1tph Bridlington - York
1tph Hull - Doncaster
1tph Scarborough - Sheffield
8tpd Hull/Beverley - Kings Cross

Somewhere around 193 trains per day.

 

[33017]

Penarth has a pretty good service for a nondescript location

Penarth may have just one platform but it serves a town of more than 20,000. Plenty of much smaller places get a similar or better service.

 

[Llandudno]

Brough has 361,000 entrys and exit yet has:

1tph Hull - Liverpool
1tph Bridlington - York
1tph Hull - Doncaster
1tph Scarborough - Sheffield
8tpd Hull/Beverley - Kings Cross

Somewhere around 193 trains per day.

Indeed, but only about half of them actually operate..!

 

[Kite159]

Avoncliff with its 41tpd but "local door" only operation and no direct road access must be in the running as well. Just under 9000 in 2021-2022 if I'm reading the table correctly.

Avoncliff has road access, it even has a small car park (shown on Google Sat view, no Street View available for the little lane https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3394971,-2.2811454,244m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu)

Be interesting to determine whether the uplift in passenger usage at Longcross in Surrey is due to post COVID recovery or the increase in service frequency (now 60 trains calling per day) or some other local factor (= Longcross Garden Village - or is that still being built?).

Still seems a tad busier than Breich, though.

P.S. Was it two trains per day previously at Longcross (i.e. one each way, every day), or two per hour?

Longcross used to be peak time only, bit like Faygate.

 

[ruaival]

Thought we'd been asked to consider the "smallest" station in terms of the numbers of passengers.
(Corrour had over 11,500 in 2021/22, apparently).

I find an average of 11,500 across 365 days of 31.5 to be unbelievably high; walkers are the only realistic footfall for the trains here (given no tarmac road access) ...

although back in '82 the sleeper called on its route South in response to the skirl of the pipes on the platform for a wedding send off, if I recall correctly.

 

[SteveM70]

I find an average of 11,500 across 365 days of 31.5 to be unbelievably high; walkers are the only realistic footfall for the trains here (given no tarmac road access) ...

Is that entries *and* exits? If so presumably most people arrive and depart from there so only half as many unique visitors?

 

[Sealink]

I would have hazarded a guess at some of the Cornish stations with regular direct trains to London.

Like Redruth, population 14k, with GWR and CrossCountry services to London, Edinburgh etc.

 

[woodend01]

Chesterfield serves a huge amount of places for its size: London, Nottingham, Leeds, Norwich, Liverpool, Sheffield, Plymouth, Edinburgh etc.