Name the town...

[Wyvern]

This station started out as a terminus.

There were others in the city but they have long since closed.

After this station was opened it was rebuilt as a through station for some new east west lines

However it is still considered a major station on a north south intercity line even though trains have to reverse.

 

[Ivo]

Gloucester?

Also, I'm going out for a while, so a "difficult"(?) one for all you fellow know-it-alls out there while I'm gone.

I only have one station these days, having had at least four before the British Rail era. My current station was once known as High Street. I am an IC terminus; there are also through trains here that must reverse.

 

[Wyvern]

Gloucester?

Not Gloucester

I only have one station these days, having had at least four before the British Rail era. My current station was once known as High Street. I am an IC terminus; there are also through trains here that must reverse.

Swansea?

 

[4SRKT]

Nottingham?

 

[Wyvern]

Nottingham?

Yep

 

[4SRKT]

I am a town with two stations. Both carry the town's name, and both used to carry suffixes, but the main one no longer does. Services are all diesel, except one line into the main station, terminating in electrified bay platforms.

 

[EM2]

Reading?

 

[4SRKT]

Reading's the correct answer!

 

[Ivo]

Swansea was correct.

Anyway, try this:

Of all the settlements that are not suburbs (though I have my own suburbs) to have never seen a High-Speed Train in service (if not necessarily at high speed - think Truro etc), my stations and suburbs' stations combined have a higher rate of passenger usage ("patronage") than anywhere else on the Mainland, and by several million journeys at that. [If you're unsure, download the 07-08 Patronage Data from rail-reg.gov.uk and expect to get used to the SUM function in MS Excel!]
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Is this one too awkward? I'll give you a clue:

I'm somewhere in the former Network South-East area, and some distance from the nearest Regional Railways service.

 

[4SRKT]

Croydon?

 

[Ivo]

Not Croydon. Technically, it is a suburb, though I like to think of it as a stand-alone identity (the crucial requirements for a city these days). Also, it was served by the Virgin run between Manchester/Birmingham and Brighton. I will admit though, it was a sensible guess, especially given East Croydon alone is about twice as busy as all the stations in the place in question combined...

 

[EM2]

Portsmouth?

 

[Ivo]

Not Portsmouth either. Portsmouth was a Regional Railways terminus (to Bristol and Cardiff), and has had HSTs in the past to I believe Blackpool (don't quote me on that one). Its patronage is also far less (about half in fact).

You lot are really stumped by this, huh...?

 

[Death]

Total stabs in the dark...Surbiton or Clapham?

If nothing else, I have a feeling that we might be on the right line...

 

[Ivo]

They're both suburbs as well...

Clapham, for the record, is pretty small in terms of patronage. Clapham Junction is in Battersea.

Just to repeat (with emphasis):

Of all the settlements that are not suburbs (though I have my own suburbs) to have never seen a High-Speed Train in service (if not necessarily at high speed - think Truro etc), my stations and suburbs' stations combined have a higher rate of passenger usage ("patronage") than anywhere else on the Mainland, and by several million journeys at that. I'm somewhere in the former Network South East area, and am some distance from the nearest former Regional Railways route.

Still, Surbiton is quite busy, so it's not a bad guess by any means.

Oh, for the record, next clue: It's not served by SWT.

 

[thefab444]

Bromley?

 

[Ivo]

That's four suburbs, out of five! IT'S NOT A SUBURB!!!!! It has suburbs.

Still, same as with Subiton - it is a pretty busy place (well, South anyway; North is just a convenient terminus for a load of lazy losers).

Final clue, because I'm getting bored with this one.

At least one of my stations bears my name, followed by a suffix.
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I'm off to bed now. I'll come back on here in the afternoon (or morning if I can be bothered!), and (unless I'm specifically told not to) I'll provide the answer.

EDIT: Actually, I'll give you until 02:30. Gives me a chance to do final checks on various things, such as e-mail.

 

[Death]

Sticking a pin at random into the Home Counties page of my AA road atlas, I get Maidstone 8)

...Although as backups, I'm also going to suggest Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham whilst I'm at it. :razz:

 

[EM2]

If it's never had a Regional Ralways service or an HST, and it's not served by SWT, then I would be almost certain it's in Kent or Essex.

We've had Ashford and Maidstone already in this quiz, I don't think anywhere along the North Kent line would be busy enough...
Also I can't think of anywhere that would be big enough to have its own suburbs...

Oh hang on. What about Crawley?
Three Bridges is classed as a part of Crawley, as is Gatwick Airport.

 

[4SRKT]

Gatwick Airport is its own post town, not part of Crawley. It's RH6 anyway, which is shared with Horley.

I agree that Crawley sounds the most plausible given what's already been rejected. Three Bridges and Ifield come under Crawley. Bit of a weird question this, demanding some sort of knowledge of demographics, and not just highly specialised knowledge of junctions, service patterns and railway history!

 

[Ivo]

Summary:

NSE area
Not SWT
Not RR (and some distance from nearest station)
Not suburb (has suburbs)
Never had HST service
At least one station name = TOWN/CITY + SUFFIX

Funnily enough, my brother suggested Crawley (I tried it on him as well). He also said Basildon... Yes, I'm stupid enough to use the same one twice

Right then, the answer. It is indeed in one of Kent or Essex, going by ceremonial county. The station data (inclusive of any interchange estimates, in brackets) is below.

The correct answer is:

Southend-on-Sea

Shoeburyness 599,069
Thorpe Bay 751,675
Southend East 1,459,251
Southend Central 1,904,286 (plus 25,369)
Westcliff 1,026,443
Chalkwell 1,312,625
Leigh-on-Sea 1,791,120
Southend Victoria 3,978,633 (plus 735)
Prittlewell 113,265
Southend Airport 0 (not yet open, and technically outside Southend anyway)

TOTAL: 12,936,727 (plus 26,104)

Tickets to/from "Southend Stations" are usually counted as journeys to/from Victoria

...

Well, that's that over with. I'll go away and conjure up something a bit fairer for next time.
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Time for an easier one, methinks.

My town may be small, but it is well-known in railway (and sporting!) circles. My only station has three platforms, yet four platform faces. To the immediate west, the line splits into the main route and a branch to the south; the branch running on a sharp curve. The next station to the west on the main route is on the outskirts of a New Town. There is a similar junction, if not station, a few miles to the east.

 

[EM2]

Ascot?

 

[Ivo]

Like I said - easier. Ascot is correct.

The next one will be north of Birmingham. I'm not sure how far north, but it will be. (Clue, perhaps?)
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Right then, time for my next challenge.

Sadly, I lost my passenger service many years ago, though there are tentative - and repeated! - plans to re-instate my service. My line is still open to freight, however. I am at one end of a west-east route that runs near a motorway for part of its journey, before splitting in two. My route is a branch of the northernmost (and busier) of the two lines.

 

[4SRKT]

Fleetwood?
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Looking at yr Southend example, there's a problem of definition here I might say. What are you counting as Southend? The contiguous built-up area? The local authority? For anyone looking at a map, the first will be the one they think of. Those working in local government might use the latter. People like me who work in freight transport may well use the Royal Mail definitions, by which Leigh on Sea and Westcliff are not part of Southend. Personally I would never have thought of these places as being 'Southend', so would never have got this in a million years. I know you are a local and know better, but then in an opposite example, you would quite likely look at a map of where I live and say that it's part of Bradford (no gap at all in the built-up area), although both the Post Office and most of the town's more snobbish residents would disagree!

This is a real problem in these sorts of quizzes, where the post towns and local authorities very seldom match up, and where post towns can include huge tracts of rural areas many miles from the town. For example, Pocklington and Market Weighton are considered 'York' by the Post Office, despite the fact that MW is 20 miles from York and in East (not North) Yorkshire!

 

[Ivo]

Fleetwood was correct.

With regards to the SS one, I'm thinking the area that is basically accepted to be the town area and suburbs (if not necessarily formally). In the case of Southend, it more or less matches the Borough area, with Rochford, Hadleigh and especially Rayleigh not considered a part of it in spite of the continuous built-up area (as in your Bradford example); compare that to Reading where the area accepted as Reading is nearly twice as large as the Borough. It is open for debate, admittedly; however, even if you take only Central, Victoria, East and probably Westcliff and Prittlewell (essentially within one mile of the Victoria roundabout, the unofficial town centre), then Southend would still win, with a total of around 8m. Similarly, the Post Town covers the entire east of Southend anyway (not that it should in my view), so you would lose Westcliff but gain Thorpe Bay and Shoeburyness (which combined are bigger anyway).

But even Central and Victoria alone total almost 6m; I personally can not think of anywhere with more patronage that has never seen a High-Speed service (unless the old North - Harwich route was not, I'm not sure, in which case Cambridge would).

In all fairness, it was probably too hard (and I suppose vague) anyway. Still, it got everyone thinking, which can only be a good thing.

More obscure questions coming up (though I would appreciate being set one as well...!), such as the following. Bear in mind that University resumes tomorrow, so I won't be on here as often as I have been during my first weekend.

I'm a fairly small town, with only one station. This station has an irregular IC service, and a similarly irregular Regional service. My station does however have a third platform, which is famous for being at right-angles to the main-line. My third platform sees no service on winter Sundays.

 

[4SRKT]

Liskeard!

OK, one for you now:

I have one station, which has lost its suffix now that my other station has closed (many years ago). I have 5 platforms, 3 through and 2 bays. I am not the county town, although some might think I should be. You can take a train from my station to the county town of the neighbouring county via two different routes.

 

[Ivo]

Liskeard was, of course, correct; where else has a platform which is perpendicular to the others (without being above or below the others)?

As for this question, I'm thinking Lancaster, but I'm far from certain. I've never been that far north before. Indeed, I thought Lancaster was the county town of Lancashire.

 

[4SRKT]

Lancaster is correct. Never been that far North?? You haven't lived! You need to sort that out ASAP.

The county town of Lancashire is Preston, although historically I suppose it must have been Lancaster.

 

[Ivo]

Actually, having checked a map, I have been further north than Lancaster...

...to Scarborough. Opposite side of the country :roll: The furthest up the West Coast I've been is Preston. There just had to be a signal fire... (£39 compensation for a journey my College paid for! Result!)

I will go to Scotland this year. Without fail. I am looking into doing a 14-day All-Line run in June, but... we shall see.

Anyway, next question.

I am a city within a very large urban area which may or may not be my own. Several stations bear my name, and all have suffixes. However, there is at least one more settlement in the urban area with the same scenario, i.e. several stations bearing the name, all of which have suffixes. My name begins with a letter in the second half of the alphabet.

 

[4SRKT]

Salford?