(TRIVIA) Smallest station with the best service?

[gg1]

That is a station that really punches above its weight in relation to the (very) small city it serves. I'm guessing it must have a very wide catchment area.

I know some who lives between Newmarket and Cambridge who always drives to Ely when travelling north by train, although Cambridge is much closer, it's quicker and easier to travel to Ely and eliminates the need to change trains.

 

[PGAT]

Birkbeck has 22k entries and exits, 4tph and a tram in each direction roughly every 10 minutes.

Birkbeck has 148k entries/exits (2019-20), only 2tph each direction, and the tram figures are listed separately from the NR figures (186k)

 

[Llandudno]

Not really, I’d say its catchment is quite standard. It just happens to be located at quite a good point where a few long distance/regional services cross. Birmingham and Leicester are served by the same service and so are Nottingham, Sheffield, Stockport, Manchester and Liverpool. It’s a fortunate situation that it makes good use of. I wonder how many passengers actually use when traveling between two stations that serve Ely. I’m thinking journeys like, Manchester - Ipswich, Kings Lynn - Sheffield or Cambridge - Liverpool. I’d wager not too many as journey times and frequencies are frequently much better through London

But maybe significant cheaper travelling via Ely and without the hassle of using the Tube, especially if you have luggage or are a bit doddery!

 

[RPI]

St Germans must be up there, population around 1500, at least hourly and 2TPH at times, with a few direct Paddington services a day.

 

[Ian79]

Northallerton does pretty well.

Direct trains to two different capital cities every two hours. Trains which go to London almost non-stop, plus regular direct trains to most of the significant Northern Cities.

All for a town with a population of about 18,000 and a station which has never seen much more than 0.7M passengers per year.

 

[PGAT]

Northallerton does pretty well.

Direct trains to two different capital cities every two hours. Trains which go to London almost non-stop, plus regular direct trains to most of the significant Northern Cities.

All for a town with a population of about 18,000 and a station which has never seen much more than 0.7M passengers per year.

Connectivity is great but frequency is sub-par

 

[telstarbox]

Has Rishi Sunak ever used it?

 

[Llandudno]

Has Rishi Sunak ever used it?

Perhaps if it had a Helipad in the station car park he could use it for park and ride!

 

[RobertsN]

Does Romsey qualify?
Population (according to Wikipedia): 15000
6 trains an hour
Trains to Southampton, Portsmouth, Salisbury and Cardiff (via Westbury and Bristol)

 

[davidknibb]

SThe opposite question - 'large towns with poor connectivity' probably deserves its own thread.
But Hull and Liverpool for starters. And places like Coventry have poor connectivity. Nothing to the East,North East,South West,South of London,West .

 

[gnolife]

SThe opposite question - 'large towns with poor connectivity' probably deserves its own thread.
But Hull and Liverpool for starters. .

You're having a laugh with Liverpool, aren't you? It gets direct service to London, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Nottingham, Norwich, Leeds, York, Newcastle and Prestonat least every hour, with Glasgow served a few times a day.

 

[davidknibb]

Yes my thinking was badly phrased. I was comparing in my mind the routes to the south and south west from Liverpool compared with Manchester

 

[gg1]

SThe opposite question - 'large towns with poor connectivity' probably deserves its own thread.
But Hull and Liverpool for starters. And places like Coventry have poor connectivity. Nothing to the East,North East,South West,South of London,West .

You're having a laugh with Liverpool, aren't you? It gets direct service to London, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Nottingham, Norwich, Leeds, York, Newcastle and Prestonat least every hour, with Glasgow served a few times a day.

Coventry fares quite well when compared to other similarly sized cities too, with direct services to London, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Stoke, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford, Reading, Southampton and Bournemouth. That's better than Brighton, Leicester, Nottingham, Sunderland, Middlesbrough (massively so in the case of the latter two) and probably a host of others.

 

[Brissle Girl]

Penarth has a pretty good service for a nondescript location

Do you say that with any knowledge of the town? I'm very familiar with it and think that's not a fair assessment of it.

 

[Killingworth]

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

That's a bit of an exaggeration. Brough used to be my local station so i take an interest in how it's getting on. Pre Covid annual numbers were not too far below 500k each year.

A few, Northern services between Hull and Halifax and Scarborough to Sheffield were cancelled yesterday but the vast majority ran. See; https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...6/0000-2359?stp=WVSC&show=pax-calls&order=wtt

Like all stations currently served by TPE Brough has been suffering in recent times, as is well recorded in other threads

 

[davidknibb]

Coventry fares quite well when compared to other similarly sized cities too, with direct services to London, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Stoke, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford, Reading, Southampton and Bournemouth. That's better than Brighton, Leicester, Nottingham, Sunderland, Middlesbrough (massively so in the case of the latter two) and probably a host of others.

Coventry fares quite well when compared to other similarly sized cities too, with direct services to London, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Stoke, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford, Reading, Southampton and Bournemouth. That's better than Brighton, Leicester, Nottingham, Sunderland, Middlesbrough (massively so in the case of the latter two) and probably a host of others.

Yes I agree the places that Coventry is connected to seems to be quite good but I was trying to point out the places that you cannot get to - many quite large towns. Coventry is fortunate because it is on busy branch of the WCML. I've lived in Coventry for most of my life spanning a good few decades, and if I rack my brain I can come up with a whole list of routes that used to exist but no longer do. Maybe it's glasses half empty/full.
And the fact that Middlesborough and others you listed are badly connected doesn't make somewhere like Coventry good.
It's really a political discussion as to what public transport is for and how it should be provided and paid for.

As I said - a new thread really

 

[SteveM70]

Yes I agree the places that Coventry is connected to seems to be quite good but I was trying to point out the places that you cannot get to - many quite large towns

Coventry probably suffers by its proximity to Birmingham in that it doesn’t perhaps have as many direct links as you might expect, but on the other hand it’s 20 minutes from the best connected station in the whole country

 

[BanburyBlue]

I can’t find the numbers, but Kings Sutton must be in the mix. Quite a good service with the combination of GWR Banbury Oxford/Didcot stoppers and the Chiltern line services.

Population just over 2000.

 

[J-2739]

Do you say that with any knowledge of the town? I'm very familiar with it and think that's not a fair assessment of it.

Are you disputing that the town has a good service, or that the town is non-descript?

 

[Brissle Girl]

Are you disputing that the town has a good service, or that the town is non-descript?

I’m disputing that the town is non-descript.

Its rail service of 4tph is perfectly adequate, although ideally a slightly extended line along the old trackbed to a new terminus would increase the walkable catchment area of the branch. (Oops - off topic - sorry!)

 

[NSE]

But maybe significant cheaper travelling via Ely and without the hassle of using the Tube, especially if you have luggage or are a bit doddery!

Hassle of the tube I get your point, totally. As for price, I’m my experience I’m not so sure. I don’t live in Cambridge anymore but I’d frequently be able pick up Cambridge - Birmingham advances via Euston for £7.50. That was fairly close to the day of travel. Plus London with Greater Anglia for £4. Only a few times did I ever take XC via Ely.

I agree with you it should be easier/cheaper via Ely. But I’d not be surprised if it wasn’t.