Weird Places for Services to Terminate

[Pigeon]

a Milford Haven to Manchester train

What, one train? All the way? In the same day? Took 'em long enough...

It isn't massively strange, but Great Malvern seems a rather small place to regularly terminate long(ish)-diatance London services; I'd guess Worcester has too little space and Hereford would need too many more resources to serve hourly?

It's not that small, especially if you lump Malvern Link in with it; it's the main origin/destination point beyond Worcester, and it has long been common for a lot of services through Worcester to terminate there, wherever they go on the other side of Worcester. Then, Malvern to Hereford is about twice as far as Worcester to Malvern, and apart from Ledbury station it's all single track, so there isn't the capacity to run more trains all the way through. And it's less important for Hereford passengers as they have the alternatives of going via Shrewsbury towards Birmingham or via Newport towards London, so there are fewer who actually need a service via Worcester.

 

[plugwash]

What, one train? All the way? In the same day?

Seems there are currently 4 trains per day from milford haven to manchsters at 07:01 09:00, 11:00 and 15:00

Realtime Trains | Departures from Milford Haven all day on 15/04/2025

Train information at Milford Haven all day on 15/04/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[cjw714]

I don't think it's in the current timetables but, for a while, some trains from Okehampton and Barnstaple used to teminate at St James Park. The logic was that once you have made the sensible decision to take the trains up the slope to serve Exeter Central they then have to pass through SJP to turn around at Exmouth Junction so they might as well stop there as well.

 

[trainmania100]

2C98 is a bizarre one terminating at Newhaven harbour.

Train 2C98 Brighton to Newhaven Harbour Tue 15/04/2025 | Rail Record

Live Train Times for Train 2C98 Brighton to Newhaven Harbour departing on Tue 15/04/2025 | Rail Record

live.rail-record.co.uk

Every other down service goes to seaford theu Newhaven harbour xx41.

But the 1241 simply Terminates at harbour, reverses at marine, and maintains it's timings to that of the up seaford services. So it's bizarre it doesn't go to seaford, it would lose no time...

 

[ValleyLines142]

It isn't massively strange, but Great Malvern seems a rather small place to regularly terminate long(ish)-diatance London services; I'd guess Worcester has too little space and Hereford would need too many more resources to serve hourly?

Why? Malvern is a large spa town with a population of c. 30,000?

 

[norbitonflyer]

Peterborough to Newark Northgate seems like a reasonable journey, but I don't understand why there's through services via Lincoln taking an hour longer than services via Grantham. I can't remember if that's meant to be going with the ECML recast.

These are simply two local services that happen to be worked by the same unit. Peterborough to Lincoln via the Joint Line, and the Northgate shuttle to connect Lincoln with the ECML. There will be very few people travelling through Lincoln (as distinct from alighting or boarding there) on such a train - there might be the odd person travelling from Metheringham to Newark, I suppose.

 

[The exile]

Another train for the bucket list!!

I’d be fascinated to know the total annual loading on the return working from Clarbeston Rd to Fishguard as (IIRC) it connects out of nothing - really just a positioning move advertised for passenger use.

2C98 is a bizarre one terminating at Newhaven harbour.

Train 2C98 Brighton to Newhaven Harbour Tue 15/04/2025 | Rail Record

Live Train Times for Train 2C98 Brighton to Newhaven Harbour departing on Tue 15/04/2025 | Rail Record

live.rail-record.co.uk

Every other down service goes to seaford theu Newhaven harbour xx41.

But the 1241 simply Terminates at harbour, reverses at marine, and maintains it's timings to that of the up seaford services. So it's bizarre it doesn't go to seaford, it would lose no time...

Presumably allows for something like the de-icer / leaf buster etc to go down the branch and recess at Seaford - then following the train that terminates short out again.

 

[Steddenm]

What about Battersby?

Realtime Trains | 1055 Hexham to Battersby | 15/04/2025

Real-time train running information for 1055 departure from Hexham to Battersby on 15/04/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Falcon1200]

Might one include services from Inverness on the Far North Line which terminate at Tain before then returning back to Inverness?

The short workings on the Far North, eg to and from Ardgay, Lairg and Tain, are in addition to the 4 daily Wick/Thurso trains, giving the southern, and busier, part of the route the best, or at least most frequent, service it has ever had!

 

[Jan Mayen]

The short workings on the Far North, eg to and from Ardgay, Lairg and Tain, are in addition to the 4 daily Wick/Thurso trains, giving the southern, and busier, part of the route the best, or at least most frequent, service it has ever had!

Isn't there a popular restaurant on one of these stations? I seem to recall reading something that it was worth running a late evening service as it was surprisingly busy.

 

[Rescars]

It's not that small, especially if you lump Malvern Link in with it; it's the main origin/destination point beyond Worcester, and it has long been common for a lot of services through Worcester to terminate there, wherever they go on the other side of Worcester. Then, Malvern to Hereford is about twice as far as Worcester to Malvern, and apart from Ledbury station it's all single track, so there isn't the capacity to run more trains all the way through. And it's less important for Hereford passengers as they have the alternatives of going via Shrewsbury towards Birmingham or via Newport towards London, so there are fewer who actually need a service via Worcester.

Also, Malvern Wells is conveniently set up to make reversals easy.

 

[Magdalia]

In the 1950s there were at least a couple of Tring - Broad Street commuter services.

These ran until electrification.

 

[A S Leib]

It's not that small, especially if you lump Malvern Link in with it; it's the main origin/destination point beyond Worcester, and it has long been common for a lot of services through Worcester to terminate there, wherever they go on the other side of Worcester. Then, Malvern to Hereford is about twice as far as Worcester to Malvern, and apart from Ledbury station it's all single track, so there isn't the capacity to run more trains all the way through. And it's less important for Hereford passengers as they have the alternatives of going via Shrewsbury towards Birmingham or via Newport towards London, so there are fewer who actually need a service via Worcester.

Why? Malvern is a large spa town with a population of c. 30,000?

I get the point about Hereford being too far away to practically or necessarily serve hourly, but I wouldn't say a population of 30,000 is a large town, particularly not for a hourly London service from over a hundred miles away. Carmarthen (population of ~60,000 in Carmarthen and Llanelli), Holyhead (~100,000 between the Avanti-served stations) and Penzance (>100,000 west of Plymouth as well as being the only year-round long-distance route for Cornwall).

That being said, there's plenty of places which get disproportionately good services for their size due to location, infrastructure etc.; I'm not saying that those places should subsequently get poorer services.

 

[darloscott]

What about Battersby?

Realtime Trains | 1055 Hexham to Battersby | 15/04/2025

Real-time train running information for 1055 departure from Hexham to Battersby on 15/04/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

In the same area you have the peak extra from Newcastle that randomly terminates at Stockton, as the unit then runs empty to Darlington to stable for the evening.

 

[800001]

Adwick always seemed an odd sort of place to terminate.

There are still also I believe trains from Leeds advertised to terminate at Poppleton and from York at Burley Park. These are of course through workings via Harrogate, but not advertised as such to avoid through passengers boarding what would be a very roundabout journey.

Adwick is to save occupying a platform at Doncaster on a terminating service isn’t it?

Also Adwick is classed as a park and ride station. With the station advertised with signage from the A1.

 

[Bishopstone]

2C98 is a bizarre one terminating at Newhaven harbour.

Every other down service goes to seaford theu Newhaven harbour xx41.

But the 1241 simply Terminates at harbour, reverses at marine, and maintains it's timings to that of the up seaford services. So it's bizarre it doesn't go to seaford, it would lose no time...

It's done to retain driver knowledge of the turnback move at Newhaven Marine, so this can be used in times of service disruption on the branch.

I question whether midday is the best time to lose one of the half-hourly Seaford services, but then I would say that because I'm generally out and about at lunch time, and have a habit of forgetting this 'missing' service, and cursing it.

The de-icer and leafbuster trains scoot up to Seaford and back in the 12-ish minutes the single line is clear of service trains: it's a very efficient operation.

 

[Taunton]

I find Ore a bit of a strange place to terminate for Southern services from London. I guess it is down to available platforms at Hastings station what with terminating Southeastern trains too.

The 1930s electrification went to Ore as there was space to build a stock depot there, Hastings station being constrained. This happened in several places. The local services terminating at Haywards Heath had nowhere to lay over either, so were extended up the obscure branch to Horsted Keynes, in the middle of nowhere, which thus got an hourly electric service for the next 30 years that was almost always empty stock.

London Underground has odd trains that terminate one station before the terminus, Oakwood on the Piccadilly and others, so trains going out of service can run straight into stabling at the end of the line. A service right behind takes anyone going to the end.

 

[Class15]

One singular overground train (2G13) which terminates at Camden Road in the evening and then heads ECS via Primrose Hill, presumably to free up the junction for the 4L90 path.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Kirkby and Ormskirk are both reasonably big towns so would be fine as terminating points normally (on a line that had a combination of fasts, semi-fasts and stoppers).

What's strange is that they effectively cleaved one network away from the National Rail network here (and at Hooton too, for a time).

That of course has allowed (aside from 777 problems) Merseyrail to be the most punctual and reliable railway in the country a fair bit of the time. It's an interesting question as to whether it'd be done again, though - I guess that question will be answered in Greater Manchester in the coming years, though with many of these routes there's an opportunity to run the through train a different way, just as was sort-of done on Merseyside, I suppose, with Liverpool-Preston and Scotland services switched to running from Lime St via Wigan, making the loss of through services via Ormskirk only really an annoyance to those on the Northern Line wishing to go to those places.

 

[BeijingDave]

At various times, there have been Greenbank (a suburb of Northwich) terminators, not sure if there still are.

 

[birchesgreen]

I don't think any still do in normal operation but some Cross City Line trains used to terminate at Blake St, now the reason is logical (the county border is just beyond the end of the platforms so West Midlands only tickets/passes used to be invalid going any further) but its a bit of a strange place to terminate/start a service.

 

[Geswedey]

Adwick is also the last station in South Yorkshire and initially at least the service was sponsored by the County.

 

[Jan Mayen]

A bit (well, a lot) off topic, but one place I haven't seen a service terminate in a long time is Crawley. Platform 2 allows a train to arrive from Three Bridges, then return. Used to happen reasonably often with engineering work, now it seems they just put a bus on.

 

[Melancholia]

Filton Abbey Wood

 

[Flying Snail]

Another train for the bucket list!!

(Clarbeston Road)

Don't do it in winter would be my advice after 15 mns freezing my **** off in the wind and rain along with about a dozen other people earlier this year.

 

[The exile]

Filton Abbey Wood

Only a short/medium term measure pending extension to Henbury. Still not convinced that they couldn’t run on to Parkway, but apparently there are too many conflicts involved.

 

[py_megapixel]

Hadfield always seems a little odd. Seems a bit of a waste of those huge tunnels that go through to Penistone and Sheffield...

 

[Bletchleyite]

Hadfield always seems a little odd. Seems a bit of a waste of those huge tunnels that go through to Penistone and Sheffield...

It's the edge of the built up area of "Greater Manchester" (I know it's technically Derbyshire), very similar to Ormskirk really (though Burscough is now much bigger than it was). I know we can debate the Woodhead issue until we are blue in the face, but even if it hadn't been closed I'd be amazed if there wasn't a frequent EMU service terminating at Hadfield in addition to whatever intercity service operated under the Pennines - indeed that's what operated before it closed, isn't it?

 

[martinsh]

Whitlocks End !

 

[cle]

In the 1950s there were at least a couple of Tring - Broad Street commuter services.

Is there a timetable showing these? Would love to see.

Tring works perfectly today, vs the previous habit of sending everything to MKC, half empty. Also frequency is way up on what it was, for the likes of Berlin but also LB/Bletchley fasts.