RMweb Gold westerhamstation Posted March 25, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 25, 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21829838 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohmisterporter Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Some interesting quotes here. I was surprised to read that Ilkley has 132 Daily Weekday rail services. It seems extravagant for a small market town. Also the quote from the NRM spokesman gives the impression it was the Conservative government that closed lines following the Beeching report. Barbara Castle (Labour) closed plenty too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mcfarlane Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 It was a frustrating and not particulary in depth article. It doesn't really address a key point and so gives the impression that whether a small town kept or lost its service was completely random. It wasn't, it was down to the economics of the entire line serving the town. Rather than actually doing some non-Google based reasearch to cover this (including the reasons for closing Ripon's station) they just include a few quotes from the locals bemoaning the lack of a station in their (rather small) 'city'. But at least the BBC managed to write an article of railways that doesn't feature a quote from Bob Crow calling for Nationalisation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
62613 Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 The Taxpayers' Alliance haven't got a clue, either. If they had their way, we'd be back in 1840. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mcfarlane Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Some interesting quotes here. I was surprised to read that Ilkley has 132 Daily Weekday rail services. It seems extravagant for a small market town. Isn't it the terminating point of one of the Leeds/Bradford commuter lines? So the train frequency is probably 3 to 4 trains an hour, and not typical of small market towns. Which is probably why the BBC picked it as an example. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 25, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 25, 2013 Ilkley has a population of 14k, Ripon 16k, so I suspect that's where the parallel was supposed to be drawn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Ilkley has two trains per hour to each of Leeds and Bradford in the daytime. To get to 132 I think they must have added the arrivals and departures together. Ilkley has both Leeds and Bradford within comfortable commuting distance, as well as being a nice place to live for those that can afford to. So it's not surprising it attracted a commuter market, which in turn led to it getting probably the most attractive commuter service in the North. Ripon is 50% further from Leeds and no other major centres are any nearer, so doesn't really have the same commuter potential. Somewhere like Wetherby might have made a more interesting comparison (population 11k but might have grown with a decent train service?). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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