English Twin Stations Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lymington

Although it's only a few hundred yards from one to the other by train it would be a lot further on land as the train has a bridge over an inlet so everyone else has to go the long way. The Pier, like Ryde's Pier Head, is one end of the Isle of Wight Ferry. Ryde, which is on the Isle of Wight, has another two stations, Esplanade and St John's Road.
Southampton and Weymouth both have dedicated stations for ferries, one also to the Isle of Wight, the second to the Channel Islands.

Answer: Blackpool and Bromley

Both have a main station and a local branch, although both of Blackpool's lines terminate there. Bromley North is the terminus of small branch where South is on the main line.

Answer: Pontefract

Double and greater numbers of stations are frequently not connected with the size of a town, but either the number of lines it has or pure local historical reasons. Pontefract is a small town but still has two stations (where many others have lost theirs) whereas Nottingham and Leicester, with a population of hundreds of thousands each, spent many years with just the one.

Answer: Worcester

Shrub Hill is on the Birmingham-Hereford line. Foregate Street is on the line from Oxford, which joins the other just before Shrub Hill.
Bath has two stations but the other is called Oldfield Park which is an open platform, after losing Green Park in 1966 and was also called Bath Queen Square for a time. Shrewsbury has just the one since Shrewsbury Abbey closed.

Answer: Newark

Newark has two stations, North Gate and Castle. Northampton had a Castle station as well but was one of three stations, not two. They were Castle, Bridge Street and St Johns Street. Northampton Castle station was built on the site of the castle and is the only remaining station there, now just called Northampton.

Answer: Wigan

A reference to old town walls, in fact both stations are on the street called Wallgate, one serving Liverpool and Manchester (Wallgate), the other being about 100 yards away, the main station with services to London, Edinburgh and all points in between. Wigan had a third station, Central, the terminus of a line to Stockport, which closed along with the line in 1964.

Answer: Lincoln

All had or have Central stations, Liverpool being the only remaining. The others now have just the one station carrying the city name including Lincoln since the closure of its twin.

Answer: Gainsborough

You would think with a name like 'Gainsborough Central', for a town even with the small population of just over 20 thousand, would be a fairly busy one, but passenger numbers record it as one of the least used stations in the country. Not due to unpopularity but due to the timetable, currently in 2007 being 3 trains per direction on Saturdays between Sheffield and Cleethorpes.

There was much talk of closure but it somehow remains. Lea Road is on the main line and takes nearly all the town's passengers.

Answer: Wandsworth

One of the sideways questions you were warned about, as although they are within a couple of miles each other Wandsworth Road is not in Wandsworth but on the road to it, and is actually in Battersea. Clapham Junction station further down the road however is also not in Clapham but Battersea but the rail company thought Clapham sounded more upmarket. Bodmin has no station at all any more, but the nearest station was called Bodmin Road to indicate where you needed to get off for a road link, but due to public relations they renamed it Bodmin Parkway, a made up word to indicate a nearest station to a town. Except Didcot Parkway which is right in the centre.

Answer: Yarmouth

This actually refers to two different places. Yarmouth in Norfolk used to be called Yarmouth Vauxhall when it had a total of four stations, until the final other, South Town, was shut in 1970.
Yarmouth Slipway is a timetabled and ticketed stop but although displayed as a destination Yarmouth Slipway on the Isle of Wight is one of the many ferry terminals displayed on the timetable you reach by boats but use rail tickets for.
Vauxhall station is in Lambeth near Battersea in London but none are connected by anything except the name.

Answer: Gloucester

There used to be two stations in Gloucester, Central and Eastgate. In 1975 Eastgate was closed, leaving what was Central, now just 'Gloucester'. Being located off the main Bristol-Birmingham line on the branch to Wales it now means trains that call there have to reverse back to the main line except for trains that continue along the branch.

The main reason given for closure was due to the level crossings leading to Eastgate affecting the city's road traffic.

Answer: Yeovil

Despite the two lines crossing, independent development meant instead of sharing a junction the two lines ignore each other and in fact the main line station (Junction) is outside Yeovil in a village called Stoford while Pen Mill is near the centre. Travellers on the little line running to Weymouth to the South-East face a bus or taxi journey if travelling between lines, plus any return links can be quite demanding as the little line currently runs trains only every two hours.

This is sometimes done deliberately to deter passenger use to prepare a line or station for closure, as they need low passenger figures to justify it.

Answer: Luton

Once upon a time you could actually get a train directly from the Kings Cross line in Hertfordshire to the St Pancras line in Bedfordshire and on to the Euston line, from Hatfield to Luton Bute Street and beyond to join Leighton Buzzard. There was actually a third station also closed in 1965 called Luton Hoo serving the country house to the south. Now such journeys are easier by bus as otherwise you would require a trip to London and a change from King's Cross to Thameslink and another trip back north. I've actually seen a few people's tickets who did this, although most were free passes used by staff who didn't mind.

Many old tickets still called Luton Midland Road long after it was just called Luton.

Answer: Tunbridge Wells, Bournemouth and Folkestone

Technically Tunbridge Wells still has a West station, since the Spa Valley Railway took it over as a preserved line. Before closure it was an important link to the parallel line to Uckfield, but now you need to travel 30 miles or more to change back at London Bridge which I doubt many people would do. They call it progress.
Folkestone West is a small suburban platform on the way to the centre and docks beyond. There was also a Folkestone East which was closed in 1965, and although Folkestone Harbour was in use for boat arrivals and departures it wasn't on regular timetables, like many others such as Weymouth Quay so wouldn't be widely known as actual named stations. The harbour was bypassed for all traffic in 2001 by the Channel Tunnel route except for two Pullman trains a week for the Venice-Simplon Orient Express from March to November which terminate from London to transfer to the Eurotunnel shuttle for the train to Paris at Calais, but is no longer one you can take a train to or from as only used for changing trains.
Bournemouth lost West in 1965 so what was Central is now just called Bournemouth.
Dover had a number of stations, Marine closed in 1994 to leave just the one.

Answer: Bedford

Bedford St Johns was on the last remaining length of rail between Oxford and Cambridge, from Bletchley, until another length was opened from Oxford to Bicester Town in 1987 after originally being closed in 1968. The final link was made from St John's to Midland in 1984 when it was rebuilt so passengers didn't have to walk to change trains.