Parkway stations

[Phil Parker]

Someone has emailed into BRM, and asked, "What is the criteria for naming a station with the name parkway?"

 

I know it is out-of-town, and has a car park, but is there a definitive answer?

[AY Mod]

It's a marketing thing really as a rail version of park'n'ride to get people to use that station to access the named city/town as much as taking passengers outbound to other locations away from the city. Not a bad idea. Better than the GW usage of the word 'Road' to leave people in the middle of nowhere.

 

I don't think there's a strict definition for its usage.

[4630]

According to Wikipedia, probably as good a source as any in the instance, concerning Bristol Parkway which was among the first of a new generation of park and ride railway stations;

 

The name "Parkway" came from proximity to the M32 motorway, known as the Bristol Parkway, although the term Parkway has since been applied to park and ride stations throughout the United Kingdom.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Parkway_railway_station

 

 

Edited July 19 by 4630

[sjp23480]

RailUKforums has a thread with much discussion

[petethemole]

Southampton Airport Parkway mainly serves commuters to London who drive from the extensive residential districts around the city.  It's close to the M27 and M3, but it doesn't seem to function as a park & ride for the city. 

[Wheatley]

8 hours ago, AY Mod said:

It's a marketing thing

 

Spot on, it has no 'railway  operational' meaning. 

 

 Consider Alfreton & Mansfield Parkway. Alfreton had the station on the main line, Mansfield had the population but no station. Building a big car park in Alfreton and adding "& Mansfield Parkway" to the signs was cheaper than reopening what became the Robin Hood line and  rebuilding Mansfied station. 

 

Once they did reopen it Alfreton & Mansfield Parkway reverted to Just Alfreton, and then they kind of lost the plot a bit with Sutton Parkway. Although I suppose "That Industrial Estate Just Off The A38 Between Sutton in Ashfield and Kirkby in Ashfield" wouldn't  have been the catchiest station name. 

[MidlandRed]

Worcestershire Parkway is somewhat of an outlier, apparently (if taken literally) a park and ride for an entire rural shire County!! It accesses the M5 on the outskirts of Worcester, the Birmingham/Gloucester/Bristol line and the Hereford/Worcester/Oxford/ Paddington line. Presumably it serves commuters and travellers using both rail routes. 

[The Stationmaster]

The use of the term has changed a bit since its origin for Bristol Parkway and is now used in several different ways -

 

1.  The original idea of a new station built specifically, along with car parking (and possibly 'bus connections), to serve an area remote from other railway stations, e.g.  Bristol Parkway, and Tiverton Parkway (the latter being built at the site of along closed station with a totally different name).

2.  As an updated name for a station remote from the place it supposedly served.  I.e. replacing the use of the GWR suffix 'Road' with the suffix 'Parkway' - e.g Bodmin Road became Bodmin Parkway.

3. At an existing station where car parking capacity has been considerably increased in order to better serve a broader hinterland, e.g Didcot on the GWML acquired a very large multi-storey car park in recent years and has become 'Didcot Parkway'. although it's an easy walk from the centre of Didcot!)

4.  A new station built with the intention that, among other things, it could serve as a park & ride station for a nearby large town/city, e.g Oxford Parkway.

Whether Oxford Parkway actually fulfils the park & ride role for people travelling into Oxford I don't know but it was built next to an existing park & ride car park for people to go into Oxford by 'bus.  It might also keep traffic out of the city for people wishing to travel to London or further afield?

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Wasn't B Parkway originally to be called Bristol North? 

It always makes me smile that there are two adjoining stations on the same mainline, Parkway and Patchwy with such similar names, but they've never had a (regular) service between the two. Though for pretty obvious reasons. 

Edited July 20 by Peter Kazmierczak

[The Stationmaster]

25 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Wasn't B Parkway originally to be called Bristol North? 

It always makes me smile that there are two adjoining stations on the same mainline, Parkway and Patchwy with such similar names, but they've never had a (regular) service between the two. Though for pretty obvious reasons. 

I'm not sure what it was considered calling it but some bright spark thought of 'the Parkway' - as the nearby M32 was known locally - might be a good idea and it was duly adopted.  The station is actually in Stoke Gifford and I think that might have been considered as a name for it at one stage but it was probably thought that it wouldn't mean much to many most people.

 

Most of the initial Bristol North urban development area, and the exponential growth of Stoke Gifford, post date the opening of Parkway station by some years.  The station itself has effectively been rebuilt twice (massively so in the early 21st century rebuild) and now bears little resemblance to what was first created on the site.

 

All being well i shall be alighting there on Monday on my way to an OFs' lunch gathering in a nearby hostelry - a venue we use as part of our regular 'circuit' of such establishments because it is only a few minutes walk from the station.   And ideally the station is served by a wide range of services allowing access from such widely distributed places as the West Midlands, Crewe, York, the West of England, Swindon, and London.  Oh and the food's pretty good as is the selection of things like beers and ciders.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

And it's not in Bristol but South Glos...

[The Stationmaster]

26 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

And it's not in Bristol but South Glos...

And, depending on exact dates it might have been in Gloucestershire when it opened - South Gloucestershire wasn't created until some time in 1972. 

[Michael Hodgson]

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

I'm not sure what it was considered calling it but some bright spark thought of 'the Parkway' - as the nearby M32 was known locally - might be a good idea and it was duly adopted.  The station is actually in Stoke Gifford and I think that might have been considered as a name for it at one stage but it was probably thought that it wouldn't mean much to many most people.

We didn't call that area Stoke Gifford.  We called it the same as the enormous new retail park (Cribbs Causeway) that saved us travelling into Bristol with all the aggro of parking near the shops in a big city.  It also meant that deliveries could serve the retail park without lorries clogging up Bristol.

 

Not everybody particularly wanted to go to Bristol for their shopping.   That whole area was deliberately developed at the convergence of the M4, M5 and M32, the intention of keeping a lot of traffic out of the centre of Bristol, and it served not only northern Bristol and southern Gloucestershire but also south Monmouthshire via the Severn Bridge (the Second Severn Crossing not yet having been built).  Bristol Parkway provided a much better rail service for people needing to go to London or the Midlands/North East or Devon/Cornwall than did Chepstow or Severn Tunnel Junction.  Perhaps it's a pity the reatil park wasn't rail-served, but the retail industry finds road more cost effective than rail.

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

And, depending on exact dates it might have been in Gloucestershire when it opened - South Gloucestershire wasn't created until some time in 1972. 

The County of Avon existed between 1974 and 1996.  Politicians redraw boundaries whenever it suits them.

[Compound2632]

19 hours ago, Wheatley said:

"That Industrial Estate Just Off The A38 Between Sutton in Ashfield and Kirkby in Ashfield" wouldn't  have been the catchiest station name. 

 

cf. Winnersh Triangle.

[pb_devon]

And just to really confuse everyone, the new station on the Okehampton line next to the A30 is to be called Okehampton Interchange.

Though it seems to be a better description of it’s purpose than Parkway.

[Compound2632]

16 hours ago, pb_devon said:

And just to really confuse everyone, the new station on the Okehampton line next to the A30 is to be called Okehampton Interchange.

Though it seems to be a better description of it’s purpose than Parkway.

 

Though no doubt the car park is Okehampton Apponly.

[caradoc]

On 20/07/2024 at 11:54, The Stationmaster said:

Whether Oxford Parkway actually fulfils the park & ride role for people travelling into Oxford I don't know but it was built next to an existing park & ride car park for people to go into Oxford by 'bus.  It might also keep traffic out of the city for people wishing to travel to London or further afield?

 

 

From personal observation the predominant traffic by far at Oxford Parkway is people getting on and off trains to and from Marylebone; Although the journey time to London is longer than that from Oxford to Paddington the station is well located for the areas north and east of Oxford, including the large village of Kidlington and parts of the city itself, such as Summertown, Marston and Headington. The number of passengers using the line to travel between Parkway and Oxford is far smaller (although I did make that trip myself in May returning from the Severn Valley Diesel Galas, the combination of train and bus times made this a quicker way to get from Oxford station to Marston than the direct bus!)

 

 

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, caradoc said:

 

From personal observation the predominant traffic by far at Oxford Parkway is people getting on and off trains to and from Marylebone; Although the journey time to London is longer than that from Oxford to Paddington the station is well located for the areas north and east of Oxford, including the large village of Kidlington and parts of the city itself, such as Summertown, Marston and Headington. The number of passengers using the line to travel between Parkway and Oxford is far smaller (although I did make that trip myself in May returning from the Severn Valley Diesel Galas, the combination of train and bus times made this a quicker way to get from Oxford station to Marston than the direct bus!)

 

 

The problem with public transport generally is that people don't want to go from one railway/bus station to another.  They want to travel from some housing estate to an office, shop or factory and back.  They may well have stuff they have to take with them.  They will only put up with the inconvenience and general hassle of changing from one mode of transport to another if the overall journey is both practical and better value than driving all the way.  That often means they need somewhere to park their means of getting to the station or even just to a bus stop.  And there's got to be an adequate service if they need to work shifts etc.  In practice parking is often a problem at destinations, so a railway or bus station with plenty of (affordable) parking is a workable solution for some.