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New stations

New and reopened stations are essential to improve communities' and businesses' access to the rail network, serve new areas of development and respond to changing economic circumstances. Over the past half-century more than 400 stations have either reopened or been built completely new. They are listed in the new edition of Railfuture's book 'Britain's Growing Railway'.

New stations are generally sponsored locally, rather than by central government. Potential sponsors include:
  • Combined Transport Authorities/ PTEs
  • Local authority (generally county council or unitary authority, which has the strategic responsibility for transport)
  • Train operator
  • Network Rail
Potential sources of funding include:
  • Combined transport authorities
  • Developer
  • Local authority
  • Local Economic Partnership
  • Train operator if a franchise commitment
  • Transport Scotland (in Scotland)
  • Welsh Government (in Wales)
In the majority of cases, new stations are funded by a partnership, such as local authority, train operator and developer. Government support may be available for such an approach through specific funds such as the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, or the New Stations Fund. Our new guide, Expanding the Railways, will help stakeholders and campaigners navigate the process of gaining agreement to a new station. Earlier guidance was published in June 2009 by the former Association of Train Operating Companies in "Connecting Communities".

New stations are expensive, and recent examples range from £2.2m for a single platform unstaffed station, to £12m for a full length two platform station with overbridge and lifts. This means that they generally require significant numbers of daily journeys if they are to be justified. Meanwhile Network Rail are showcasing Maghull North as an example of how to accelerate delivery.

Criteria

  1. New station projects need a business case, a sponsor and funding.
  2. A new station will normally only be considered if it helps to deal with a transport problem (such as traffic congestion) or fulfils a new opportunity (such as a housing development or business park).
  3. Location:
    • Accessibility, space for car parking if required and the physical constraints of the site.
    • Proximity to bus routes.
    • How would pedestrians and cyclists access the station?
  4. Operational:
    • What trains would serve the new station? Is there a local service that could stop there, for example, or does the line only carry fast trains?
    • Do the existing trains have capacity for the new passengers, or would more rolling stock be required?
    • Can the timetable be modified to include the additional stop? What effect would this have on turnround times and the rolling stock requirement?
    • Would the signalling be affected? For example, would the new station be close to a level crossing?
    • Is it on a gradient, or a curve?
  5. Planning and consultation:
    • Is a station within the local strategic transport plan?
    • How will it affect the local community?
    • What stakeholder engagement has taken place?
  6. Commercial:
    • What is the likely level of demand? Have surveys been undertaken?
    • Will the new station also abstract passengers from nearby stations?
    • What is the nature of the demand (commuting, educational, leisure?)
    • Could the demand be met more cheaply in other ways?
  7. Value for Money:
    • Station projects are tested against the Department’s normal appraisal criteria – WebTAG which compares benefits and costs discounted over the life of the project, the benefit:cost ratio (BCR).
Fuller details of the requirements for a new station are set out in Network Rail's explanation of the New Stations Fund.

Campaign targets

Railfuture propose the following shortlist of candidates which meet these criteria and are lobbying local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships to bid for the funding which they need:
  • Cambridge South (Addenbrooke's) - linked with Cambridge City Deal and developer funding. Would serve the hospital site and the developing base for other high-tech companies, including AstraZeneca.
  • Edginswell, Devon - on the Riviera line between Newton Abbott and Torquay/Paignton, funding from new housing development near Kingskerswell, with its new £110m by-pass. Potential start summer 2018, open spring 2019.
  • Soham, Cambridgeshire - local authority sponsorship, supported by Greater Anglia and Network Rail, in conjunction with planned Soham to Ely track doubling and hourly Ipswich to Peterborough service. This new station would give access to the rail network for a population of over 10,000 not currently rail connected. Network Rail held two Reconnecting Soham community drop-in events in late February 2019. In March 2019 the Mayor visited the site expressing hope for mid-2021 opening.
In addition, in the West Midlands franchise ITT the DfT asked bidders to quote, as a priced option, for reopening either Wedgwood or Barlaston station. Technically these stations have never been closed, but services at them have been provided by bus since 2003.

In Scotland and Wales we are campaigning for:
  • East Linton, and Reston - a study into a new rail service between Edinburgh and Berwick-Upon-Tweed, including reopening these stations, was submitted to the Scottish minister for transport and the service included in the Abellio Scotrail franchise requirement, but delayed to 2018 by shortage of rolling stock. East Lothian Council and the Scottish Government have now agreed how to find the funding but opening now not before 2021.
  • Magor - a new station would help to reduce road congestion in Newport and the eastern side of Cardiff. Railfuture actively support and are represented in MAGOR, the Magor Action Group On Rail.
This Map of proposed new stations in Britain shows where they will be located - the most advanced proposals are marked in green, those with more work to do prove the case in yellow.

Coming soon

On 28th July 2017 the Department for Transport announced the winners of the second round of the New Stations Fund, with a pot of £16m. This provides up to 75% of the cost for construction of five new stations (Bow Street Ceredigion, Horden County Durham, Portway Parkway Bristol, Reading Green Park, and Warrington West) to improve access to the rail network and create new travel, employment and housing opportunities. Two of these (Horden and Warrington West) were included in the shortlist proposed by Railfuture.
In the West Yorkshire area four new stations were announced in November 2017's Connecting people: a strategic vision for rail as being developed - Elland, Thorpe Park, White Rose, and Leeds Bradford International Airport Parkway (page 25, para. 2.43). On Monday 18 June 2018 consultation on Elland station began.

In Wales a West Wales Parkway station, at Felindre, north of Swansea is being advocated; see also Swansea Bay Metro.

Whilst Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Whitechapel, Canary Wharf and Custom House already have stations on the London Underground or Docklands Light Railway, they will be joining the national rail network with the opening of Crossrail.

Recent successes

2019:
2018:
2017:
2016:
  • Edinburgh Gateway station was opened officially on Friday 9 December, with the first trains following on Sunday 11 December 2016. Part of the Edinburgh - Glasgow Improvement Programme to electrify lines, it allows rail passengers travelling from the north to reach Edinburgh airport more easily.
  • Kirkstall Forge, on the line between Leeds and Bradford, opened on Sunday 19 June 2016 to serve a £400m mixed use development of the Old Forge site.
  • Lea Bridge - Railfuture had commissioned a study to make the case for improved services in the Lea Valley including this station. Funded from the first round of the New Stations Fund announced by Secretary of State for Transport in Commons Statement, it re-opened with the timetable change on 16 May 2016 - see the Railfuture press release.
  • Coventry Arena and Bermuda Park opened on Monday 18 January. Originally announced by DfT in April 2014, work started May 2014, and services were planned to start in June 2015, but construction problems delayed completion and provisional opening dates passed amid controversy over whether Coventry Arena station will be open during events at the stadium. Because the route is currently operated by one-carriage trans they are banned from stopping within an hour of an event ending to avoid overcrowding. Long trains, such as charters, are allowed to pick-up passengers then.
2015:
  • Apperley Bridge station and park-and-ride in Yorkshire opened on Sunday 13 December 2015
  • Cranbrook in Devon - opened with the annual timetable change on Sunday 13 December 2015
  • Oxford Parkway first trains on 25 October and formally opened by the Prime Minister on 26 October 2015 as part of Chiltern Railways' Evergreen3 project linking Oxford to London Marylebone, which will also be the first phase of East West Rail. On the same day completely re-built stations at Bicester Village (formerly Bicester Town) and Islip opened. Services extended into Oxford on Sunday 11 December 2016.
  • Shawfair, Eskbank, Newtongrange, Gorebridge, Stow, Galashiels, and Tweedbank all opened on 6 September 2015 as part of the Borders Railway
  • Newcourt on the Avocet Line from Exmouth and Exeter, supported by the first round of the New Stations Fund - first service on 4 June.
  • Ebbw Vale Town opened on 17 May - although on 9 June it was still not possible to buy a ticket to the station online
2014:
2013:
  • Energlyn & Churchill Park - new station opened on 8th December 2013 to serve growing demand for rail travel around Caerphilly, with funding from Welsh European Funding Office, as part of wider plans to improve Valley Lines services ahead of electrification
  • Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway - opened 7 months early on 19 May 2013, adjacent to existing Park & Ride site
  • Conon Bridge - closed 1960, re-opened 8 February 2013 with services by ScotRail
2012: Fishguard & Goodwick
2011: Armadale, Caldercruix, Drumgelloch (Airdrie - Bathgate line); Buckshaw Parkway, Southend Airport
2010: Dalston Junction, Haggerston, Hoxton, Shoreditch High Street (East London Line Extension); Blackridge (Airdrie - Bathgate line); Sampford Courtenay, Okehampton (summer Sunday service only)
2009: Corby (closed 1966, previously reopened 1987 then closed again 1990), East Midlands Airport Parkway, Imperial Wharf, Laurencekirk, Stratford International
2008: Ebbw Vale Parkway, Llanhilleth, Newbridge, Crosskeys, Risca and Pontymister, Rogerstone (Ebbw Vale line); Alloa, Aylesbury Vale Parkway, Heathrow Terminal 5, Mitcham Eastfields, Shepherds Bush, Stone (services suspended 2004)
2007: Coleshill Parkway (on Birmingham-Nuneaton line), Ebbsfleet International (for international services; domestic services started 2009), St Pancras International, Llanharan
2006: Liverpool South Parkway
2005: Larkhall, Merryton, Chatelherault, Kelvindale (formerly Dawsholm) (Larkhall line reopening); Gartcosh, Rhoose, Llanwit Major, Glasshoughton.

Interchanges

Where lines cross, Railfuture argue for the creation of interchange stations to create new journey opportunities, as for example by the new walkway between London Overground's Hackney Downs and Hackney Central stations. There is potential for new or improved interchanges at:
  • Brixton
  • Brockley
  • Dorking
  • Lewisham
  • West Hampstead

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