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4064ReadingAbbey
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« Reply #210 on: April 02, 2019, 16:03:51 » |
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Hmm... quite a few of the stations on Lee's list don't meet my definition of a 'Parkway'; I've obviously fallen into the trap of trying to prescribe (rather than describe) a usage..!
Still think Portway Parkway is a silly name though.
Isn't "Parkway" the modern word for "Road" on the end of a station name? Means "as near as we'll get you" in many cases. Beaulieu Road, Builth Road, Llanbister Road, Stapelton Road. Confused by a duplicate use where the "Road" is the road name in the town, such as Gainsborough Lea Road, Blackhorse Road, Angel Road, etc. Castle Cary -> Shepton Mallet Road ... no - I had better not suggest that. But, really, what else would you call the new park and ride station on the parkway? It's all very well us being critical but ... what alternative? Looking at a map - but just a quick look - no new name shouts out. Sponsored name? Public competition - "Station McStation Face"? Some sort of commemorative name? Perhaps we have too many "Brunel"s ... but we could do worse; name it after anyone more recent and I suspect you'll have arguments. "Beeching's End" to celebrate railways making a comeback? The first of the Parkways was the Bristol one. During the planning stages it was known as 'Bristol North'; the Western Region management ran a public competition to find a name and the result was, drum roll, 'Bristol Parkway'. The winner was quoted as saying that he got the name from the nearby and newly completed Parkway motorway. But in this case I would suggest that 'Portway Station' would tick all the boxes - it's really no different to thousands of other stations across the country. (PS, there was apparently a proposal to name a new stretch of road in, or near, East Grinstead 'Beeching Cut'...) |
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Celestial
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« Reply #211 on: April 02, 2019, 16:35:32 » |
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I think the Parkway name has been devalued over the years. Originally X Parkway meant a station that is close to X but not in it, easy to get to (well Bristol Parkway was in 1972) and which you can get to and from X quickly, and which has been provided with a nice big car park. So you don't have to drive into the congested centre of X to catch the train.
But now we have stations like Didcot and Port Talbot which have just had a bigger car park built and Parkway tacked on to the name. But then, lots of stations have had car park extensions in recent years.
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didcotdean
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« Reply #212 on: April 02, 2019, 17:01:06 » |
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Didcot is somewhat of an unusual case in that when the car park was laid out on the former Provender Stores site there was still nothing much north of the railway, and it was possible to drive all but the last 100 metres or so to the car park along national speed limit roads at least from the A34. So in some ways it fitted the 'out of town and easy to get to by car' concept without much of a stretch. The development to the north though was already underway, and with more recent ones out to the west it is now more of a town centre station than it ever was, and the road from the A34 is jammed in both directions peak time.
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Oxonhutch
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« Reply #213 on: April 02, 2019, 17:29:25 » |
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I think the Parkway name has been devalued over the years. Originally X Parkway meant a station that is close to X but not in it, ...
A bit like the original GWR▸ use of the handle "Road". Wallingford Road station was some three miles from its erstwhile destination. Any idea what 'X' Road Station was furthest from its 'X'? Genuine question - I have no idea. |
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grahame
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« Reply #214 on: April 02, 2019, 17:51:53 » |
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Any idea what 'X' Road Station was furthest from its 'X'? Genuine question - I have no idea.
No - but some examples Builth to Builth Road - about 2 miles Clarbeston to Clarbeston Road - about 2 miles (*) Beaulieu to Beaulieu Road - about 3.5 miles Llanbister to Llanbister Road - about 5 miles (*) But I'm doubtful about those marked (*) as to whether the road was already "The Clarbeston Road" and "The Llanbister Road" before the railway came. Llanbister in particular is a small cluster of houses, 5 miles from the "Road" station. Don't ask about Derby to Derby Road. Similar question with "Junction". Shortest - Stourbridge, Longest perhaps Limerick. |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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johnneyw
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« Reply #215 on: April 02, 2019, 17:57:06 » |
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Rather agree that Portway Parkway does sound a tad silly, a bit like the line in Airplane: "What's our vector Victor?".
Just plain Portway (P&R▸ ) might just about do.
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stuving
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« Reply #216 on: April 02, 2019, 18:02:05 » |
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I think the Parkway name has been devalued over the years. Originally X Parkway meant a station that is close to X but not in it, ...
A bit like the original GWR▸ use of the handle "Road". Wallingford Road station was some three miles from its erstwhile destination. Any idea what 'X' Road Station was furthest from its 'X'? Genuine question - I have no idea. I suspect it's unanswerable. Some Roads don't go to the place (e.g. Derby Road, in Ipswich), and some do but are so long this is obviously not the station that serves the place (e.g. London Road, Guildford or Brighton). So maybe the question to puzzle over is whether any are borderline - does it serve the place or not? And then there's Spring Road - how close is spring? Well, at this time of year ... |
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johnneyw
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« Reply #217 on: April 02, 2019, 18:11:58 » |
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A visitor new to Bristol, wishing to travel to the St Andrews Park locale would be ill advised to get off the Severn Beach Line at St Andrews Road!
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SandTEngineer
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« Reply #218 on: April 02, 2019, 20:23:52 » |
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A visitor new to Bristol, wishing to travel to the St Andrews Park locale would be ill advised to get off the Severn Beach Line at St Andrews Road! OK I'll bite. Why is that then?...... |
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martyjon
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« Reply #219 on: April 02, 2019, 21:14:04 » |
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A visitor new to Bristol, wishing to travel to the St Andrews Park locale would be ill advised to get off the Severn Beach Line at St Andrews Road! OK I'll bite. Why is that then?...... Cos Montpelier is the station for St. Andrews Park. |
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johnneyw
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« Reply #220 on: April 02, 2019, 21:17:51 » |
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A visitor new to Bristol, wishing to travel to the St Andrews Park locale would be ill advised to get off the Severn Beach Line at St Andrews Road! OK I'll bite. Why is that then?...... St Andrews Road is just past Avonmouth on the way to Severn Beach while the St Andrews area is served by Montpelier Station on the same line but at the opposite end. Edit: Oops, Martyjon just beat me to it, and rather more succinctly too! |
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SandTEngineer
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« Reply #221 on: April 02, 2019, 21:51:37 » |
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OK. I get it. Thanks to both.  |
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Red Squirrel
Administrator
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Posts: 5454
There are some who call me... Tim
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« Reply #222 on: April 02, 2019, 22:20:10 » |
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Bristol once had five churches dedicated to St Andrew, and they tend not to have fared well. - St Andrew in Avonmouth, after which St Andrews Road (SAR) is named, was bombed and rebuilt in 1955.
- St Andrew, Clifton, was destroyed by bombing in 1940.
- St Andrew, Hartcliffe escaped the bombs by the cunning expedient of being built after the war, in 1956.
- St Andrew, Montpelier (for yes! the Parish of St Andrew and the district of Montpelier are one and the same - officially) fell into disuse and was demolished in 1969.
- Last but not least, St-Andrew-the-Less in Hotwells was rather badly singed in the blitz, was repaired, but was finally demolished to be replaced by some frankly rather uninspiring grey concrete flats in the 1960s.
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Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.
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Robin Summerhill
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« Reply #223 on: April 03, 2019, 15:19:45 » |
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I think the Parkway name has been devalued over the years. Originally X Parkway meant a station that is close to X but not in it, ...
A bit like the original GWR▸ use of the handle "Road". Wallingford Road station was some three miles from its erstwhile destination. Any idea what 'X' Road Station was furthest from its 'X'? Genuine question - I have no idea. On the matter of the new station, if "Parkway" is the brand name (and we could say it is) then what is wrong with Avonmouth Parkway? On the matter of "Roads" it wasn't only the GWR - take Berkeley Road as an example On the matter of distance, that might depend how far back in history you go. When first opened, Micheldever was called Andover Road because the direct Basingstoke to Salisbury line had yet to be built. The was 7.5 miles from the town whose name it bore |
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Bmblbzzz
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« Reply #224 on: April 03, 2019, 17:06:13 » |
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Portway Parkway is silly, inaccurate and will inevitably get called Porkway Partway. But Portway Park and Ride will inevitably get called Partway Pork and Ride; which is worse, if you think about it...  Avonmouth Portway or Avonmouth Park and Ride might be okay but I think johnyw's suggestion of plain Portway is sensible and accurate. |
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Waiting at Pilning for the midnight sleeper to Prague.
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