Terrible quality image, especially as it's a deskewed clip from a street scene photo and is also short on pixels - this was a billboard on Julian Road, Bath, late sixties or early seventies.

Now, the hunt is on for a clearer copy.

Not sure if Bath *had* through train services to the north by that time, but then, in the early 1990s, Oldfield Park saw an 8:30am through train to... Stockport (and then Manchester) and after that ceased, Regional Railways instroduced through services to Manchester and to Liverpool. Much later still there was the ~6:15am Crosscountry Trains through service to Edinburgh. Perhaps in earlier years but after the demise of Green Park Station, there were others.

Mark

 
Oooooo this is an interesting one, making me want to head up to the attic and pour over old all line British Rail timetables to try and find some!

I did use the train to Manchester once from Oldfield Park to travel there for a work related trip. A novelty for an Intercity service stopping at Oldfield Park as well it being a direct Cross Country service heading north.

Other than the trains you’ve listed I can’t think of any others off hand. Bath Spa had a good range of destinations provided by Regional Railways in the 1990s. As well as Manchester and Liverpool you had Tenby and of course Brighton and Waterloo. All sadly no more.

Possibly the extra summer Weymouths in the 1970s starting at Nottingham or Birmingham seems to ring a bell. I know a service to Derby from Weymouth went via but not stopping at Melksham (as the station had closed by then) then via Oxford. (Please don’t take what’s written in this paragraph as gospel as a visit to the attic would need to confirm/correct what’s written)

There have been times when Cross Country services diverted via Bath and Westbury when the line between Bristol and Taunton has been closed for engineering work have stopped at Bath Spa.

Also, when the line between Bristol and Birmingham was closed trains would go via Bath (not stopping) and call at Swindon and Oxford. But of course Cross Country can’t be bothered to do that anymore putting people on buses instead. They do still do diverts via Newport though.

Finally, I remember being at Edinburgh Waverley station a few years back and doing a double take when looking at the arrivals board seeing Bath Spa listed before remembering there was the early morning departure from Bath.

 
Thinking of other cities/towns that have lost through trains to that number of destinations at a time when it would have been reasonable for the network to have been at the least, stable (or actually, for the railway to have increased through travel opportunities). Crosscountry's evolution from its first inception to the present has been... curious. Regional Railways interregional services seem to have been strangled, and was the issue with Transport for Wales that it was set up with a lengthy and inappropriate capacity-constraining franchise agreement, leading to its long distance services being grimly capacity-constrained?

Anyway, here's the Edinburgh through train at Bath Spa, just before 6am in April 2011. (I was heading for Leeds...)

Mark

 

Many years ago, there was a temporary change to our local train timetable, such that we had a direct Cross Country service to Aberdeen.

I teased my manager at the time (she was based in Edinburgh) that I hoped I didn't inadvertently 'nod off' during my early morning train journeys into Bristol, or I might wake up only to find myself rather north of her.

 
Here’s a list of main destinations that have lost their cross country services in the past twenty or so years:

Brighton
Eastbourne
Gatwick Airport
Guildford
Kensington Olympia
Liverpool
Margate/Ramsgate
Newquay
Poole
Portsmouth
Swansea
Weymouth

There may be more as well as intermediate stations.

Direct services that no longer run:

Southwest to Glasgow via West Coast*
South coast to Glasgow via West Coast
South coast to Edinburgh via East Coast
Southwest to Liverpool
South coast to Liverpool

*Couple of direct services run via East Coast making for a long journey.

 
Take a look at http://www.1s76.com - wonderful website, and with an update just a couple of weeks ago.   I have not been able to find the original poster ... not an easy search, but then knowing Mark A he will have checked all the obvious places before posting a request for help here.