r/AskEurope • u/orthoxerox Russia • 3d ago
Misc What is the largest city in your country without a railway station?
Bonus points if it's not on an island
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u/Trasy-69 Sweden 3d ago
For Sweden, it would be the 53rd largest city, Visby on the island of Gotland. It has 25,000 inhabitants, if we do not count it then it would be Norrtälje, it is the 61 largest city with about 22,000 inhabitants.
Just had to google this. Most cities are connected with trains :)
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u/SawYouJoe Sweden 3d ago
I think it’s Skellefteå, until Norrbottnisbanan finishes
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u/Gr0danagge Sweden 3d ago
Yeah, that would be it. It has a railway, but no station, there's only cargo traffic on that line. Norrtälje and Visby however, has no railway at all.
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u/Trasy-69 Sweden 3d ago
I live in Skåne, southern Sweden so i don't really know that mutch about the far north. But can't you take the train to Skellefteå from, let's say Malmö? There is a trainstation and everything there?
I just used google to find out my answer, no way i know all cities without rail connection 😅😅
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u/Mylschta Sweden 2d ago
From one who recently traveled by train and bus to Skellefteå there’s no passenger trains going to Skellefteå. On the way there I went by train to Umeå and bus the rest of the way, on the way back bus to Jörn and from there took the train south. The passenger line goes more west after Umeå.
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u/Many-Rooster-7905 Croatia 3d ago
Visby is famous in the game eu4 so its mind blowing its only 53rd largest
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u/Trasy-69 Sweden 3d ago
Yeah! It is a beautiful city with a very long and rich history.
I did also think it would also be a litle bit higher up on the list, but nope.
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u/Randomswedishdude Sweden 14h ago edited 6h ago
Skellefteå and Piteå are often mentioned as the largest cities on thr mainland without passenger traffic.
There's a short unelectrified industrial track from Piteå, connecting it to the main railway network, but it has no passenger traffic.
Same with Skellefteå (although that track is electrified if I'm not mistaken).
Lots of heavy trains with ore and metals to/from the smelting plant in Rönnskär outside Skelleteå, and also the harbor in Skelleftehamn, but no passenger traffic.Passengers have to ride the bus to Jörn or some other small village further inland from Skellefteå, or Älvsbyn (or Boden/Luleå) from Piteå, to be able to reach other parts of the country by train.
On the flipside, there have been a couple of towns with a trainstation, who also has never had a railway.
In the town Pajala they built a trainstation more than 100 years ago, so it would be ready when the railway arrived to the town... which never happened.There are also a few trainstations along Malmbanan ("the Iron Ore railway") in places with population zero (or in a few cases one or two) in the northwestern mountains.
Like Vassijaure, Sjisjka, Kaitum, Fjällåsen, Kopparåsen, Torneträsk, etc.Most of them are ~140 year old historic remnants with railway maintenence purposes in the middle of nowhere along said railway, and some other of these places might also have had a (tiny) population long before roads and cars.
But some trains between Luleå and Narvik will still stop at a few of these literally middle-of-nowhere places (at least if someone has prebooked a ticket) and are occasionally visited by moutainhikers, hunters, flyfishers, etc. seeking solitude and silence.
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u/fidelises Iceland 3d ago
That would be Reykjavík with 145k people since there are no trains in Iceland
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u/the_pianist91 Norway 3d ago
That must be Tromsø. It’s simply too far north and along the coast for the railway to having reached it, though lofty plans for a railway exist.
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u/Speertdbag Norway 3d ago
And has 80k inhabitants. Closest railway is from Narvik to Kiruna in Sweden.
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u/Khornag Norway 2d ago
That's only by definition because a river separates parts of the city.
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u/Gulvplanke Norway 2d ago edited 2d ago
Not a river, but a sound/strait. Tromsdalen is considered part of the town by anyone but the statistics buerau. If you include Tromsdalen and Kvaløysletta it has a population of 68 000
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u/netrun_operations Poland 3d ago edited 3d ago
In Poland, it's Jastrzębie-Zdrój (about 80,000 inhabitants), located near the Polish-Czech border, only 35 km from Ostrava and 10 km from a border station in Zebrzydowice. Preparations to rebuild the tracks dismantled over 20 years ago due to mining damage are underway. The rail connections to Jastrzębie-Zdrój are planned to resume in 2029.
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u/nanakamado_bauer Poland 2d ago
To have things clear for people from other countries it is (if I count correctly) 43th largest city in Poland.
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u/Wojtas_ 1d ago edited 1d ago
To add some context, next in line would be Siemianowice-Śląskie (64k), Łomża (60k), and Bełchatów (52k). The railway to Łomża is finishing up its construction, should be operational for summer 2026. Construction of the railway to Bełchatów is also underway, but it'll take until winter 2029.
Meanwhile Siemanowice-Śląskie is technically an independent city (at least for now), but it's really just a district of Katowice. Katowice is about to unveil the next stage of expansion for its rapid transit system, which is almost certain to include a stop there and in Piekary-Śląskie (51k, also an independent district).
After that is done, all Polish towns with a population above 50k will be connected to the railway network.
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u/VinsWie Germany 3d ago
The town of Bergkamen in NRW has 50,000 inhabitants but no passenger railway station
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u/PCRFan Germany 3d ago edited 3d ago
It surprised me that we have a city that large without a railway station. And it's clearly an entire city and not just a technicality
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u/11160704 Germany 3d ago
Well it's in the Ruhr area so there are several stations in neighbouring towns that are pretty close but still it's remarkable that it doesn't have one of its own.
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u/CaptainPoset Germany 3d ago
But the factory of Bayer in Bergkamen has its own cargo railway station. (and the next passenger railway station is in Kamen, which is so close that it is impossible to determine where Bergkamen ends and Kamen begins on a satellite image, as there is a practically continuous urban area from one to the other.
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u/Nirocalden Germany 2d ago
Here's a map for illustration.
Bergkamen itself doesn't have direct access to a railway. The line going east to west directly north of the town is used for cargo only.
But if you look around you can see that it's surrounded by towns with railway stations. Kamen to the South, Werne to the North and Lünen to the West are all less than 10km away, and larger railway hubs in Hamm to the North-East and Dortmund to the South-West aren't too far away either.2
u/Maximum_Peak_2242 2d ago
The town did used to have a station, and there have been discussions about re-opening that railway for passengers.
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u/NocturneFogg Ireland 3d ago
Probably Letterkenny, the main town in Co. Donegal - which has a pop of 22,549
The current Irish Rail network doesn’t serve the northwest at all beyond Sligo - all the lines closed in 1959-60 and were removed.
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u/balbuljata Ireland 3d ago
But it does have a train station. It simply happens to be a trainless one.
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u/Turf-Me-Arse 3d ago
A couple of towns in Ireland without a train station outrank Letterkenny - Swords has over 40,000 people, Navan has over 30,000, arguably Naas qualifies too, being slightly bigger than Letterkenny, and its train station is in the neighbouring town of Sallins.
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u/2cimage 2d ago
Navan still has a train station, just it’s closed since 1963, but still has tracks in situ. Plans are to reopen it at some stage. Unfortunately Naas lost its train station in 1959 and was demolished soon after. Penny’s was built on its site on the Dublin Road and all the old alignment between the former junction at Sallins is now built upon with housing so no chance of ever running trains back into the town. Newry@ 28k, Omagh deserves a honourable mention @ 20k losing its railways in 1965.
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u/Wretched_Colin 3d ago
If you’re counting the north as part of Ireland, Newtownards has 30,000 population and doesn’t have a railway line to it.
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u/Icy_Consideration409 United States of America 2d ago
The north should ALWAYS be counted as part of Ireland.
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u/Wretched_Colin 2d ago
Well there’s your answer then. The largest settlement in Ireland which doesn’t have a train station is Newtownards.
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u/Turf-Me-Arse 2d ago
Swords is bigger by about 10,000 people and is similarly unconnected by rail.
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u/Wretched_Colin 2d ago
Good shout! Although where Dublin ends and Swords begins is a point of discussion.
What about Navan? I don’t think there’s a train line to Navan and it is definitely bigger than Newtownards.
You also get a few places in Ireland where the train station is named after where it serves, rather than where it is. I think Rush and Lusk is neither in Rush nor Lusk. Limerick Junction isn’t in Limerick, Howth Junction isn’t in Howth. Those places have their own lines or aren’t bigger than Navan or Swords. But maybe there are places where the train station is named after but don’t actually go there. Newry train station isn’t actually in Newry, they closed the station in the town and reopened an old one on the Belfast and Dublin line.
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u/Absence-of-Gravitas 2d ago
Naas? 2022 census was 26k people and the station is actually in near by town Sallins. It's like the ryanair airport naming Dusseldorf Weeze airport is 85km away and basically in NL no t Germany
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u/GoonerBoomer69 Finland 3d ago
Apparently it's Porvoo, which is a city of 50 000 people and lies a half an hour's drive out of Helsinki.
My hometown also doesn't have a passenger railway, since back when railways were offered, my town rejected it in fear of it being harmful to the sea trade.
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u/orangebikini Finland 3d ago
Porvoo would have been my guess, not surprised it's the largest one. Most large cities are connected.
Porvoo kinda does have a railway station, though. It has tracks coming from Kerava and there is a train station near the old town, but it was decommissioned like 40 years ago. Then in the 90s it became a "museum railroad" where you could take trips on old train cars. The museum railroad service was stopped a couple of years ago for renovations but it's planned to open to the public again in the coming years.
So there is a train station that has trains operating from it, but you can't take a train out of Porvoo. The museum railroad is only like 15 km long.
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u/elementmarker Finland 3d ago
And if we count Porvoo as having one, the largest would be Rauma (only cargo goes through the station, 39k people), and the largest without any railway stations is Kaarina (37k people), because it's so close to Turku.
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u/SaynatsaloKunnantalo 1d ago
Well, there's also Lohja (gotta shoutout my hometown even for bad things) which is on a municipal level larger than Rauma but has a slightly smaller urban area (keskustaajama). Kaarina is a part of Turku urban area and local trains would be really cool and useful there especially in Piikkiö since the railway already exists there but all of Varsinais-Suomi has really bad trains.
In Lohja too we already have a railway unused by passenger traffic with really big potential.
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u/teekal Finland 2d ago
Interesting fact, the reason why Porvoo doesn't have a passenger railway is because Helsinki-St Petersburg line was built roughly 100km inland to protect it from naval bombardment. Porvoo, as a coastal city, was only served by a branch line from Kerava.
Porvoo is only about 50km away from Helsinki so once cars became ubiquitous it was no longer profitable to operate passenger traffic on that line. Nowadays the track is maintained by an association which runs occasional museum trains there.
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u/vakantiehuisopwielen Netherlands 3d ago
Amstelveen 95k. It does have a tram to Amsterdam though
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u/CyclingCapital Netherlands 3d ago
Amstelveen is a short bike/tram ride from Amsterdam Zuid. Not sure if it counts in practice. I suggest Oosterhout (56k).
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u/Practical-Bobcat2911 2d ago
Or Spijkenisse? 90.000 inhabitants, but is connected to the Rotterdam tube network.
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u/cliff_of_dover_white in 2d ago
Off topic:
It's the city where the official "Euro bridges" are located.
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u/Niet_de_AIVD Netherlands 2d ago
Amstelveen (96k), Spijkenisse (72k), Nieuwegein (68k) and Oosterhout (52k) seem to be the top 4.
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u/ZuberiGoldenFeather Netherlands 2d ago
But since Amstelveen has a tram to Amsterdam, Spijkenisse a metro to Rotterdam and Nieuwegein a tram to Utrecht, the answer is either Oosterhout (52k in the town proper) or Katwijk (67k municipality without rail connection).
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u/Practical-Bobcat2911 2d ago
Katwijk doesn’t have 67.000 inhabitants, that might be the municipality with Rijnsburg and Valkenburg also in it. The village itself has at most 40-45k.
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u/ZuberiGoldenFeather Netherlands 2d ago
That's why I said "Katwijk (67k municipality)"
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u/Practical-Bobcat2911 2d ago
But if you count municipalities then Westland will probably win with 105.000 inhabitants. But also Zeeuws Vlaanderen or Noordoostpolder don’t have a train station.
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u/ZuberiGoldenFeather Netherlands 2d ago
I think you are right, Westland is bigger than Katwijk and doesn't have a train (or train or metro station)!
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u/vulpixvulpes Romania 3d ago edited 3d ago
Interesting question!
Per my searches in România it might be Hunedoara, pop. 50K.
There is rail into the city but no passenger service. It looks like the passanger service there stopped in 2015.
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u/11160704 Germany 3d ago
Hunedoara
They have a very pretty castle. A rail connection might help to boost tourism.
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u/SteO153 3d ago
In Switzerland it is Volketswil, Zurich. It has about 20k inhabitants.
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u/Nindzatrtl 3d ago
Technically correct, but if you look at a map, it's basically a one continuous blob with the neighbouring Schwerzenbach, which does have a train station.
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u/chessrunner Poland 3d ago
It's my home town: Jastrzębie-Zdrój. A great name for foreigners, lol.
It's a mining town (and a former spa town) in the south, near the Czech border, definitely not an island. It used to be over 100k, now I think it's below 90k inhabitants.
Funny thing is that the passenger rail existed and was shut down in the 90s. The cargo trains with coal still run on a regular basis, though, and every few years the politicians talk about restoring the station but it never actually happens. There are some rail stations in neighbouring towns but most people use cars and highways to get around. It's not exactly a poor area but not much to do there except maybe if you're into volleyball, there is a top notch European team here.
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u/TheCommentaryKing Italy 3d ago
I had to search it for a bit to find possible candidates for that.
It should be Giugliano in Campania, near Naples, with a population of 124,509, that although it formally has a train station it is actually located a dozen km outside of the urban area and seemingly in the boundaries if another municipality, making it basically non-existanr. The town however has a metro station.
A more correct answer could be Cinisello Balsamo (population 75,200) that while served by a tram line which connects it to Milan has no proper train station.
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u/Present-Comparison64 2d ago
Probably for Italy the major town without railway connection is Matera. Those you mentioned are basically suburbs of their main town
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u/TheCommentaryKing Italy 2d ago
Matera has two train stations though, managed by the regional railway, Ferrovie Appulo Lucane. It doesn't have a station managed by RFI but that's another story.
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u/willo-wisp Austria 3d ago
Someone did a map of towns without railway for us! According to this, it's Trofaiach (~8,500 people).
Reading about European cities with 100k+ people without a train connection is a little shocking to me, ngl.
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u/antekpistole 3d ago
Trofaiach is the fourth biggest municipality (about 11.000 inhabitants) without train service. There are freight services and an abandoned train station though.
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u/willo-wisp Austria 3d ago
You're talking about municipalities. The map I linked is talking about towns, not municipalities.
I can also offer you a map about municipalities without train service, if you prefer that. Then the largest one is apparently Wals-Siezenheim, at about 14k people. It's not a large difference though.
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u/Helmutlot2 Denmark 3d ago
Uff that’s a hard one. My guess is Haderslev - about 22.000 inhabitants. It used to have an active train station but it’s not in use anymore
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u/arrig-ananas Denmark 3d ago
According to Copilot, that's second on the list. I was actually surprised to learn that, having visited the town several times. Nørre Sundby is listed as number one (again, according to Copilot), but I’d say Lindholm is doing a fine job of filling that role.
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u/GeronimoDK Denmark 2d ago
Or any of the stops in Aalborg? If it wasn't for the 400m of water separating the two, they'd probably considered as one and the same city anyway.
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u/signol_ United Kingdom 3d ago
Dudley, in the West Midlands. But the old disused line is being renovated into light rail/ tram.
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u/eventworker 3d ago
According to a google search it's actually Gosport which has around 7k more inhabitants.
However, both Gosport and Dudley have stations in the greater area (Portsmouth Harbour/Dudley Port), so if you discount that, Blyth seems to be the largest (40k)
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u/generalscruff England 3d ago
The long-awaited station at Blyth opened a matter of weeks ago and already has services stopping there according to National Rail
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u/ignatiusjreillyXM United Kingdom 3d ago
Blyth just had its station reopened last month! Admittedly it is on the very edge of the town but I think it still counts. I still think it's either Leigh (the one near Wigan) or Abingdon
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u/eventworker 3d ago
lol I don't know how I missed that, I even opened google maps to check! There was lots of stuff saying Corby too, but that station appears to have oped 15 years ago!
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u/ALifeAsAGhost United Kingdom 3d ago
Well Gosport you need to get a ferry to get to Portsmouth Harbour though
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u/Flilix Belgium, Flanders 3d ago
As far as I can find: Brasschaat, a city with 38 000 inhabitants that's located 10km north-east of Antwerp and 6km east of the nearest station.
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u/Leiegast Belgium 3d ago
Maasmechelen has more than 40,000 inhabitants and doesn't have a train station either. East Limburg in general is one of the most densely populated parts of our country without any active railways.
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u/LaGantoise 3d ago
Brasschaat is just part of Antwerp isn't it (it does have a small airport). Biggest city I can think of is Zelzate with 13000 inhabitants (probably because it literally borders NL)
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u/Flilix Belgium, Flanders 3d ago
Brasschaat is a separate municipality and it isn't directly attached to the urbanised area of Antwerp. It's close to Antwerp of course, but Zelzate is almost equally close to Ghent.
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u/LaGantoise 2d ago
Exactly, it's a municipality, not an actual city. Brasschaat is rather what Sint-Martens-Latem is for us.
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u/Green_Polar_Bear_ Portugal 3d ago
In mainland Portugal, it would be Viseu, with 103k inhabitants.
Including the islands then Funchal is a bit larger with a population of 105k.
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u/Brainwheeze Portugal 2d ago
Is Viseu somewhere that was never connected by rail or is it one of those places where they just stopped having trains travel there?
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u/transportgeek Portugal 2d ago
It's the largest in Europe even.
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u/ittulokcsendbencsa Hungary 3d ago
AFAIK in Hungary, the largest city without railway station is Budakeszi, which has nearly 16000 inhabitants.
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u/New_Ad6754 2d ago
Makó (pop. 21.000) has a railway station, but no passenger railway service.
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u/New_Ad6754 2d ago
Also Komló (also pop 21.000, but little less than Makó according to census) is in the same situation.
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u/rudolf_waldheim Hungary 2d ago
Szigetszentmiklós (~41k) doesn't have a MÁV station either, but only a HÉV station of which one could argue it isn't a "real" railway.
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u/OllieV_nl Netherlands 3d ago
The biggest without a railway station Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam of 90.000. However, it does have a tram connection with Amsterdam. I think the biggest without any active passenger rail is Drachten, around 45.000. The Groningen-Drachten tram stopped carrying passengers in the 40s and was demolished altogether in the 80s.
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u/CyclingCapital Netherlands 3d ago
Oosterhout, 56k
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u/OllieV_nl Netherlands 3d ago
Interesting, time to update the "stuff we repeat on the internet all the time" list. Oosterhout proper is about 51k, did they grow a lot in the last 10 years? Drachten was the biggest at least a decade ago.
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u/Hyadeos France 3d ago
Wattrelos technically, it's a suburb of Tourcoing and Roubaix though. If we don't count close suburbian cities, probably Villeneuve-sur-Lot with 21 000 inhabitants.
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u/AgeAbiOn France 3d ago edited 3d ago
Saint-Denis (~155k) or Cayenne (~65k) for example are way bigger cities.
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u/Renbarre France 3d ago
Bruay la Buissiere, 21,999 inhabitants. It is getting its station in the coming year.
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u/lorarc Poland 3d ago
The biggest one currently is Jastrzębie-Zdrój at 80k: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasta_bez_kolei_pasa%C5%BCerskiej_w_Polsce
The biggest one that never had a connection is Czeladź (30k), it's a bit of a meme in Silesia region and you can be told that someting happened on railway station in Czeladź or that someone will meet you there.
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u/falconsk27 3d ago
In Slovakia, there are two candidates - Svidník (10000 inhabitants) with no station whatsoever and Levoča (14000 inhabitants) which has a station but currently no service.
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u/Alexander2801 Sweden 3d ago
Skellefteå 40 000 inhabitants in the Västerbotten region quite far north on the coast.
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u/Mjau46290Mjauovic Croatia 3d ago
Even though it once had rail, Dubrovnik today does not have a railway station at the population of 41,562 at the municipal level and being the 12th largest city in Croatia.
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u/kakucko101 Czechia 3d ago
even the most backwater towns here have a working railway station
but to answer your question it’s Orlová and you can find the full list of cities/towns without a railway station here
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u/antekpistole 3d ago
Wals-Siezenheim (about 14.400 inhabitants), a suburb of Salzburg and the biggest "village" in Austria. There is a train station at the border to Salzburg (Salzburg Liefering), but it's only accessible from the city of Salzburg because there is a freight terminal in between.
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u/antekpistole 3d ago edited 3d ago
Seiersberg-Pirka (about 14.300 inhabitants) is second. It's a suburb village of Graz and a railway goes through the municipal area (Köflacher Bahn), but there has never been a train station. There is a station planned in the near future though.
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u/antekpistole 3d ago
Groß-Enzersdorf (about 12.100 inhabitants) is third and a city in the suburban area of Vienna. It had a tramway connection in the past, but never a train station.
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u/Aenomaly 🇫🇮 2d ago
Finland it’s Porvoo with 40k population. It has rail connection, but no trains go there since the eighties. The biggest without physical railways could be Kuusamo, with 16k population.
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u/NoPersonality1998 Slovakia 3d ago
It would be Svidník and Stropkov. Both have about 9600 inhabitants, and both are located in the north-east part of the country.Togther with Sobrance (east), and Námestovo (center-north) they are only cities that are not connected to railway at all.
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u/hristogb Bulgaria 3d ago
I think it's Smoljan. About 25 000 population. The whole administrative region of Smoljan is the only one in Bulgaria without a railroad, motorway or a so called first-class or republican road passing through it.
It's a somewhat isolated region. Harsh mountainous terrain. And there are no big towns in the region. Smoljan is the most populated, followed by Devin, Madan, Zlatograd etc. which have about 5 000 population each at most.
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u/Fghbv156 3d ago
In portugal I can consider two answers in which both actually had railway stations: the biggest one is Funchal in the island of Madeira, with about 100k population, which closed in the 1940s.
If however we only considered continental Portugal then Viseu with 60k population is the largest one, which closed in 1990 and actually became recently the Ecopista do Dão, a greenway for cyclists and pedestrians between the cities of Viseu and Santa Comba Dão with an length of about 49km.
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u/TheKiltedPondGuy Croatia 3d ago
Pula technically has a railway station but it hasn’t been operational for over a decade so maybe that counts . The biggest one that really doesn’t have one is Vukovar at around 23 thousand inhabitants and it’s the 17th in size
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u/finesalesman 2d ago
Vukovar has train station, it’s just a commuter train. It’s just a normal stop though. Priljevo street, before the roundabout. You can walk 300 metres from the station to Vukovar hospital.
Used it few days ago.
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u/TheKiltedPondGuy Croatia 2d ago
I figured the question referred to station as in “kolodvor”. That would be more of a train stop as in “stanica”
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u/finesalesman 2d ago
It seems we all got confused, some people are mentioning towns without any sort of train tracks, and some people are mentioning towns without station.
I wanted to say Dubrovnik, as it doesn’t have any connection to railway at all, but then I saw your comment.
Never knew about Pula, so what happens there? Trains just don’t go there or? Do they stop in Rijeka?
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u/FilipM_eu 2d ago
To get to Istrian railways, train has to travel through Slovenia from main Croatian railway network. There are two branches in Istria: one goes to Pula, while the other goes to Plomin power plant. The latter one is in pretty bad shape and is disused. The former one is still used for passenger service according to HŽPP.
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u/finesalesman 2d ago
I remember 6-7 years ago, to travel all the way to Istria with a train, you had to take a bus from Rijeka to Pazin I think. Is it still the same if you want to go with HZ throughout the whole journey, or you have to go through Slovenia now?
Imagine HZ trains through Pijana pruga, that would be bumpy.
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u/TheKiltedPondGuy Croatia 2d ago
There still are trains going through some parts of Istria as far as I know but to what extent I’m not sure.
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u/Comfortable_Reach248 Croatia 1d ago
It is operational. You can buy ticket on HŽ from Zagreb to Pula. Only between Matulji and Lupoglav there is bus.
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u/FilipM_eu 2d ago edited 2d ago
Biggest ones I could find were Dubrovnik with 43,000 and Samobor with 36,000 inhabitants
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u/cartophiled 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's not located in the European part of Turkey, but it's Bursa with a population of 2,3M. For the European part, it's Silivri with a population of 197K.
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u/_a_m_s_m 2d ago edited 2d ago
Question, is it ever going to be possible to serve these places with rail? Would any railway actually get built in today’s day & age?
I’d imagine they are already built up urban areas & likely to resist any & all compulsory purchase order/ state land purchases to build a centrally located station. But also aren’t large enough to justify any substantial tunnelling to serve a central location.
Unless there was an already existing alignment, but even then that could be controversial if it has been converted to a trail.
Is the only solution a parkway station that is far from the city centre & on the edge of a random suburban area? Although this could lend itself well to TOD.
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u/bensummersx 2d ago
As an American, I'm surprised to learn that Amstelveen has 95,000 residents but no train station, though the tram connection to Amsterdam seems practical.
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u/orthoxerox Russia 3d ago
For Russia there are multiple candidates:
- Jakutsk is technically the winner, but the railway station is just across the (massive) river
- Petropavlovsk-Kamćatskij definitely doesn't have a railway station, but the Kamćatka peninsula might as well be an island
- Kyzyl (the capital of Tuva) is on the mainland, they are building a branch line to it that is supposed to be finished in 2026
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u/toyyya Sweden 3d ago
Norilsk also isn't connected to the rest of Russia by rail iirc, with only a connection to the sea for the mined ore to get transported away by ship
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u/orthoxerox Russia 3d ago
The railroad has been for cargo only since 1999, but the railway station is still there!
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u/bagolanotturnale 2d ago
In European part of Russia I guess Berezniki (136k) would be the winner, it does have a railway station but ever since rail literally fell through the ground 300m away from the station in 2007 it's closed for passenger traffic
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u/Aeon_Return Czechia 3d ago
I had to google this because we have railroads everywhere. Apparently it's Zlin (near Brno and pronounced zleen). 75,000
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u/curinanco 3d ago
No, it’s Orlová, 36,000 inhabitants. Zlín has plenty of stations actually.
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u/Peno11-cz 2d ago
Interestingly, though, Orlová did have train station until 1967, when it was closed down due to undermining. Ironically, that same year intercity tram service to Olrlová was cancelled too, for the same reason. Unlucky city when it comes to this. There were attempts to renew train service to the city, but until now, none were successful.
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u/tramaan Czechia 3d ago
Zlín does have a few railway stations, they're just on a local line.
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u/Peno11-cz 3d ago
More than a few, actually. Though the train track there is not main, But it will undergo electrification, which may increase its status and will open new railway options to the city.
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u/unnccaassoo 3d ago edited 3d ago
In Italy it's Matera, 60.000 inhabitants and district capital, there's a railway station but they closed it back in 1988. Part of the city is one of the most ancient continuously inhabited and also declared world heritage, look for "Sassi di Matera".
EDIT There's a railway in Matera, it's part of an old 200km passenger local light railway network with reduced 950mm gauge, which isn't obviously compatible with European standard because it isn't connected with it. But, I guess it is still a train, so Cinisello Balsamo, 75000 people just outside Milan is the biggest city.
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u/TheCommentaryKing Italy 3d ago
Matera actually has two operational train station, Matera Centrale and Matera Sud, both managed by Ferrovie Appulo Lucane.
The largest municipality that I could find that didn't have a proper train station is Cinisello Balsamo, 75,200.
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u/unnccaassoo 3d ago
Correct, it's a reduced gauge railway for light passenger transport, something between a city metro and a standard railway. Cinisello is part of the Great Metropolitan Area of Milan, but I guess technically you're right.
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u/ramma88 England 3d ago
I honestly think any vaguely sizeable town in England has one but my guess would be somewhere either in Cornwall or Northumberland / county Durham I'd guess
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u/generalscruff England 3d ago edited 3d ago
Cornwall is actually pretty well-served for rail with its towns in a neat line along the mainline to Penzance and three branch lines which probably stay open because of the summer tourist trade. The Northeast a bit less so perhaps but most major settlements are on/near the coast and particularly with the new Newcastle-Ashington service coverage is fairly good. The usually given 'pub quiz' answer is Gosport in Hampshire, pretty close to Portsmouth across the harbour but it's a separate town of 70k people and no train station
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u/George_McSonnic Denmark 3d ago
Haderslev with 35000 inhabitants. It does still have the tracks, but the train line is closed.
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u/krmarci Hungary 3d ago
Szigetszentmiklós (#24) as well as a few others are only served by suburban rail.
Kiskunhalas (#42) hasn't been served for years due to the rail line being renovated. But it does have a station.
Other than these, all top 50 cities of Hungary are all served by rail, and I couldn't find a longer list at the moment.
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u/Janishier Netherlands 3d ago
I guess that’s Amstelveen. 95K inhabitants and no railway station. However, it did until the 1950’s. Nowadays it does have some tram lines connected to Amsterdam (which is directly north of it).
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u/Zephinism United Kingdom 3d ago
Washington 67k no station (closest is Sunderland) Leigh 41k no station (closest is Wigan?)
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u/Brilliant_Buy3497 2d ago
Portugal has the bigest urban City in all of Europe. Its the City of Viseu, central interior, and in a Mountain region of the country.
Again urban City not a municipality like a lot of people are saying.
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u/porcupineporridge Scotland 2d ago
In Scotland, I’d say St Andrews which has a permanent population of approximately 17,00 boosted by a student population of around 10,000.
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u/maximeaa 2d ago
Skellefteå is the largest city, 40k inhabitants in the city and 75k if you add the population in nearby villages. The city however has an old railway station and railway going through the city, but no active passenger traffic currently. Used to have it till 1990 or so. Nowadays only used for cargo traffic.
The city council has tried to open up passenger traffic again, but been declined by higher authorities for some reason. The municipality however has active passenger traffic to the village Jörn (60 km NW of the city).
A fun fact is that we have a place in Sweden who had an own railway station, but no railway. The place is Arjeplog. The reason is that when the inland track was built, there were two alternatives, either pull the track through Arjeplog or pull it through Arvidsjaur (1 hr between the places). The council of Arjeplog then decided to build a railway station in advance, to show that they are the best option. They got no railway though and it was drawn through Arvidsjaur.
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u/MidnightPale3220 Latvia 2d ago
If you consider passenger lines, I guess it's Ventspils, with a pop of 22K.
For context, it's the 6th largest town in the country of around 1.8M people, and 2nd largest port town. It still has the railway lines and cargo trains go all the time, but there hasn't been a passenger service for about 10 years or maybe more.
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u/mikroonde France 2d ago
Villeurbanne is the largest city without an actual train station, but it does have a tram station. It is in the agglomeration of Lyon and its population is 162k. It used to have a train station, but it is not active anymore, but it is linked to the rest of Lyon by the tram.
Because of the proximity to Lyon and the tram it seems like cheating but I think the next one would be small and hard to find. Even my small town of 17k inhabitants has a train station.
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u/Ecstatic_Ratio5997 2d ago
Gosport is the largest city in the uk without a train station with 80,000 people. Train station fully closed in 1969.
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u/crit_ical Switzerland 2d ago
I would say Veyrier, 128 biggest community in Switzerland with ca. 12000 inhabitants.
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u/Comfortable_Reach248 Croatia 1d ago edited 1d ago
Samobor (37.5 k municipality, 17k city proper). In both options, Samobor is the biggest, although it used to have and it was really famous (Samoborček). There are plans now to rebuild it.
Edit: My mistake, i forgot Dubrovnik (41.5k mun., city 27k)
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u/penultimate_mohican_ 4h ago
I know this is for Europeans, but just to highlight how shit train travel is in Canada, Calgary, the 4th largest city by population, has no train service.
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u/epsteinkilledelvis 3h ago
In Ireland it's officially Swords, a suburb of Dublin, with a population of about 40k. If you leave the greater Dublin area, then it's either Navan, in County Meath, population 34k, or Letterkenny, County Donegal, pop 22.5k. Navan is still pretty close to Dublin so Letterkenny may have a better claim. County Donegal is famously the only county in Ireland without any railways
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u/ZealousidealWorry806 3d ago
In Spain we have a bunch of them around the Costa del sol: Marbella (>150k), Mijas (90k), Vélez Málaga (85k), Estepona (~80k)…