ABSTRACT
It is widely believed that the arrival of a railway in a town or village will boost local population. Local historical case studies provide numerous instances of how the arrival of railway stimulated local industry and population. On the other hand, there are instances where the arrival of a railway seems to have had no effect on the local community whatsoever. Railway promoters saw no need to build a local station where they perceived little traffic potential, and this expectation was often self-fulfilling. Indeed, records suggest that in nineteenth-century England and Wales railway investments sometimes reduced population rather than increased it – small towns served by a railway went into decline as trade and production switched to larger centres at either end of the line; opening a station made it easier for local trade to move away from the town. Local conditions were therefore an important mediating influence on the impacts of railways.
