Least Used Train Stations in the U.K.

February 8, 2017 7:40 AM

Geoff Marshall (of Londonist) has a growing video playlist on the least used train stations in the U.K. It's turning into a quirky and entertaining exploration of some quiet corners of the network, including a surprise guest appearance! More info on Geoff's blog.

Previous Geoff.

posted by carter (19 comments total)

UK England (for now).

Shame, because there are some truly remote stations in Scotland -- shame that he'll probably need to skip Corrour, because it's not actually the least-used station (despite being so remote that literally no roads go there), as well as the Falls of Cruachan station, which is a flag-stop station located in the middle of the woods.

Don't worry though. Scotland has a station that was used by 3 people in all of 2002/2003. Unfortunately, it's not very interesting.
posted by schmod at 8:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yay! I've watched a couple of these recently, and he seems like such a nice chap. Would love to go gallivanting across England with him on all the trains.
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:35 AM on February 8, 2017

And he does mention on the blog, "The plan is to get round all the ones in England first, and then look at Wales and Scotland after that."
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Scotland has a station that was used by 3 people in all of 2002/2003. Unfortunately, it's not very interesting.

Three people bought tickets from the station, but five disembarked. I think we can probably fairly safely say the number of users is going to be closer to five than eight, though.
posted by Dysk at 8:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Scotland has a station that was used by 3 people in all of 2002/2003. Unfortunately, it's not very interesting.
I think Geoff would find it very interesting ;) I do hope that he manages to get there. It looks like just day trips at the moment.
posted by carter at 8:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

His mother is right about the hat tags.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I just watched the Little Kimble one as it's a name I recognised. This is SO CUTE. Really chill lovely videos. Bonus true historical fact about Hillary Clinton in this one. Guys! Doing things!
posted by lokta at 9:18 AM on February 8, 2017

His mother is right about the hat tags.

Right about the tea, wrong about the hat.

Empty train platforms for me are both wonderful and horrible. Wonderful for their emptiness but I only ever find myself at them overseas and confused about how to get around already and I find myself wishing someone would kick around that I could grunt rudimentary questions at.

I like how Mum was his Companion. It made me think he was like Doctor Who but a Trainlord or something. He'll arrive in the nick of time, give or take five minutes.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 10:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]

I like how Mum was his Companion. It made me think he was like Doctor Who but a Trainlord or something. He'll arrive in the nick of time, give or take five minutes.

"It's a little-known fact, but the Class 337 models, with the 12-car, three-sets-of-four arrangement used on the Southern Rail Mainline, are actually bigger on the inside!"
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

Aaaah, somehow I had no idea Geoff had his own channel. I love Londonist's train, trail, tunnel and occasional canal nerdery, but the videos are so short!
posted by Lyn Never at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2017

This is an utter delight, thank you!
posted by Gin and Broadband at 11:15 AM on February 8, 2017

Lovely as this series is, I fear what its effect might be. Drawing attention to these little-used stations is just going to encourage some government minister or rail franchise executive to ask why they can't be closed down to save money.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:05 PM on February 8, 2017

Not only is Oakham the least used train station in Rutland, it's the -only- train station in Rutland. (Great post).
posted by plep at 12:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hmmm disused stations in Rutland. Surprisingly many.
posted by plep at 12:33 PM on February 8, 2017

plep: That's in a county where no whole lines were shut I think, if you find counties where that happened it means a lot of stations in disuse, for example, this single borough in Cheshire has seen more stations fall out of use than Rutland.
posted by biffa at 1:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've used Falls Of Cruachan station. We toured the hydro electric place. There was a pine martin who ate biscuits.
posted by gnuhavenpier at 1:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

this made me really happy.
posted by PinkMoose at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I think ultimately it depends on the nature of the label but I think in that case Geoff was correct to position it at the back of the head.
(I was so sure that the 'surprise guest' was going to be a fox on the platform.)
posted by Flashman at 4:00 PM on February 8, 2017

I personally don't have any hats with labels like that, but I've noticed that that's how people are wearing them this season.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:55 PM on February 8, 2017