If you’ve ever felt lost among the crowds at London’s Waterloo or Victoria stations (99.1 and 81.2 million passengers a year), just ask for a ticket to Shippea Hill in East Cambridgeshire. At 12 passengers last year, it’s Britain’s least-used rail station.
In fact, the 10 least-used stations together only accounted for 688 passengers in total, with only one getting over 100 travelers last year. Here they are:
- Shippea Hill, East Cambridgeshire (12)
- Reddish South, Stockport (38)
- Pilning, South Gloucestershire (46)
- Coombe, Cornwall (48)
- Barry Links, Angus (68)
- Denton, Tameside (74)
- Stanlow & Thornton, Cheshire West and Chester (88)
- Teesside Airport, Darlington (98)
- Chapelton, North Devon (100)
- Clifton, Salford (116)
And in case you DO want to be a face in the crowd, here’s where to find them. These numbers are in millions.
- Waterloo, London (99.1)
- Victoria, London (81.2)
- Liverpool Street, London (66.6)
- London Bridge, London (53.9)
- Euston, London (41.7)
- Stratford, London (41.1)
- Birmingham New Street, West Midlands (39.1)
- Paddington, London (36.5)
- King’s Cross, London (33.4)
- Clapham Junction, London (32.3)
Photo: Shippea Hill station, opened in 1845. (Ashley Dace/Wikimedia)
In most countries such poorly used stations would be closed, adding great inconvenience to those who use it every day. Kudos to the British for keeping these low use stations operational!
I don’t think closing Shippea Hill would “great inconvenience to those who use it every day,” since at 12 passengers a year, clearly no one does!
Even as a request stop, with no staff, there is some cost to keeping it open; there is probably a tale of local pressure or influence at work here, rather than a benevolence on the part of the rail service.
During previous periods, Britain ended not just stations, but hundreds of smaller lines altogether, and only a small portion have been restored over the years.
Thanks for those links PORTMORESBY. …. Where have you gone ?
The first “strikingly similar” report is by Amanda Ruggeri. A freelance journalist who writes for BBC (Entertainment) not the news- and she also writes for the NYT. No surprise there.
Another Ghost report from Michael Williams – who is trying to advertise his latest book “On the slow train” but has yet to enter the top 100 authors.
Many trains travel late into the night with no passengers. They return the rolling stock to where they’ll be needed at the start of the next working day. They often get “side tracked” so they don’t block the main line with their long line of empty passenger carriages.
Just adding “Ghost” to any article increases it’s readers by 50%.
I prefer the answer the Press Officer from the National Railway Museum in York gave. “Ghost trains ? Sorry – never heard of them – have you tried the funfair ?”
Shippea Hill is a request stop situated 77 miles down-line from London. It’s a Rail Station which rises just above sea level, in an area noted for flooding. The station is 1 mile from the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
Can you spot the reason why it may be needed ?
Shippea Hill Station is located midway on the London to Cambridge to Norwich line which is used by hundreds of passengers.
It’s the station that gets little use – not the rail line.
The article in the NYTimes on “Ghost Trains” is a total fabrication.
Yes ! Kudos to the British who can see beyond the IQ of a NY rag reporter.