England’s loneliest train station

[cteno4]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/world/europe/uk-teesside-train-station.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

 

jeff

[Kiha66]

I was just reading the wiki article for this type of service the other day!  Its funny how running one train can technically be cheaper than running no trains!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_train

[Kiha66]

My favorite one is the station where passengers cant even get to the far platform!
"Polesworth has one train per day Mondays–Saturdays, northbound only at 0723. After major works on the West Coast Main Line, contractors neglected to replace the footbridge which they had removed, leaving passengers unable to access southbound trains."

[Yavianice]

 

Here is a youtube video explaining why ghost trains/stations exist

[kvp]

In many cases, when there are trains but they are not stopping, it would really help to make these stations flag stops. If there is demand, the trains will stop there and generate revenue, if there isn't any, they would cost exactly the same amout as today. I know quite a lot of european branch lines that are run mostly with flag stops,. The exceptions are the bypass stations where trains have to wait for each other. These stations could also be for schedule adjustements. The result is that there won't be many ghost stations, just lots of rarely used ones. The only extra requirement is flag stop signalling in the trains. (stop request buttons near the door) On the RhB network in Switzerland, even some inter regio trains run with flag stops along their route.

 

Also if a government wants to clean up these stations, then a mandatory service law could be passed, meaning there should be at least a set number of services in each phase of the day (trains before school and work, after school and after work, this also needs at least one less used 'senior special' or two morning trains to stay balanced). This would mean that lines and stations that do have riders would get a minimally usable service, while stations that are really not worth it would be cheaper as closed.

[katoftw]

17 hours ago, Yavianice said:

 

Here is a youtube video explaining why ghost trains/stations exist

That is a great not-at-all-sarcastic explanation.  Thanks for the vid link.

[miyakoji]

Looks like Geoff and Vicki have been there...