Routes that are always empty!

[sheff'd victoria]

It doesn't help that the trains run just a few minutes before/after the Northern services between Gainsborough Lea Road and Lincoln.

This sounds like the Sheffield Midland - Gainsborough - Cleethorpes service , it may only run Saturday but is badly timed but saying that has a sprinkling of passengers between Gainsborough / Brigg

 

[Steve Bray]

When it's not affected by engineering work, the last weekday HST from Hereford to Paddington (2151-ish), I was told is very quiet. A steward told me that it tended to be herself, driver, train manager and 'about 2 passengers'.

 

[GospelOak117]

The few times in recent years that I have travelled on the Greenford Line I have had the train to myself between West Ealing and Greenford. There didn't even appear to be a guard visible, which on a DMU operated service with unstaffed stations seemed a little odd.

 

[devon_metro]

The few times in recent years that I have travelled on the Greenford Line I have had the train to myself between West Ealing and Greenford. There didn't even appear to be a guard visible, which on a DMU operated service with unstaffed stations seemed a little odd.

Greenford is DOO. Hardly rare in the LTV region.

 

[GospelOak117]

Greenford is DOO. Hardly rare in the LTV region.

Really, I never knew this was the case on the Thames lines. I don't venture that far west often lol

 

[Nightrider]

I'd have to agree with that.

Barnhill is too big a station for how many passengers actually get on there. Waste of money and it is right next door to Springburn Station, you can just about spot it in the distance from Barnhill!

To be fair Springburn and Barnhill stations were built to transport "railway" factory workers generations back.
Hard to believe Barnhill was a staffed station for most of its life.
At the back of Barnhill station were those new houses now sit, left of the picture, was a civil defence building that was headquarters for Springburn in the event of a nuclear attack.
I'll leave you to figure that one out.
Maybe the survivors were to meet up there.
Two stations down, Duke St, used to have a coal fire in the waiting room.
Duke St back in the day used to be a great shopping area pre supermarkets.
It was a family day out for us on a saturday back in the 1960s.
Come on, we were easily pleased.
Train there and back from Springburn.
Garngad railway station on the same line closed to the public as early as pre 1910 although there have been claims it was still being used to in the morning and evening to ferry workers to the shipyards in Govan and Clydebank well into the 1930s.

Barnhill was also the name of Europe's largest poorhouse back in the pre welfare days.
Many an old railway worker ended their days there only yards away from the Springburn line.
You then had the pleasure of being taken on a wheeled stretcher in the wee small hours to be buried in a unmarked paupers grave at Sighthill cemetery.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

For all of you commenting on the Mansfield-Worksop quietness, Derbyshire CC have withdrawn their funding for the northern Sunday extensions - so, from May, Worksop-Mansfield Woodhouse will be closed on Sundays.

 

[dk1]

You were very lucky! Was it at the weekend?

The Ipswich-Cambridge route has picked up no end since NX introduced the hourly timetable. Passing these trains at Stowmarket it is amazing how busy they have become. In fact the 06.16 was very well loaded the other day & the following 06.56 is from this monday strengthened to a 3-car 170 due to crowding issues. This has become available by swapping off the 2-car with the 06.42 Lowestoft to Ipswich which now has extra trains either side relieving it at 06.11 & 07.27 since last Decembers timetable change.

What a bonus these units & level of service are now on Newmarket race days.

 

[WestCoast]

Even the little North Western beyond Hellifield in the middle of winter had a sturdy handful of walkers and country folk last time I was on it (and of course it got fuller at either end).

I've been on a 3-car 144 on that route and had two carriages to myself - became much busier after Bentham though.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Greenford is DOO. Hardly rare in the LTV region.

I've always wondered about the Greenford branch. Drayton Green, South Greenford and Castle Bar Park have no PTT or ticket machine, they aren't covered by penalty fares and the trains are DOO. How do you go about buying a ticket from those stations, if you don't have an oyster or travelcard?

I'd expect that sort of set up elsewhere but not in the London area. Is it just pay at an exit barrier?

 

[clagmonster]

PAy at the first opportunity, be it from a TTI, a guard on a subsequent train, at an interchange station (if there is sufficient time) or at your destination.

 

[Yew]

For all of you commenting on the Mansfield-Worksop quietness, Derbyshire CC have withdrawn their funding for the northern Sunday extensions - so, from May, Worksop-Mansfield Woodhouse will be closed on Sundays.

If they extended it to include retford that would help

 

[GospelOak117]

I've been on a 3-car 144 on that route and had two carriages to myself - became much busier after Bentham though.

Not usually a quiet route, but in their final days I had an entire 4-car Class 423 4-VOP unit to myself on a South London Metro service. I wish I could remember what service it was and what route it took but it was an odd late afternoon service that was usually diagrammed for a VOP, which is why I went after it. Walked up and down the length of the train a few times during the journey, no-one!!

 

[yorksrob]

Not usually a quiet route, but in their final days I had an entire 4-car Class 423 4-VOP unit to myself on a South London Metro service. I wish I could remember what service it was and what route it took but it was an odd late afternoon service that was usually diagrammed for a VOP, which is why I went after it. Walked up and down the length of the train a few times during the journey, no-one!!

Ah, not the same without it's lovely compartments !
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I've been on a 3-car 144 on that route and had two carriages to myself - became much busier after Bentham though.

Ah, well it's usually on a weekend I'm on that route, although last time it was on a working Monday and it was reasonably busy (I didn't manage to claim a facing seat along the way anyway) - only two carriages though.

 

[Statto]

Gatwick Express - most of the day and evening - 10 coach high density trains with 20 or so passengers on

The annoying thing about that is the high fares GE charges, if the fares were down to the normal Southern levels you'd get more passengers using the GE, probably transferring from the Southern services.

New Brighton-Liverpool is quiet most of the time, only a couple of peak journeys, or when there's an event on in New Brighton when it's heaving.