The Ghost Trains made by the British Government - Parliamentary 'Ghost' Trains

In today's video, we take a look at how the British Government unintentionally makes ghost trains and stations

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This video falls under the fair use act of 1976.
This video is available to use under the appropriate Creative Commons Licence.
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Picture & Information References:

mattbuck.
David Gruar
AlexNevinTylee
Nigel Thompson
Dr Neil Clifton

[TankEngineMedia]

For a moment I thought the government made up their own ghost train. This was still interesting to learn about

[Froggyman]

On a closing note, I personally find the mental image of the Ghostbusters running after a ghost train on foot in full gear absolutely hilarious

[Vallyent]

That would be entertain the watch. Ghostbusters chasing a ghost train.

[stephenrichmond]

"The idiot who, in railway carriages,
Scribbles on window panes,
We only suffer
To ride on a buffer
In Parliamentary trains."
W.S. Gilbert, "A More Humane Mikado", from "The Mikado" (1885)

[aparations]

Working a ghost train sounds so relaxing.

[lapiswake]

I've ridden 2 ghost trains myself, so far. Both have since ended.
- Teesside Airport got 1 train a week (Sunday afternoon) in the westbound direction for ages until it "closed" in 2020 (I think), but is due to be remodelled after Darlington's remodelling is done.
- West Ealing to West Ruislip used to be a Wednesday morning only service operated by Chiltern, originally being Paddington to West Ruislip but was rerouted when Old Oak Common depot was remodelled for the Elizabeth Line and now HS2. I was one of the passengers on the last service from West Ealing, which was delayed due to signalling issues further up the Chiltern Mainline. Now this service is operated by buses instead.

Also of note:
- Pilning gets 2 trains a day in the same direction, because electrifying the line meant removing the footbridge to the second platform, thus cutting it off so it could no longer be used.
- Polesworth gets 1 train a day at around 6am.
- Battersea Park gets 3 Overground trains a day (one outbound in the early morning, one inbound and one outbound at around 10pm), as the Overground used to run into Victoria before they rerouted the south/east bit to Clapham Jn and they have to keep the chord of track in use.
- Tilbury Riverside "closed" in 1992 and the tracks were removed, yet a replacement bus still runs every day.
- Barlaston and Wedgwood stations both "closed" in 2004, but also are operated by bus services.

[Cfr_Alex_]

Happy early Halloween!
And also nice video keep up the good work!

[drewzero]

Nothing spookier than a tale of bureaucracy 😱

[markbooth]

We have one where I live in Stalybridge (Stalea-bridge, not Stally-bridge). Stockport to Stalybridge one per week. Yet, this line could be used as a tram/rail line operating through the other under used stations on the line to Stockport as part of the Greater Manchester Tram network as it expands from Manchester to Stockport, using Stockport as a hub from Manchester, Stockport, Stalybridge to Manchester Airport, etc. as Stockport is the size of a small city in its own right, just like Salford.

[MikuJess]

The only thing scarier than the paranormal - _bureacracy!_

[PJay-wyfx]

Haven't watched the video yet. When seeing it in the suggestions, just glancing over 'Parliament Ghost Train', first thing that came to mind was a ghost train by/for/about George Clinton's legendary funk collective. As a picture thinker, I can assure you, it looks pretty rad.
For those who are unfamiliar: I highly recommend doing an image search and let your imagination do the rest.
T.O.T.: can't wait for that 'Parliament Ghost Train' video.
Now on to this one first!

[daviszdirector]

not me getting jumpscared by a station i frequent regularly

[EngineerDaylight]

6:10 now you got me imagining the Ecto-1 as a hi-rail 😅

[johnrafferty]

Worked at Kinsington Olympia when we had the Wandsworth Road Parliamentary Monday to Friday. And the Rail Replacment Service Ealing Broadway to Wandsworth Road Via Olympiq. On a Tuesday. The Train was operated By Southern and the Bus/Coach was run By Tellings Golden Millar.

[ThomK-TBF-IRL]

As someone who grew up in one of the towns "serviced" by the Stockport to Stalybridge line, I'm very happy to see it mentioned here. I definitely feel that line could very easily host a commuter service that should see a fair bit of use as it can reverse direction at Stalybridge to Manchester's comparitively forgotten about and severely underutilised second major station, Manchester Victoria, which it just a stone's throw away from the, let's face it, pacemaker of a office district, Shudehill.
Tack this Stalybridge line service onto some of the commuter trains coming from the Hazel Grove and Chester lines to at least a little bit ease the load from the extremely severely overloaded Manchester Piccadilly, and we'd be killing quite a few birds with one stone!

[Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

Sort of related to this, over here in the US we have the issue of transit agencies not wanting to carry out a government mandate to provide new service, so they do it in a way that ensures nobody will ride it, causing it to fail. The "Owl" bus service that has appeared on and off in the Boston area is an example: Infrequent service, premium fare that you can't cover or even deduct from with a monthly pass, only a few routes, and only on Friday and Saturday night == being marketed to the partygoers (but with not enough area covered to serve most of them), but being asbolutely useless to anybody who actually works late. So these always disappear a short time after they appear, because of course nobody wants to use that.

[geoffreypiltz]

Long "a" in Stalybridge as in Stay-lee-bridge.

[BurningmonkeyGTR]

I live in Reddish, a 10 minute walk from Reddish South train station which sees one passenger train per week, so I know these ghost stations and trains fairly well

[OwainsTrains]

3:46 the 12:40 is the Boat Train which connects passengers from the Ferry from Rosslare to Cardiff. The 14:01 Hereford to Fishguard and 14:15 Fishguard to Swansea services running on Sundays only are the Ghost Trains to Fishguard

[OemuScho]

In Switzerland, there was a catastrophy at 2007, where the Ghost Train from BLS drove from Frutigen BE to Thun in there deaths where all passengers of the Ghosttrain where killed.
A Service crew demolished the abandoned Trainstation of Thun Dürrenast and the ghost train crashed in to that train from the service crew.

There is a documentary from this incident on Youtube.

You will find it as:

SRF Geisterzug von Spiez