Why the UK Runs Trains to Nowhere

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In Japan there was a ghost train line on Hokkaido that ran to a certain station that only had one patron, a highschool student. The station was closed when that student graduated albeit the train itself was a near ghost train to begin with.

avcomth

Actually, Chiltern do want to continue running this service. It keeps a stretch of railway line open and maintained which would otherwise have no traffic, so that when there are engineering works at Marylebone, they can divert their other train services to Paddington and keep the trains running. Some weekends, you will find a full service to High Wycombe and Birmingham Snow Hill when Marylebone is closed.

These services are called parliamentary trains, not ghost trains.

katrinabryce

Huston: “Why is our traffic so bad???”

Also Huston: *3 trains a week*

liamtahaney

And that one passenger was there to film the empty train, not to go to where it was going, I assume.

erictaylor

i swear I feel like this 1 voice has atleast 3-4 channels XD

RastaRocker

Americans: One train a week is normal
Britons: "Oh I've missed my train I'll wait 5 minutes for the next one"

matherubik

Highly enjoyable listening to an American mangle British town and city names :D

Larry

I’m genuinely in shock at Houston’s train station. We have bus stops bigger than that!

ciscocastello

Sorry but High Wycombe isn’t the middle of nowhere. The reason it goes there is because it has a one-way platform where the train can terminate and then go back the other way, whereas the other stations on the children route don’t have this.

Sam-zqyx

You actually give the reason why those lines/trains still run in the video....144 people still used one of those lines. That's enough to warrant a service.
I used to live in the middle of the countryside in a tiny hamlet. There was a number of older people there who didn't have cars any more as they'd either gotten too old or couldn't afford them. We had a bus At first it was every 2 hours between 8am and 6pm. Then it was once a day....then it stopped. These people who relying on the bus to get into the local town were suddenly stranded. They may have only used the bus once or twice a week but they NEEDED that bus to get anywhere. As did the folks in the other hamlets and villages which that bus passed through.

Public services are supposed to serve the PUBLIC....not private business owners. That's why this process exists and requires notification to the PUBLIC about the actions the company wants to take and the chance for the people to speak out against those changes...the people who would be affected by them.

When an industry is subsided by the government, it better well be prepared to serve the public as THEY are the investors.

RidleeFox

I have been on the Paddington - High Wycombe "Ghost Train" a few times and it is great to have an entire train all to yourself. I used to live in High Wycombe not far from the station.

JamesLawsonSmith

Is anyone else thinking about how nice and peaceful it would be to ride one if these trains alone taking up like 4 seats and reading a good book and eating a nice takeout meal??

EliteRowmaster

This isn't a sign of government inefficiently. It's actually a sign of a country learning from past mistakes and government working exactly as intended. The UK's rural economy and and the national environmental quality was changed forever in the 1960s when the Macmillan government decided to study and close "unprofitable" rail lines and stations. 2, 363 stations and 6000 miles of track were permanently closed. What the study failed to consider in its profitability calculations was the cost benefit the stations are tracks provided. While busses appeared cheaper (the proposed alternative), travel times became impractically long for may purposes. Existing roads become congested and new roads had to be built. Roads and cars are obviously far less efficient and far more damaging than trains and tracks. Just like roads, rail systems are infrastructure and just like roads, there can't really be unprofitable rail systems when you properly analyze their benefits. The UK's process for line closure is now intentionally onerous and extraordinarily thorough.

DanHughesNC