Ride to nowhere: the mystery of ghost trains

[shenmue]

BBC story here

Intriguing story for public transportation buffs.

[PoliticAverse]

1. "the reason that it’s been kept is there would be a stink if anyone tried to close it.”

The punchline.

[mwooldri]

5. Thank the Victorians for the ghost trains.

Dr. Beeching isn't swinging his axe around... and it is still possible that some of these Victorian era laws regarding the railways are still on the books. I suppose ghost trains are a feature of privatization... as the article said it is easier to run a very limited service than to close down a line. In Dr. Beeching's era it was a nationalised British Railways - and parliament was motivated to stem BR's losses. Hence Acts of Parliament were easier to push through abolishing the Victorian laws that said a railway had to be there. Back then all it did was to restore a limited service until the relevant Act was passed - usually a year.

Still better than nothing I suppose.

[T_i_B]

2. There's a train station near me that used to be like this...

....It used to have only have 5 trains a day, then a group of local residents started campaigning for more services to this station, and now the Nottingham to Leeds train stops there once an hour, and there are a couple of trains each day that go as far as Liverpool and Norwich (albeit slowly).

So things can and do change, and sometimes it is for the better.

[packman]

3. Is that the train to Hogsworth?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. I see what they mean about Berney Arms

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=645285&Y=305570&A=Y&Z=120