Least visited railway station loses its title at express pace

AN EAST Anglian railway station recorded as the least visited in the UK last year has received a tourism boost, with visitor numbers leaping 13 fold.

Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire was the least used station in 2015-16, according to the Office for Rail and Road, but publicity about the figures last December caused annual usage to leap from 12 to 156 passengers.

The station is unmanned and is a “request stop”, meaning passengers must request to stop there if they want to disembark.

This year’s least used station was Barry Links, a remote town in Scotland where just 24 passengers boarded or got off a train this year.

The unstaffed station on the line between Dundee and Carnoustie is served by just one Scotrail train a day in each direction, Monday to Saturday. Brian Boyd, an independent councillor on Angus council, said Barry Links was used much more than the figures suggest.

He said: “Many people buy Carnoustie tickets but get off at Barry. These figures are quoted based on who buys tickets for stations and you can’t buy a ticket at Barry so you buy it at Carnoustie. I can assure you there’s at least a dozen passengers coming off each and every evening from the teatime train at Barry.”

Mr Boyd said it would be popular next summer as golf fans travel to the Open Championship at Carnoustie.

London Waterloo was the busiest station for the 14th consecutive year, with 99.4 million passengers using the station in the past year.