Silence is golden ticket for forgotten station
BRITAIN’S quietest train station has seen a passenger boom – after tourists flocked to see why no one was using it.
The isolated Sugar Loaf station in the Welsh countryside had more passengers in the past 12 months than it had seen in the previous 17 years.
The station, 820ft up in the Cledan Valley on the Swansea to Shrewsbury line, was deemed Britain’s loneliest after it had the lowest passenger numbers in the UK.
But since winning the title it has seen a remarkable turnaround, with visitor numbers shooting up by more than 700 per cent in the past 12 months from 228 to 1,824.
Local volunteer Peter Joyce looks after the remote hillside halt near Llandovery in Mid-wales, which doesn’t have a ticket machine, car park
or mobile phone signal. A tannoy announces the trains into Sugar Loaf, which is one of the 17 request stops on the picturesque Heart of Wales line. It used to average one visitor every 36 hours until its reputation as a deserted outpost made it popular.
Mr Joyce, 70, a retired photographer said: “People have come from all over the world to get a ticket to Sugar Loaf, just to say they’ve been here.”
Opened in 1868 and named after a local landmark, the station was built to serve the railway workers’ cottages.
Today people stop the singlecarriage train by flagging it down when it comes into view.