It’s oh, so quiet at the railway station in Scotland that recorded no passengers
IT is the picturesque train station tucked away in Highlands woodland on the Harry Potter-featured railway widely regarded as the world’s most scenic journey.
The single platform of Beasdale station is on the 164-mile scenic West Highland Line which takes in Britain’s highest mountain Ben Nevis, the UK’S largest loch in Loch Lomond, the deepest in Loch Morar, and the highest mainline station in Corrour.
But it now has a new claim to fame after the station was revealed as the quietest in the UK – after registering zero passengers last year.
With the pandemic hitting passenger numbers across the UK, it managed to rate below the previous year’s least-used railway station – Berney Arms in Norfolk, which had just 42 passengers between April 2019 and March 2020.
This year, Berney Arms, the rural platform without a car park, lost it’s “quietest” status, registering 348 passengers. It is believed to be the result of curious travellers being attracted by the “least-used” publicity.
Beasdale, near Arisaig, failed to record any entries or exits in the year, according to new figures from the Office of Rail and Road – which is down to the impact of the Covid pandemic.
But John Barnes, vice-president of Friends of the West Highland Lines said the figures were “totally misleading” as they only take into account tickets sold in stations and said it was wrong to say no passengers got on and off there.
He said: “A lot of trains on the line see people get off and get on, yet the ORR only covers tickets sold to and from the station. We suffer from that. It is deficient for tourist lines.
“It is the reason stations closed under Beeching, because they only take into account tickets sold at stations.”
The ORR admits that some ticket sales and ticketless travel are not included, which may mean that usage at some stations is “underestimated”.
Beasdale was originally a private station for the nearby category B-listed Arisaig House, built in 1864.
According to Friends of the West Highland Lines, Beasdale marks a reprieve for locomotives, particularly for driver and fireman in the days of steam power, before a gruelling climb from the Loch nan Uamh viaduct.
Beasdale station, which before the pandemic in 2019/20 had 324 passengers, was one of six deserted stations during the pandemic.
The others were Abererch, Gwynedd, Llanbedr and Gwynedd, and Sugar Loaf, Powys in Wales; Sampford Courtenay in Devon; Stanlow; and Thornton in Cheshire.
Glasgow Central recorded the most passenger entries and exits in Scotland during a year that saw Britain’s passenger rail usage slump by 78 per cent in a year.
According to ORR, this was the lowest level of journeys seen since at least before 1872 and is a result of the pandemic. Some 14.8 million passenger journeys were made using Scotrail in 2020/21 and Glasgow Central remained the busiest station with 5.3 million entries and exits, down from 32.5 million in 2019.
Edinburgh Waverley (2.9 million), Glasgow Queen Street (2.3 million), Paisley Gilmour Street (982,530) and Partick (634,162) completed the top five most used.
The ORR said as many as 47 railway stations in Scotland recorded fewer than 1,000 travellers.
Overall, it is the first time in 17 years that London Waterloo was not the most-used station in the annual figures, with just 12.2 million people using the station, down from 86.9 million a year earlier. Birmingham New Street was the busiest station outside London, with 7.4 million passengers.
Feras Alshaker, director of planning and performance at the ORR, said: “Throughout 2020/21, the railways remained an essential service for those people who needed to travel during a year which was impacted by the pandemic.
“Glasgow Central has consistently appeared as one of the top 10 mostused stations outside of London and it is clear it remained a key destination for many passengers during the pandemic. This year we have seen many railway stations with very few passenger entries and exits. However, we know that recent figures show leisure journeys are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, while there has been a slower increase in commuter journeys.”
A Scotrail spokesman said: “The pandemic has changed how people travel across all of Scotland, and although customers are gradually returning, we’re still trying to recover.
“We want to encourage as many people as possible to travel by train, and to make their journey a seamless and sustainable one. Earlier this year we introduced our Highland Explorer active travel carriages on the West Highland line to Oban, and hope to extend these services to Fort William and Mallaig.”
The pandemic has changed how people travel across all of Scotland