The least used station in Britain: DENTON Greater Manchester
(Annual passenger usage: 54)
The least used railway station in Britain isn't in the wilds of Scotland or down some obscure country lane, it's in a Manchester suburb. Thousands of people live nearby, there's a huge Sainsbury's across the road and nine buses an hour stop immediately outside.
The problem thus isn't Denton's location it's the timetable, which these days consists of just two trains a week. Between 1992 and 2018 it was only one, so this is an improvement.
Saturdays Only
southbound
northbound
Stalybridge
0830
0928
Guide Bridge
0837
0920
Denton
0842
0916
Reddish South
0846
0910
Stockport
0859
0904
We're on the Stockport-Stalybridge line, an outer orbital route through the outskirts of Manchester which opened in 1845. It was originally deemed useful as part of a connection between Crewe and Leeds, but when services started going via Manchester instead it lost its mojo. The towns the line passes through aren't insignificant, and the fact it's shadowed by a motorway suggests some underlying demand, but in the end it's a self-fulfilling prophecy in that if you run hardly any trains you get hardly any passengers.
Year
16/17
17/18
18/19
19/20
20/21
21/22
22/23
23/24
Passengers
144
70
46
92
12
50
34
54
Rank
12th
3rd
1st
5th
7th
4th
2nd
1st
When they last totted up the annual passenger numbers Denton had just 54, fewer than at every other railway station in Britain, bringing a brief moment of celebratory notoriety. That's effectively just one passenger a week, which is remarkably low given you'd think stations like this would attract a fair number of traingeeks. Admittedly most of those would choose to ride the whole line rather than alighting at the halt in the middle, plus this is quite early on a Saturday morning, hence the tumbleweed.
I didn't visit on a Saturday so I won't be upping the numbers. But I did explore the station because you can just walk in, there being no gates let alone barriers or pads for tapping. The entrance is on a bridge above the railway on a slip road off a motorway junction, Denton being the place where the M67 bears off the looping M60. There are much nicer places to be, but also Victorian terraces round the corner and a fine parish church up the road so things could be worse. The boards outside the station include a warning not to bring e-scooters onto trains, a map with a sad-looking dotted line and a paltry list of train times, four destinations tops. It's 28 steps down to the platform, which I was surprised to see someone had salted despite no trains being due.
The station, such as it is, consists of a long island platform chopped off two-thirds of the way down because no trains ever stop at the far end. There are three station signs, all referencing the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive which rebranded in 2011. A single blue bench has been provided in case you face a long wait. There's no lighting because trains only stop during daylight hours. A sign tells you which side trains for Stalybridge depart, because when trains are weekly it would be terrible to get that wrong. And there are three rather nice wooden planters abuzz with shrubbery and even a few daffodils, these provided by The Friends of Denton Station. Alas a notice at the roadside reports that FODS have had to suspend activities "due to circumstances beyond their control", but someone's clearly still coming down and looking after things so thanks for that.
I was expecting to have the station completely to myself so really wasn't expecting to hear the sound of an approaching train. The driver honked to let me know they were coming, twice, presumably just as surprised to see someone wandering around in this godforsaken outpost. A lengthy freight train then rolled by, taking several minutes to pass, which did at least allow me to get some unusualphotos of an already unusual station. Research later showed the train was on an eight hour safari from a freight terminal in Liverpool to a power station in Middlesbrough, and that's one good reason why this passenger-unfriendly line remains open.
There being no trains, and the local buses not going to either Stockport or Stalybridge, I headed off on foot. For locals it's 20 minutes down the A57 to the main crossroads in Denton, former hub of the hat industry, just far enough away for many of them not to realise the station exists. Instead I followed steep steps to a subway underneath the motorway, this evidently the most direct route south from the station, only to find two comfy sofas had got there first. Below them the path dipped down into a seasonal mudbath awash with plastic bottles and a couple of Sainsbury's trolleys, crossed by a handful of haphazard planks, and what I did was retreat very fast and go round the long way instead because it was horrible down there. Nobody cares, I thought, and maybe carelessness is why this is our least used station.
The 5th least used station in Britain: REDDISH SOUTH Greater Manchester
(Annual passenger usage:128)
Reddish has two stations, North and South. Reddish North is on a busy line with regular services to Manchester and New Mills, thus attracts over 180,000 passengers annually. Reddish South however lies on the twice-a-week Stockport to Stalybridge line so is a railway white elephant, which is peeving because it's much closer to the town centre and ought to be much more useful.
Year
16/17
17/18
18/19
19/20
20/21
21/22
22/23
23/24
Passengers
94
104
60
158
18
108
100
128
Rank
6th
7th
3rd
9th
10th
8th
5th
5th
We've passed two miles down the line, a journey which can be made by train in four minutes once a week. Reddish South station lies below a road bridge thrumming with vehicles and pedestrian footfall, just around the back of Morrisons car park. Like Denton there are information boards at the roadside listing miserably few trains, but this time also a proper Transport for Greater Manchester station sign alerting everyone to its existence. The gate at the top of the steps is lockable but wasn't, and I suspect rarely is, which was great because it allowed me to head down to the platform again and explore.
Originally this was an island platform but one track's disappeared and been replaced of late by a rather nice garden. A white picket fence shields a bank of shrubbery, at one point with a carpet of blue spring flowers and at another with a burst of pink blossom. That's because as you might have guessed there's a group of volunteers called The Friends of Reddish South Station and they're still very much a going concern with an unexpectedly comprehensive website. Along the back wall is a vibrant mural symbolising 'Second Chances' and also a recent panel celebrating the line's 175th anniversary. According to signs on the fence Reddish South has won three times in the awards for Cheshire's Best Kept Station, which is incredible given it sees two trains a week and has never been in Cheshire.
The actual platform, however, is ill-surfaced with occasional humps which I nearly tripped over twice. No matter how poorly used the station there is of course a yellow line to stand behind and a parallel stripe of tactile paving. Again the far end of the platform is fenced off, this time not with flowerboxes but with a wonky station timeline. Here and there are plaques unveiled by former local MP Andrew Gwynne, who it seems was always willing to turn up so long as WW2 was being commemorated, and who was also a long-time supporter of returning better services to the station. The posters advertising Northern Rail services feel very out of place, especially given that if you ever head off on a day trip from here you can't get back. Also the sign saying this is platform 1 feels somewhat unnecessary because of course it is.
The southern half of Reddish meanwhile gets on with daily life without the availability of a decent rail connection. It boasts hilariously named businesses like Reddish Ale, Reddish Grill and Reddish Hair. It has a Conservative Club called the Reddish Con Club, which at first I thought was a gaffe but the more I think about it the more brilliant a name it is. It has a magnificent behemoth of a cotton mill at the heart of Houldsworth Model Village, since converted to flats. It has a Grade I listed gothic church at St Elizabeth's, which is where Ashley married Maxine in Coronation Street in 1999. And it's a lengthy yomp into Stockport or £2 on the bus whereas it could be a quick trip by train, and not just one-way before breakfast on a Saturday morning. Opportunity missed, or perhaps unnecessary, but definitely a right Northern quirk.
[FORSS has designated this Saturday's northbound service from Reddish South and Denton as the Breakfast Special Folk Train, leading to "music, bacon butties, hot drinks & local ales" at Stalybridge Buffet Bar (one way only, make your own way back), just in time to boost passenger numbers before the end of the financial year]
