Which railway lines are the least used in this country?

[j37401]

The Latchford Sidings / Arpley Junction to Ditton Junction line as mentioned above must be a good condidate. And probably a big loss maker with several signal boxes manned. Arpley Junction could still be manned 24/7. Littons Mill manned during the day. Fiddlers Ferry & Monks Siding are certainly manned most days apart from maybe Sunday.
There are only light loco paths on RTT https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...25-06-12/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt most of which will likely not run. Only light locos for Halewood car traffic 'could' run but even that is sporadic lately due to Trump tariffs etc. There is no booked freight along there apart from a cripple move from Halewood to Arpley on a Tuesday.

Must be a bit demoralising for the signallers along there.

 

[Palmerston]

Personally, I think the sensible solution for this is for a stopper to run from Stockport to Huddersfield operated by Northern, calling all stations in place of the current Manchester-Huddersfield stopper.

Has any OAO ever proposed a London to Huddersfield via Stalybridge? Bit off topic I suppose.

 

[A S Leib]

Has any OAO ever proposed a London to Huddersfield via Stalybridge? Bit off topic I suppose.

Great North Western did, from Euston via Queen's Park, Milton Keynes Central, Nuneaton, Tamworth, Lichfield Trent Valley, Crewe, Warrington Bank Quay, Newton-le-Willows, Eccles, Manchester Victoria, Stalybridge, Huddersfield and Dewsbury to Leeds.

 

[Pinus contorta]

Latchford Sidings etc aren't shut. Bridge over the canal closed decades ago, you can't get to it by rail as there is a headshunt with buffers aay before it.

The line shut beyond Wilderspool ( the old rugby stadium) when i left primary school. That's 40 years ago give or take a few weeks. The M6 is a rather large obstacle nowadays, since they widened it in the 1990's.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Friday at 08:40 ==

I think the Far North line is varied in terms of traffic. From what others have said it seems that the first train down from Wick is busy and the last train back to Wick is busy, as people from the Far North head to Inverness for the day for shopping. The others will probably depend.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Jun 2025 ==


And that one return passenger train trip is normally pretty well loaded because of the ferry.

AFAIK no any freight uses the line anymore. The rails are still in place for the connection into the nuclear power station- you cross them in a car when heading to the terminal- but I'm not sure if they're still connected.

There was a Friday afternoon train up to Sellafield. Dont know what runs nowadays. If they shut down the reactors for maintenance , which happens regularly, then there will obviously be no waste product to transfer out. It's been open nearly 50 years so it needs more regular inspections and shutdowns and TLC I guess.

 

[Tetchytyke]

There was a Friday afternoon train up to Sellafield. Dont know what runs nowadays.

Looks like there is still one loaded into the system, runs as required. So I was wrong, there is still freight (at least theoretically) and so the connection into the power station must still be there.

I think the power stations are supposed to be closing in the next couple of years, but I'm sure they'll extend that if they can.

 

[Y Ddraig Coch]

Here's a recent cab video up to the end of Latchford Sidings in a 153 by Ben Elias.

Great video of some rarely seen and obviously from the overgrowth rarely used track. Enjoyed that. Always wondered where the WBQ low level went to.

 

[The exile]

Looks like there is still one loaded into the system, runs as required. So I was wrong, there is still freight (at least theoretically) and so the connection into the power station must still be there.

I think the power stations are supposed to be closing in the next couple of years, but I'm sure they'll extend that if they can.

Suspect decommissioning may produce more freight than standard operation!