Upton - Least Used Station In Merseyside
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- Опубліковано 15 гру 2018
- Time to head north, to Liverpool and go to a somewhat bleak station on Merseyside, that is operated by Transport for Wales, it's Upton - The Least Used Station in Merseyside!
You can download the ORR stats here: dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statist...
Somewhere nearby, there must have been some Overhead Power Lines, hence the annoying noise which breaks through on the mic. Very annoying when that happens, as there's nothing you can do about it *sad face*
Geoff should do a series where you go to the least used station on each Underground line or each tfl line.
Watching this video, I definitely recognize 'friend Paul'. Trying to narrow it down I've got it as far as:
a) the father of someone I went to school with in Wallasey.
b) someone I got the bus to work in Birkenhead with 5-10yrs ago.
c) used to live in my road when I was but a lad.
Hello Paul.
Also, as the hometown of my dear departed gran I feel I must stick up slightly for Upton, it's really quite nice as far as villages now swallowed by suburban sprawl go, with a cricket club and some nice pubs and still retaining a bit of a village-y vibe. Also yes the station suffers from a bad location and as you noticed the crippling shortcoming of having quicker bus connection to Liverpool than by train.
Anyway thanks for yet another video Geoff. I look forward to Cheshire and Lancashire!
You should come back to Briech Station in Scotland as it has been completed revamped
No sad face, it just sounds like a train about to depart.
Geoff Marshall are you gonna be doing the least used in Northumberland , Durham or something like that?
Upton Girl…
She’s been livin’ in her Upton world…
Aargh! Beat me to it.
You know I had to do it to ‘em…
Here she is.... ua-cam.com/video/hCuMWrfXG4E/v-deo.html Enjoy :-)
oohhh i was just about to comment that!
'Flying Scouseman'. What a great name. Brilliant. I like it.
It's Virgin Trains - they have posters on platform saying stuff like "No sumo wrestling" and "No teleportation" as part of the "No littering" type stuff.
Guys, if I had teleportation technology, I wouldn't need to catch a bloody train now would I?
@@RichardWatt Unfortunately cheap 1st generation teleportation only allows the user to teleport around 30 meters and is only accurate to within 2.5 meters. Bloody cheapskates refusing to move on to 12th generation with a range of 1500km and accurate to 15cm grrrr
Wrexham General, sounds like a hospital not a railway station.
I thought it was a hospital
@@nathanw9770
There is a second end of line station in Wrexham Central. But it is just a local line into the shopping area. The hospital is the Wrexham Maelor.
It may not be a hospital, but I believe it's in need of intensive care.
Wrexham Hospital is called the Maelor Hospital even though everyone calls it Wrexham Hospital. But imagine a train station being called Wrexham Maelor Station 😂
That or a scrapyard.
Ahhhh Bidston. I have spent many an hour sitting there freezing my bollocks off waiting for a train that never seemingly arrives.... Listening out for that tell-tale rail squeek that meant warmth was coming.
My school would bus us to the wirral tennis sports centre for our Wednesday PE afternoons, but then wouldn't bus us back to school for some reason, and just expected us all to make our own way home from there. Thankfully I lived in West Kirby at the time so I also spent many a miserable Wednesday afternoon waiting at Bidston station for the West Kirby train lol.
Used to go blackberry picking up there in 50s
This just goes to show what a difference a decent service pattern, frequency and infrastructure makes.
Merseyrail run most services at a 15 minute frequency, 6 car trains at peak times. The Merseyrail trains that surround Upton on the Wirral peninsula serving New Brighton and West Kirkby are busy, with standing passengers being the norm on some services.
Upton is in the same region, surrounded by housing etc, no different to that around the Merseyrail stations, yet far far fewer rail passengers.
Same on Merseyrail's Northern Line to Southport. Train every 15 minutes with high passenger numbers.
It's about time the government, local/regional authorities and TOCs woke up and realised this.
Look at the line to Tweedbank. Not long ago zero passengers, as the route was closed. Now it struggles with the demand, which is far beyond the expectations of the 'experts'. (Once again proving that over paid consultants, consultancies or the government departments that oversee these projects rarely get it right).
This is so true! I live in Chester, and it takes around 50 mins to get to Liverpool on Merseyrail and 1 hour to get to Manchester on Arriva/TfW. Manchester is a bigger city with more going on but the service frequency to Liverpool is just so much greater - every 15 minutes compared to hourly trains to Manchester. Its so much more convenient, and means you can just turn up to the train station when you fancy rather than having to plan your life around timetables
@@stellwyn
It makes a huge difference if a service is cancelled. Waiting an extra 15 minutes isn't a big issue. Waiting an extra hour is a different story.
1:02 When I think of "West Kirby", I can't help but also think of the cute little pink puffball.
The merseyrail network has a station also called kirby 😁
@funnylittlegirl12345 kirkby
This station has 14 trains each weekday in one direction. So average people getting on per train = 45/14 = 3.214 people per train. So 2 people getting on the train is even "below average".
Turning the sign around without authorisation must have contravened at least 3 health and safety rules. :-)))
Or a byelaw they have on the merseyside network
I love how y’all drew a random bystander into the “adventure”!!
OH MY GOD IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THE MERSEYSIDE ONE!!!
LOVE YOU GEOFF.
You keep finding good companions for these videos. Good value from Mark and Paul
A lot of quirks to that line, Where I grew up a few stops south. Here are 8 more:
Pretty much all the intermediate stations used to be request stops. They all got the dot matrix boards around 5 years ago when this was changed to all trains stopping everywhere except Hawarden Bridge which has a train or two in the peaks which has a booked stop.
Service patter used to be hourly Monday - Saturday 07xx - 17xx after which there were 3 evening services at around 2 hourly intervals. Sunday service has been increased in the past 10 or so years from just 3 trains, to 5 trains, to a limited evening service on top (7 trains or so) and now looks to have increased again.
The same quirk of section times compared to public timetable happens in Wrexham. The Wrexham Central service is booked to depart for Wrexham Central xx27/28. The Bidston service is booked to depart Wrexham General at xx30/xx32. However in this time the train makes the short journey down to Wrexham Central and back booked arrival xx29/30 and departure xx32... meaning that trains depart from one stop higher up at either the same time or before the terminus... needless to say, almost every service is a couple of minutes late at best!
The down line (towards Bidston) was upgraded to continuously welded track with concrete sleepers between Shotton and Bidston a couple of winters ago. The up line is still jointed track on wooden sleepers as you can hear.
It was quoted in the local press that Arriva didn't use Sprinters in North Wales except for this and the Conwy Valley line. The result was a very poor service reliability as when other trains elsewhere on the are unavailable, they are replaced by the trains on this line reducing the service to two-hourly or completely suspending the service. Morning and evening trains were also frequently cancelled with the blame ususally being put on the weather in winter. My friend and I stopped using the line in 2015/16, opting instead for cars, as it was so unreliable and easy to get stranded.
Although rationalised a few years back when a long disused goods yard at Penyfford was finally decommisionned, Penyfford station still has a signal box and semaphore signals.
There are still regular freight services on this line using the Goods yard at Dee Marsh (near Hawarden Bridge) which still has a large signal box visible from the cycle path around the triangle on the former line to Chester. There is a diesel shunter visible from the train close to this location on a private site and an abandoned EWS brakevan still sits lineside (photographable from the cycle path towards Burton).
Electrification has been mooted since the late 90s at least, as has the half hourly service. At this point the line was worked by old Metroplitan Cammell DMUs, supplemented by Pacers. Single car Sprinters gave way to the present two-coach trains, hence the D trains being a concern to passengers of a downgrade.
Always Admired the Liverpudlian/Mersey accent. Looks very cold indeed. Merry Christmas from Australia.
Merry Christmas from (just outside) Liverpool!
That's a Wirral accent. Close, but a smidge more wooly than here in Anfield. Ours has a bit more Irish in it, theirs is a bit more Welsh.
rewatching after all these years. Mark was brilliant. Top lad!
I feel the need for a pint after that. As a Merseyside resident, i can assure you that Upton isn't the bleakest station in our lovely county.
Isn’t even Merseyside
@@championsoftheworld1891 Of course Upton is in Merseyside it's part of Wirral.
Oh sweet, I’m currently re watching the series again. Thanks Geoff.
when I used Upton to go Liverpool there two an hour one from Chester and Wrexham.
Beeching closed the Chester branch, reason the different sleepers was BR was going to make the line single track, that changed with Merseyside transport travel plans. Transport for Wales is planning to have two trains an hour.
OMG almost 100k subs? It was at like 40k when I subscribed a year ago. Congrats Geoff!
When Geoff does the the area that I travel around most weeks on Mersey trains. This video has made me happy!
Great video Geoff and I went passed Upton when I went to Liverpool a few weeks ago.
Oh lovely!! There's some great accents in this video. Thanks for coming up North Geoff! Please do Lancashire next.
I saw you in liverpool lime street and I am annoyed I didn't say hello. Dumb anxiety
He is not that famous that you should become so anxious, nor is he surrounded by bodyguards.
@@JeMappelleFrikandel That's not how anxiety works though, unfortunately.
i seen Dave Hill from Slade in Lime street station the other week!! i said hello he was really nice
John even if someone has 100 subs, it is someone they look up to, and they got stressed out. It happens
A dear
Happy sunday Geoff! Thanks for today's video! :D
60+ years ago when I was a child in nearby Greasby we used to go from Upton station to Chester Northgate for a day in Chester. That was a summer treat though so not as bleak as your video suggests (you should try Glasgow Queen Street Low Level in January if you want bleak!). Trains started at New Brighton and went via Bidston, Upton, Heswall Hills, Neston North, Sealand, Blacon and Chester Northgate (I often forget my own name these days but I had a very retentive memory then). It all felt very modern and up-to-the-minute because the trains were shiny new DMUs and not big scary steam trains or the pre-war LMS electric trains of the Mersey Railway, as it was.
The last time I used Upton station was in March 2002. I'd just come up to bury a friend in Landican cemetery and the following evening I was off to Dublin for the weekend but I spent the intervening evening with another friend who was unable to make the funeral. in Wrexham, and I went from Upton. It did feel pretty bleak then, gone down the pan somewhat.
I love a trip on the Borderlands Line from Wrexham Central to Bidston. I'll have to get out at some of these intermediate stations oneday.
Upton, in the bleak midwinter...
Merry Christmas to you all!
Your avid follower and fan from India. Rail maniac! Choose Corrour inspired me like none. Hats off.
Do some least used stations in scotland? We have some beautiful stations here!
Edit: infact, for those comments challenging my question, if you can check the Least used station in Cornwall, there was no more trains for the day! Im pretty sure that Geoff can work something out.
The problem is that most of them are in the back arse of nowhere with 1 train every few hours.
You could possibly take a bus to a station that has more stations to get back.
@@edinburghtransport7604 Not if that bus stop is one of the least used bus stops in Scotland.
Most of the least used stations in Scotland only have 2 trains per day and most of them have an infrequent bus service
Actually, buses in the highlands and mostly in the west are very frequent, around every hour which is alright for the highlands.
Excellent video - I especially like the ones where you have a local viewpoint .. even if it came from Ipswich in this case.
I remember visiting a friend in Moreton quite a few times in the early 90's when there was a Cadburys site there... 👍🏼
By as bizarre a coincidence as they come, I passed through Lime Street that very Wednesday morning. I bumped into a friend who was being interviewed by a media student, who had moments earlier been stopped from filming by Network Rail staff. I suggested that if she wants to do it by the book, she should look up "All The Stations" on YT and ask the Masters.
And you were there all the time! Cue the Twilight Zone music...
#o.
Good job on the sign Geoff!
De-Arriva? that would be departa!
Arrivea had departed
Bidston to Wrexham, soon to be Vivarail 230 on that line. Nice vid Geoff!
serves Beechwood, Noctorum and Woodchurch, ford is the old name for the Beechwood estate
Nice, I always thought it was Capenhurst cause trains only stop their every hour.
Capenhurst isn't considered Merseyside. Its in Cheshire, even though its on the Merseyrail System (Much like Bache, Little Sutton, Overpool, Chester, Hooton and Ellsemere Port).
Regardless, though, Upton had 33,634 in 2017 and Capenhurst had 184,000 meaning it also has more than Little Sutton and Overpool on the Liverpool-Ellsmere Port Merseyrail Line!
This is probably because Capenhurst serves the large URENCO Nuclear Site which is right next to the station
Yeah capenhurst is Cheshire I live in Ellesmere Port and I was always told it’s Cheshire
I didn't realise Upton was covered by Saveaway, I only noticed the station recently when I was on a bus to West Kirby and was surprised to see it branded as Merseytravel.
I thought he was going to say 'it is Wednesday my dudes' at the start. I'm glad he didn't.
"It is 1 minute from Bidston to here, but in reality it takes 3 minutes..."
It is actually 4 and a half according to the timetable, but departure times for passengers are advanced by 3 minutes (in this case) so the train needs not wait to time in case it runs early. That applies to most stations on that line. Also, some arrival times on that line are moved backward.
7:51 - perfect backup Thumbnail. 👍
3:10 Mark starts saying the signal is go while it's still changing behind his back... impressive :)
BIg fan of Merseytravel. Pleased to see you made it up to Upton.
Have you done the least/most used stations in every London borough? It would be an interesting series of videos to watch
i had a little nerd out seeing you at lime street. i just figured you always stick down south with the poshies... :-P
i use the southport/hunts cross line every day for college so seeing you even at a merseyrail station is just something that proves merseyrail is an actually known about company.
"if you see something that doesnt look right, speak to staff, or text british transport police on 61016.see it, say it, sorted. (clicking noise of the microphone being turned off in the original recording)"
Excellent stuff as per!
One of those rare Liverpool youtube videos that does not mention the Beatles at any point
What a Sunday for Merseyside! First this video, then Liverpool trounce Man Utd. Brilliant.
I've always dreamed of this video!
I think you should start a small mini series ,like request stops, called weird stations. You would go to weird stations in odd locations or stations that dont make sense. A good first one could be Cheddington on the WCML.
Cool. Keep this series going (can u do Welsh and Scottish ones)
I was cold just watching you! LOL The local should have known the kind of weather and had bigger coat, had and gloves. LOL
Watched on my train from Euston to Lime Street, Upton was my great-grandmother's local station when I was a child, but I don’t think I’ve ever taken a train to or from it.
Sad I didn't bump into you, I was in Liverpool Thursday and part of Friday 😊
Those regional tickets are amazing but the best one I've ever seen is the Cumbria one. Hexham to the coast and would get you right back down to Skipton via Preston (I assume).
Love the videos Geoff
Not sure when this was filmed, but when the timetables changed last week, TfW have now introduced an hourly-ish service on Sundays on the Borderlands line (it used to be just a 2-hourly service). From next year they'll be introducing Class 230's on the line which I'm assuming is how they'll introduce the half-hourly service on the Borderlands (I've heard it'll be a 1tph stopping service and 1tph express service). One thing I do know is the half-hourly service by 2021 is in the franchise agreement, so they pretty much have a contractual obligation to deliver it this time.
@@geofftech2 🤦 Well there's me being an idiot and not paying attention 😂😂
Hey Geoff, I believe they're going to use the class 230s (D stock) on the Wrexham to Bidston line in the future
They will. One of the reasons for not buying new as well is that if/when the line is electrified, it will become part of the Merseyrail Network and use 777s (thats why the 777s will be dual voltage and have provisions for battery operation too)
Nice Geoff. You should come to Sydney and check out our railways. There’s some cool history over here.
Caught the request stop train at Omega Point NSW once, not realising thatGerringong has its own station
There were plans to make the train service to Wrexham part of the Merseyrail electrics
Watching this on a packed Piccadilly line tube to Northfields:)
An hourly service for a station with as few passengers as that ain’t bad. My home station St Denys only gets an hourly service (with a couple of extra peak trains) and it gets over 200,000 passengers
Chicken and egg - as others have pointed out, if Upton had as many trains as, say, Rock Ferry, it would get more passengers.
Still loving the music
I’ve lived local - near Upton . its technically in Upton but on wrong side of the motorway , the line is viable but it has a very steep gradient once you get past Shotton
I could not understand why when I was once trying to get to Upton Park, from another part of London, using the Tfl website, a journey of no more than 25 minutes at most by the tube, I was being directed onto a four-hour journey, by National Rail, as the quickest route.
Upton is in Liverpool & Upton Park tube station in East London.
I wish I could've met you when you were up north, damn!
I think you should do sugar loaf in Wales. It used to be the least used station in Wales. Until people saw it as a tourist attraction. At one point it had more trains passing through per day than passengers.
I use this station alot to get to Liverpool, Chester & New brighton. Well it's 2021 and no half hourly service 🥲 the class 150 are being replaced by the refurbished London underground class 230's. There's been talk about the line being electrified for years but hasn't happened & I don't think it will.
Will you ever do more episodes on MerseyRail or doing a review on the new Stadler class 777’s?
Fascinating. But I doubt if it as bleak as Platform 14 at ManPic or Platform 1 at Huddersfield. You should try a bleakest platform in Britain series.
I remember the saveaway ticket, you'd have to scratch off the date and then peel over the clear sticky cover.... ah the memories.
It's so nice to see my like home area and everywhere I recognize ahh
I do enjoy the Least Used' series, though they seem to fall into 3 groups
1) Some are just relatively unused - Like Blackhorse Road (Victoria Line)
2) Some would be used more if only the service could be relied upon
3) Some would never ne used much even if the trains were every 20 minutes!
Upton seems to be type 3!
The Borderlands line which runs Bidston to Wrexham will be getting new trains in the next 18/24 months.
Would you ever do all the Merseyrail stations?.
Geoff , Never Assume that 'Expected (to depart) By' is correct or will be constant, I have seen them change down in time - you go away, get your coffee , and the train has left (late than printed timetable but earlier than the expected by time)
I think the Borderlands line will receive 5 converted class 230 trains to replace it's current class 150's at some point next year.
Consdering I have been to almost all the staions in Merseyside, I havent even SEEN upton.
Member of my family live not far from the station, they lived there for years and never seen one use it
My Nan lives in Merseyside, and I might visit it next time I’m there.
Are you going to do an All the Stations Merseyrail - I need to reminisce my uni/post uni days and visiting girlfriends on the Wirral and the beach at Formby /Southport
Hello from Ipswich!!
Liverpool Lime Street is one of my favourite stations
Well perfect it's my home station in Liverpool cause I love in Liverpool
OK, at about 10:20 did he say that a building was demolished to make way for a by-pass? That sounds a lot like a "Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy" plot!!
Funny you should mention New Brighton, because that's the next town over from where I live, except I'm in America.
What was the temperature that day? it looks lovely! im so used to december and being knee deep in snow already, that looks pleasantly comfortable.
"wooden sleepers vs. concrete...."
Also, jointed track. You can hear it in the video, when going to Upton.
We were re-sleepering part of the heritage line ..Waitara Railway Preservation Soc (NZ) 8 years ago . Former steam driver said that as far as he knew concrete sleepers have about the same service life as Australian hardwood....we were replacing with nz wood.
Geoff, please do the least used station in Greater Manchester (Reddish South I believe).
Great video! What's that music you used at the start of the video?
will you ever do a most used stations series?
There is a permit to travel machine at Wavertree Technology Park (on Merseyside)
Another top video Geoff!
Is that the whine of TI21/EBI 200 tracks in the background from around 8:00 onwards? Or is it just a problem with the microphone?
“ A ding and a nerd point“
Are you having it on at @TomScott and Citation Needed? :)
Chester Zoo is also in Upton, so this is probably the nearest station to the Zoo.
If you went via the lifts at Lime Street, there are no barriers.
The fact that Upton is technically classed as Merseyside is shocking
The Liverpool council owns Merseyside and owns half of Wales
Have you done one about Denton, Manchester..train station. its the least used
Transport For Wales? On Merseyside?
Mind you, with my last boarding school, we went to North Wales via the Mersey Tunnel at Wallasey!
My Mum grew up in Heswall and went to school at the Convent in Upton. Got in to trouble for talking to a boy at a bus stop there. It was her brother, my Uncle Peter, but that was no excuse apparently.
If you're ever doing anything in the Milton Keynes area, please do drop me a line. I'd be glad to show you around and talk to you about some of the history and points of interest around here!