My trip to Britain’s loneliest railway station, with only 34 passengers a year
The ghost train departed at 8.30am. I boarded the Saturday morning service amid heavy drizzle and with an empty stomach as the buffet bar at Stalybridge doesn’t open until 11am. As we heaved wearily out of the station with just a handful of expectant passengers, foreboding mists swirled around the hills outside Manchester.
This was not some Halloween scarefest outing, however. Instead, I was riding the weekly ‘Denton Flyer’ on the Stalybridge-Stockport Line in Greater Manchester. Denton station – the second of four stops on the route – has just been named the least used railway station in Britain according to 2023 data from the Office of Rail and Road. It recorded only 34 passengers last year, with second-place Elton and Orston in Nottinghamshire seeing a relatively bustling 56 and third-placed Kirton Lindsey in Lincolnshire a positively frenetic 94.
The weekly train is what’s known as a parliamentary service. It makes one lonely return trip from Stalybridge to Stockport, via Denton, each Saturday morning, a minimum requirement to avoid official termination procedures. The line, built in 1845, survived the Beeching Cut in the Sixties, but was shunted into a railway siding after the re-routing of the TransPennine Express in 1989. These days, it has a cult status among rail enthusiasts. “It provokes a lot of interest for railway nostalgia,” explains train guard Stephen Hughes, who has worked on the railways for 23 years. “Passenger numbers are often boosted by regular rail heritage events along the line.”
As we chugged through the urban environment on the 30-minute journey towards Stockport, I chatted to my fellow passengers, including Joel Harbron, a die-hard Denton devotee. The 23-year-old IT student has spent seven years and £20,000 visiting every one of the 2,600-odd National Rail stations in the UK. He adored the Denton Flyer so much he had visited from Malvern via Crewe for another go. “I love travelling by rail and I’ve always been fascinated by rail infrastructure,” said Joel. “Next stop: Europe.”
By contrast, friends Ian Hoyle and Barbara Sinclair, from Stalybridge, plus Ian and Joan Winterbottom, from Padfield, were oblivious to the line’s popularity among the rail cognoscenti. They were changing trains at Stockport en route to the Caravan and Motorhome Show near Birmingham International. “My grandfather used to work on the railways,” said Joan with a sigh. “With all the strikes and delays these days, it’s such a shame to see how we have neglected our rail heritage.”
As the return journey built towards its dramatic crescendo, I alighted at unstaffed Denton station. The town enjoyed its golden age in the Edwardian period when it was a major centre for hat manufacturing, making the majority of felt hats in England in the early 1900s. These days, however, jaunty headwear is conspicuous by its absence at the Sainsburys cafe near the train station, where I headed for coffee and a much-needed bacon sandwich.
It’s also where I arranged to meet Green Badge Tourist Guide and rail enthusiast, Mark Charnley. Mark worked on the railways for 34 years, starting aged 17 in the drawing office in Manchester. He now draws on his experience to lead walks for Bridgewater Canal Guided Tours. “I remember riding the line in the Eighties when it was an important freight route and part of the overnight mail service from York to Shrewsbury. We nicknamed the single-coach connecting service The Dodger, as it dodged the mainline trains,” he said. “As an old-school railwayman,” he added, “I believe improving infrastructure and capacity are key to the future. It’s simple really: provide a decent service and people will return to rail.”
Back at Denton station, the planters are lovingly maintained but the place is deserted. The concealed entrance, a footbridge off the M67 flyover, probably ensures a lot of people don’t even realise there is a station. Even the Friends of Denton Station have had to suspend their group activities “due to circumstances beyond their control” according to an ominous sign by the steps down to the platform.
Next year marks 200 years of the modern railway, with the Stockton and Darlington Railway opening in 1825, with the Railway 200 festival staging events to celebrate Britain’s glorious rail heritage. The 200th anniversary of the opening of the world’s first inter-city passenger railway between Liverpool and Manchester follows in 2030. Standing at an empty Denton, the glory days of the Victorian railway network feel like ancient history.
I stand on the empty platform in the drizzle and check my watch as the mist circles around me. I’m in for a long wait – the next train departs in seven days.
More information from Northern Rail and Railway 200. Book a Bridgewater Canal guided tour via bridgewatercanalguidedtours.com.
