The loneliest station still loved by passengers

Coombe Junction Halt regularly features among the least used stations in the south west of England and beyond

Nestled in a wooded valley in the heart of the Cornish countryside lies the least used train station in the south west of England.

Only 140 passengers entered or exited Coombe Junction on the Looe branch line in the year to March 2024.

John Hosking, 53, was brought up in the house nearest Coombe Junction Halt and these days lives next door.

As a schoolboy in the 1970s, he would take the train from this remote station to go to Trewidland Primary School.

"If I was a bit late the driver would blow the horn, because he knew that we could hear - most of the year I would be the only one on the train," he said.

"If I was ill and wasn't going to school that day the guard would come and knock on the door and ask where I was."

When he was a schoolboy John Hosking said the driver would blow the horn if he was late

The halt, meaning a station that is unstaffed and lacks basic facilities like ticket machines, is one of the stations on the Liskeard to Looe branch line.

Trains stop there about four times a day and a passenger will get on or off there every two or three days on average.

The majority of people seen at Coombe Junction Halt are dog walkers using the footpath between the railway and the old Union canal and lock gates.

Brian Spurling used to walk his dog along the path and jump on the train at the station to meet his wife as she travelled home from work in Looe.

"It is one of the most unique stations in the country with very few passengers ever using it," he said.

John Hosking and his brother would get on the train at Coombe Junction to go to school and to visit their grandmother in Looe

Annie Butler said she gets on and off trains at the station about three or four times a year.

"It's the middle of nowhere there's only about four houses within five miles, two miles maybe. It's very remote," she said.

Three other stations on the branch line also feature in the least used station list for the South West, compiled by the Office of Road and Rail.

The others are Sandplace, which had 1,006 entries and exits, St Keyne Wishing Well Halt with 1,506 and Causland with 1,800.

Coombe Junction Halt was the sixth least used station in the UK.

Coombe Junction Halt railway station is in a remote part of Cornwall

Least used stations

The South West stations with the fewest passenger entries and exits between April 2023 and March 2024 were:

• Coombe Junction Halt - 140

• Chapelton (Devon) - 186

• Pilning - 330

• Lelant Saltings - 630

• Portsmouth Arms - 802

• Sandplace - 1,006

• St Keyne - Wishing Well Halt 1,506

• Causeland - 1,800

• Chetnole - 2,238

• Luxulyan - 2,660

Coombe Junction Halt regularly features among the least used stations in the South West and beyond

It is not the first time Coombe Junction Halt has featured in the list.

In 2016 retired transport professional Peter Murnaghan tried to turn the tables on the fortunes of this little used station - and to skew the figures for that year.

He said: "We ran the Junction Jaunt in order to lift Coombe Junction Halt, which at that time was the second lowest junction in the whole of the UK.

"We brought more than 100 people down here to climb aboard the train.

"It was absolutely wedged out, but we lifted Coombe Junction Halt off the bottom and it moved respectively up in the league tables for the following year."

Nationally, the top spot for the quietest station was Denton in Greater Manchester, with 54 entries and exits.