6 days ago
EXCLUSIVE Britain's railway deserts revealed: Map shows which UK towns are furthest from their local train station as some face two-hour long journey to reach their nearest platform
From seaside resorts to market towns surrounded by beautiful countryside, they are among Britain's most picturesque locations.
But if you fancy a visit and don't have a car, you can probably forget about it – as these spots are also some of the country's worst-connected areas by rail.
MailOnline has looked at the towns furthest away from stations - finding that Campbeltown, the UK's cheapest seaside location for buying a house, comes top.
Further popular coastal locations in South West England such as Minehead and Bude are also more than 20 miles away from stations, as is Hay-on-Wye in Wales.
Elsewhere, other towns do have stations but the services are so infrequent that they are often deserted - with Denton near Manchester being the UK's least-used.
And the winding nature of some rural routes in Scotland and Wales means towns in areas connected by rail are still much quicker to travel between by car.
Here is a look at where in the UK could be defined as a 'railway desert':
Furthest towns from stations
The UK's most remote town for rail travel is Campbeltown in Argyll and Bute, which is 87 miles or more than two hours' drive away from the nearest station at Oban.
The setting hit the headlines this week for being the UK's cheapest seaside town, with research by Lloyds Bank finding it would cost a buyer an average of £103,000.
Campbeltown is also a rare example of a UK location that has never been connected to the country's main rail network, even before the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.
All it has ever had was a station on a light railway network to nearby Machrihanish between 1906 and 1934, although it does have an airport given its remote setting.
While Scotland has several scenic rural lines serving hamlets, some bigger towns lack a station. These include Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire, which is 35 miles from the nearest stop at Inverurie. Nearby Peterhead is 31 miles from the same station.
The town in England furthest from a station is thought to be Bude in Cornwall, at 29 miles from Okehampton.
Minehead in Somerset follows, at 24 miles from Taunton station.
Another popular but hard-to-reach town by rail is Hay-on-Wye in Powys, which is 21 miles from the nearest stop at Hereford on the other side of the England/Wales border.
Other destinations far from train stations include Middleton-in-Teesdale in County Durham, which is 21 miles from the nearest stop at Bishop Auckland.
Hawick in the Scottish Borders is 17 miles from Tweedbank station; while Keswick in Cumbria is 17 miles from Penrith station.
Meanwhile Hunstanton in Norfolk is 16 miles from King's Lynn station; and Louth in Lincolnshire is 15 miles from Market Rasen station.
Least-used stations
While the above locations have no station at all, other parts of the country remain badly-connected despite trains still operating through them due to their infrequency.
For example, Denton in Greater Manchester was Britain's least-used railway station in 2023/24 with 54 entries and exits.
It is on the line between Stockport and Stalybridge, which was built to take trains to Leeds but saw its timetable cut in the 1990s after services were re-routed.
Denton is served by two Northern trains per week – one in each direction – which are both on Saturday mornings. A train to Stockport departs at 8.42am, while a service to Stalybridge leaves at 9.04am.
Railway stations are often kept open despite being rarely used because it is easier to arrange for a train to stop infrequently than obtain permission for closure.
In second place was Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire with 70 entries and exits, while Ince & Elton in Cheshire was third with 86; and Polesworth in Warwickshire fourth with 118.
Reddish South in Greater Manchester came fifth with 128; Coombe Junction Halt in Cornwall was sixth with 140; and Chapelton in Devon with 186.
Completing the top ten were Clifton in Greater Manchester with 202; Elton & Orston in Nottinghamshire with 212 and Kildonan in the Highlands with 240.
Estimates of entries and exits are published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and are largely based on ticket sales, with the latest set being released last November.
Worst performing stations
Another metric for looking at the UK's worst areas for train connections is to consider performance over the past six months, as ranked by the website On Time Trains.
This puts Ynyswen station in South Wales top of the pile, followed by Lockerbie in Scotland in second, then Penrith and Oxenholme in Cumbria in third and fourth.
Also in the top ten are Kearsley and Blackrod in Greater Manchester; Chilworth in Surrey; Baglan and Llansamlet in South Wales; and Dolwyddelan in North Wales.
However, many of these stations are rural with a low service frequencies, and so their performance figures can be skewed by a relatively small number of cancellations.
A further measure to consider is therefore the worst performing stations out of the top 500 busiest stations, which puts Deansgate in Manchester at the top.
Many of the others in the top ten are in the North West - including Lancaster in second, Warrington Bank Quay in third and Manchester Oxford Road in fifth.
Also on the list are Tamworth, Macclesfield, Bolton, Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford – with Mill Hill Broadway in North West London completing the set.
Narrowing this down to the top 100 busiest stations, the worst performing are Manchester Oxford Road, Milton Keynes Central, City Thameslink in London, Manchester Piccadilly and York.
Also in that top ten are Coventry, St Albans, Bath Spa, Leicester and Sheffield.
Other anomalies
Some locations are connected to major stations by train, but the journey can take significantly longer than by car given the slow pace of services.
For example, Inverness to Wick on the Far North line in Scotland takes just over four-and-half hours by train, compared to about two hours and 20 minutes by road.
Others include Shrewsbury to Pwhelli in Wales which is nearly four hours by train but again about two hours and 20 minutes by road.
Another example is Middlesbrough to Whitby in North Yorkshire which is over one-and-a-half hours by train but 50 minutes by car.
And in South Wales, if you want to get from Swansea to Aberystwyth by rail it will take more than five hours going via Shrewsbury - or just over two hours by car.
And the largest town in Britain that cannot be reached by train is believed to be Gosport in Hampshire, after the station was closed to passengers in 1953.
The town is however only five miles away from Fareham station, and is linked to nearby Portsmouth via the Gosport Ferry which takes about four minutes.
