Paddington To West Ruislip Ghost Train
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มิ.ย. 2015
- Known as a 'Parliamentary train' this service runs along The New North Mainline, that connects the Great Western mainline to the Chiltern Railways network. Normally to get out this way you'd take a train from Marylebone, but once a day there is a train that runs from London Paddington and back, to maintain drivers' knowledge and prevent the section of track from closing.
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You need to organize an event where you fill a parliamentary train that you chose at random to capacity , just for the hell of it.
That is such a good idea 😂😂😂
It will definitely confuse the ticket sales numbers
Definitely - count me in...
@@seanolaocha940 I would legit love to join an event like this imagine how confused the ticket officer would be lmaooo
Yes good idea
missed a chance to go and sit awkwardly next to the other passenger on the train.
sandham idk but your avatar convinced me you will do that.
o0prince that’s so tru
sandham and ignore him or her
I took the train today, and the conductor (who seemed to be a trainer of Chiltern Railways drivers) actually asked me TWICE whether I was on the correct train. He said this train was usually empty, and occasionally people who wanted to go to Ealing mistakenly took this train... Lol
When I went on the early morning Chesham to Watford train the driver asked me twice if I was really going to Watford!
It also happened to me on the West Ealing one.
Why dont you sit next to the person on the train just to ruin his morning?
+o0prince lol
just to be that awkward passenger lol
+dennis trident william True
+matthews a1507RBLX Then Geoff shouts "Your on TH-cam!" That would be awkward
*You're
The joys of public transit--practically a private rail car to oneself!
I have no idea, as an American, why I spend so much of my free time learning the London Underground. Besides actually siting down with a map and learning the routes, I've learned the history, constructions, secret/unused stops, and shortcuts. I'm weird I guess.
CrushersCharisma I'm 15, never cooked properly in my life and I spend my free time watching Gordon Ramsay recipe videos, I'd probably never cook or eat that stuff, but I do it anyway 😅
If you learn the tube map, and other London routes, you can participate in the game known as "Mornington Crescent."
If you enjoy it then that's all that matters so I say good on you. Also perhaps one day you can go for an international trip to see it in person?
CrushersCharisma I'm also doing it also
Me (a grade 6 student) and a grade 4 students which is weird because he is a friend of my enemies
Im from UK.
I love stuff like this. I once went to Clapham Junction from Woking via Weybridge and Addlestone as a birthday treat. What a nerd I am. My girlfriend thinks I've got Aspergers.
As somebody with Aspergers, I would 100% do something like this.
I too have Aspergers and this is something i would do.
CLAPHAM JUNCTION IS ACTUALLY AMAZING AT 5:00 ON A WEEK DAY! Lol I am not a train spotter just a weird 14 year old who enjoys trains and how they are run
ay same here
I used to take the unadvertised service from Clapham Junction to Kensington Olympia in the 1960's. It was supposed to be for Post Office workers, but was the last steam-hauled suburban service in London.
Bless the Nerds, they make the world a better place!
Londonist, why dont' you do a video on the voices of the underground. How they change between lines and the people who record them.
2nd that!!!
Mikhail Man same here
I’ll do a San Francisco one if you do this one!! I’ll get on the train here now!!!
Fantastic idea!
"the voices of the uderground" = ??? Sorry, I have no idea what that's referring to, (no, I don't live in England). Can anyone explain?! Thanks!
Thoroughly enjoyable. Once known as the "New North Main Line", this carried Great Western expresses from Paddington towards Birmingham and Birkenhead, avoiding the longer journey via Reading and Didcot. One day this line may well have its importance restored.
Wikipedia has a useful article under the title "Acton-Northolt Line"
Congratulation Geoff, this video is featured today by one of Germany's top news magazine (Der Spiegel)!
raelly? online or in print? Gosh, thanks for letting us know!
Online, of course! www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/nachrichten-am-morgen-die-news-in-echtzeit-a-1124027.html -> "The British do love their ghost trains". They also mention "Teesside Airport" as the least used station in UK …
Modern automated travel systems probably actually drive a few extra passengers onto the ghost / parliamentary trains. Both regular users and station staff memorise common patterns (e.g anybody working Waterloo will know a Southampton passenger probably wants the xx35 or xx05 and it'll be somewhere around platforms 9-12). But automated systems don't memorise patterns, they have the full timetable including these ghost/ parliamentary trains, and will cheerfully suggest using one of those if it matches your journey requirements. The National Rail journey planner, for example, if you tell it you need to leave Paddington after 11:30 tomorrow and get to West Ruislip, will suggest this "ghost" train. But a minute earlier, or five minutes later, it will recommend going to Marylebone instead.
I wonder why they don't run this train twice a day during rush hour?? one heading into London at 7.30am and then one heading back at 6pm, would be way more purposeful to the line and also help the folks out in West Ruislip
We suspect because there's not the platform space at Paddington at the height of the rush hour.
Probably because if they ran it at times where the train was actually helpful, people would want more service which cannot be given
+Londonist Ltd I think you may've missed an abandoned track next to the track where you were talking about a first class car on the wrong end
Because it would be too much like right.
Paul Messis paths
I rode on the Paddington to West Ruislip on Monday 15th Feb 2016. There were over a dozen people in my carriage, no ticket collector came through and West Ruislip had no staff and no barrier. So any yearly passenger usage for this train are invented. If they ran this service in the rush hours it would relieve some of the pressure on the Central Line.
+neil997 Neil, presumably you were honest and either a) Bought a paper ticket [as we did], or b) Touched in and out on the Oyster pads at both ends of your journey. And from that they can determine the passenger numbers.
+Londonist Ltd Of course! I have a Freedom Pass so there is no reason not to. It merely an observation, that I seemed to be one of the few passengers that did.
+neil997 The train operator does not run this service during rush hours pretty much ON PURPOSE, because if more people knows and uses this service, there will be campaigns for more frequent services, which the operator does not want to happen for some reasons (e.g. it costs Chiltern Railways money to use platforms at Paddington, a station owned by GWR).
Paddington is owned and managed by Network Rail, not GWR :-) but other than that you are correct, that's why they avoid operating the service at a convenient time.
But they'd be ablle to pay those fees and make profit if they ran it during rush hours.
Do more ghost trains please
I'm an American that doesn't have much interest in trains but for some reason I'm really loving this channel.
Kristopherr
One of us!
One of us!
One of us!
You know you're ultra-british when a once-a-day train route gets you off. ;)
This adorable little train just going along on it's own, like "the train everyone forgot".
Who else came here from 'Half as interesting'?
me
ay
Mee
Shitty channel
So anti-train that he'll make stuff up to convince people of his twisted side
Woox Au meeeeeeeee
Geoff Marshall and Half As Interesting sent me. Thanks for making my boring Thursday a wee bit more entertaining.🚈🇺🇸🇬🇧
Geoff Marshall works for Londonist Ltd. lol
Same here
I took this train during my latest visit to London, just for fun. We were atleast four passengers onboard, all of us trainspotters who didn't know eachother (i didn't know the others and they didn't speak to eachother), and the journey took almost 30 minutes. We were standing still at South Ruislip for some time due to an unknown reason. But it was a fun thing to do, and i thank you for making this video.
For any of you guys watching post-May 2017, the service now goes:
1057 Depart South Ruislip, 1123 Arrive London Paddington
1136 Depart London Paddington, *1227 Arrive High Wycombe (nonstop)* (this is the part that changed)
I was thinking of trying this service one day, but High Wycombe is a bit harder to justify than a run to the edge of London!
Moritz L ton clt
As of December 2018, to allow Crossrail works in the Paddington area, the services goes:
*1102* Depart South Ruislip, *1120* Arrive West Ealing
*1147* Depart West Ealing, *1227* Arrive High Wycombe (non stop)
@@onlinefriend3889 Yes, I saw that announced at West Ealing and was very confused as normally that platform is just reserved for the Greenford shuttle. I thought it must be something like this but didn't realise they keep changing the route
I've seen these tracks so many times while on the central line and always wondered what they were all about. good to finally know that there is a service (once a day) that uses them. 😁 I'm going to try and get on one of these days. good video!
Love your videos :)
This is yet another aspect of London I never knew about even though I lived there for 20 years!
This video has served it's time well but now the trains do a non-stop journey to High Wycombe. I show this in my video I made! Nice job Geoff!
My brother used this line for one years every working day while he worked at Marylebone.
Brilliant! Travelled on this last January. My grandad and I were the only passengers!
In the 1970's/1980.s there was a return service Wolverhampton to Paddington daily along this branch which I used from High Wycombe last stop before/ first stop out of London - left HW at 8.25 ish and got to Paddington just before 9.00, left Paddington about 18.00 and got to High Wycombe in about 25 minutes - had a buffet in the evening so you could get a beer and took half the time of the usual Marylebone - High Wycombe train!
Oh my god I literally just started watching this video randomly at 11:36 a.m. g.m.t. On a week day
You've got an amazing job!
Neat, as always.
The map in my early-noughties Geographer's A-Z shows "limited service" (whatever that meant at the time...) from Paddington to South Ruislip, with the main service from Marylebone.
Brilliant information and video. Thank you very much
Awesome video! I have been admiring London trains (DLR, Underground and Overground) from your videos :) I really hope to visit London soon ~~
From Singapore :)
Excellent, I like off the beaten track 'stuff'
Yes! I've seen this train a few times, by chance, but only in London Paddington Station. It's usually made up of a mixture of Chiltern Railways train-sets and GWR train-sets, or just a Chiltern train-set. I think that line is part of the original GWR line to Birmingham, which ceased operation around 1970, I think.
I went to get on this service on the 31st May 2016 and got to Paddington to find it was Cancelled! Oh Nuts! Thank god for the summer!
Chiltern trains out of London towards High Wycombe only stop at either West Ruislip or South Ruislip, rarely both, and this may be the reason for the other passengers joining at South Ruislip to catch another northbound service from West Ruislip which skips South Ruislip.
My local parliamentary which can come in very useful; the line was also used for FGW diverts when the GWML was shut west of Hayes & Harlington.
Great little vid!
I find it really fascinating how trains in Britain are only identified by their departure time and destination. I was really confused when I was staying in London and needed to take South West trains I think from and to Waterloo because there was no tube station in the area. In my country trains have categories for faster and slower services and train numbers. In some places they also have line numbers, much easier, I think.
It's the same in the Netherlands, all trains have no obvious id numbers.
Sorry that I might correct you, but Dutch trains also have train numbers. If you search trains on ns.nl and click for details, you can see the ritnumber. Also, Dutch trains have categories: Stoptrein, Sneltrein, Sprinter, Intercity, Intercity Direct, ICE International, Thalys etc.
Yes, there are train numbers can be found, but are usually not displayed on the screens of platforms or printed schedules, so I don't really get the point of showing it only on the website... ICE of DB and Thalys are not really NS services?
That is correct though, yes. I would find it good to advertise the train numbers more often
Also the station announcements only spell out destination and time, so the train number is effectively out of sight of ordinary passengers, only for references in the internal communications I guess.
Interesting. I used to live in Greenford, so this video really filled the gap in my knowledge about that route.
The next station is West Ruislip. Change here for London Underground services. This train terminates here. Please mind the gap between the unknown knowledge.
Thank you so very much for these videos. I spent a week visiting London and used the Underground each day (Hendon was our "home" station for the week). I fell in love with how easy the system is to use. I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements to the lines and stations when I return this October. Hendon has an elevator to the tracks, but most of the stations didn't seem disability friendly. Maybe a guide for the disabled would be a good idea for the next video.
Betharoot TfL make a 'step free' tube map, showing you which stations are accessible, essential for wheelchair users.
tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/step-free-tube-guide-map.pdf
***** Thank you!
+Londonist Ltd Must be a life hack
The Long Island Rail Road has one train that departs from East Williston for Penn Station on weekday mornings. Granted, it's during rush hours, but it's not like many would know that about it.
That's the closest I can think of for a train similar to this one. (The one following that involves New York City Subway operations, and you would only know if you're at specific stations in the system.)
I had to go to West Ruislip last year. Had I known this existed I would've given it a try! Seems more convenient than taking the met line
Did the announcer say North Ruislip? Isn't that Pinner?
Hey Larry! Didn't expect to see you here.
*****
watch some, just to make sure :D
Huh, thats funny
I never expected larry to be here
vide0gam3s saem lol
North Ruislip isn't Pinner. That is the area of Ruislip where Ruislip Lido is.
Correction. The origin of the term Parliamentary Train goes back to the earliest days of the railways when parliament decreed that all stations must be served by at least 1 train per day at a 3rd class fare of no more than 1d per mile supposedly to help the poor. These were not money making for the railways and they fulfilled the requirement as grudgingly as possible running them at unpopular times etc. Hence those lines from the G&S Mikado about making the punishment fit the crime for vandalism "we only suffer to ride on the buffer of parliamentary trains"
It does not come from the need to avoid present day acts of Parliament.
About time someone pointed that out! Thank you.
Reminds me of the time back in July 1982 when I bought a ticket for a coach that was leaving that day on a morning tour from the Rotarua Information Centre (New Zealand). A full sized coach arrived & we boarded, all three of us sat down in the front seats to get the best view. Yes, there was just myself from Australia, & a young couple from Scandinavia!
When we returned I asked about the tour to 'the buried-village' & the hot-springs (also out of town) but I was told that as I was the only person interested they couldn't run it. However, as I was looking around the centre the woman approached me & asked whether I was still wanting to go on that tour & I replied yes. For something like $15-20 I spent the whole afternoon sharing a taxi with the president of the Australian Travel Agents Association (or whatever the organisation was called)!
awesome train video !
0:03 "Unadvertised" Congratulation a lot of people now would know about it and ruined the transit's operator day.
Interesting! Enjoyed the video!
We have one of these in Manchester, running Stockport-Denton-Reddish South-Guide Bridge-Stalybridge once a week, northbound only.
Indeed we do. I was trying to remember where it went whilst browsing the comments, I knew it went through Guide Bridge as I remember seeing Stockport on the list of destinations there and thinking it very odd, so I looked and sure enough, there it was.
There was a similar deal on the Piccadilly to Glossop and Hadfield train as well, where once a day the train inbound to Manchester would stop at Ardwick. I don't know if that still happens as I haven't lived near that line in 13 years (I used to live round the corner from Flowery Field and used the train a lot).
+leopold Ardwick only gets 2? Trains a day now.
In steam days this was part of the GWR/BR Western Region route from Paddington to Birmingham and Birkenhead. It was also used by inter-regional holiday trains between the south coast and the midlands. All this through traffic has long since disappeared.
This line is important to keep open as occasionally if there are engineering works closing Marylebone or the line into it from Ruislip, they will divert some Chiltern services to Paddington along this route. Worth looking out for for anyone wanting to try this line!
Hi Jeff Love these vids I grew up at South Ruslip tube station...travelled the whole net work in the day for 50p just don,t tell my mum
Have travelled on this train a few times now as it is an interesting journey along a piece of the Great Central which effectively doesn't exist!!! Without the agreed service the line could be closed and yet it could prove to be a significant alternative to the routes in regular use, hence this odd service to simply maintain the viability of the route.
The Greenford semaphore signals are some of the only ones on a "working" main line and I would guess will remain in situ unless the line becomes fully operative again.
I used to enjoy going to London that way for fun! I'll have to have a trip on its replacement to West Ealing!
Traced this via the "Half As Interesting" clip *Why the UK Runs Trains To Nowhere" enjoyed both thanks for sharing I'll give it a like and I've a good mind to travel on this train myself!
They should do more if them services to cut down on people who use the underground going to that place.
MOT.
Superb video
Good video Geoff Marshall
I tried getting on it this morning. It was going to High Wycombe with that being the only stop. I didn't get on it because it I didn't want to pay in excess of £15.
Two people get on a train at South Ruislip, going to West Ruislip. "This is very exciting!" LOL!
How wonderfully geeky. I couldn't help but think of all the times I've described some equally "niche" thing as exciting or interesting...
I took it a few months back, and sat in the first carriage. Some guys who were either hardcore trainspotters or retired railwaymen got on too at Paddington and held a conversation with the train driver all the way to South Ruislip. They bade farewell to me when they got off--very odd but comeradely behaviour.
I always took train from Paddington to slough always saw trains going to ruslip and always wonderful where it was even located
now I know..gost town
half as interesting
Huzzah a man of quality
:) i love this channel :)
I just may take this trip next week while I'm visiting London.
Wow. In the US we would just say "screw it" and close the railway. All the major railways were gone by the 1970's
anonymous anonymous that is why we have no useful rail service
qjtvaddict And loads of unbelievable fat people in each their car, busy blocking highways in & out of any major city..?
Usually train services have certain routes in their contracts with the government which they must fulfil. For example a train must go from station A to station C, however the frequency of said service is not specified by the giver contract so companys will offer a train service on said route when it suits them rather than when it is possible as this is cheaper than going through the hassle of changing the contract with the government.
Nixon ruined it XD
I always wondered why I would see a random Chiltern train in Paddington now and then!
Nice job on the video!
I get the central line from Greenford to Shepherds Bush nearly every day and I've never seen this train before
seems great can't wait to have a ride myslef
Do a series called 'The Abundant Trains'. This would be number one on the list.
Cool. Quicker than the central line as well.
From December 10th 2018 this train will go from South Ruilslip to West Ealing then back to High Wycombe and not go to Paddington at all. Shame. I travelled on it yesterday, there were two passengers.
Caught this service to Gerrards Cross back in 2011, seems so long ago now
Very cool, thank you.
I always wondered what that 'other' bit of track was for as I've never seen anything on it.
The announcements sounded like those on the Piccadilly line
It's because it is
I've just made that comment myself and then seen yours lol
Lol, that's happend to me b4
That same person records announcements on Southern, Southeastern, Greater Anglia, C2C, London Midland, great northern and thameslink
Because it's the same person speaking :-)
That;s brilliant. As a film-maker, that would be great to film in with no one on board.
Interesting, I live near and could possibly sneak on a couple times to get to Ruislip!
That's awesome.
Did this on Thursday, and it goes non stop to High Wycombe only now, as apparently it was becoming too popular for going to West Ruislip!!
"Congratulations sir, you're the first passenger to board this train"
I first read about this train in a Railway Magazine article which covered the various 'Ghost Trains' when it was still running to Gerrard's Cross. I believe that there is still one other Parliamentary Train in London still running. I hope you find the time to cover it.
As a side note, what was that abandoned length of track visible next to the running line between 0:01:34 - 0:01:54, I'm surprised thought has not been given to tying it back into the existing track to add flexibility.
That train would be perfect for a 'flash mob', perhaps if it was done on a regular enough basis they might find a way to make it a more useful service.
I remember it was about this time last year when a lot of the Great Western Mainline was closed and so (what was then) FGW diverted a lot of their trains along the Chiltern Mainline between Paddington and Banbury and then I think back down to Didcot. I presume they would have had to have used this section to do that.
It's great around Greenford where there are semaphore signals. When I went another passenger (they do exist) told me to look out the window as we'd been stopped by a raised signal. I have no idea why we were stopped. There probably wasn't much ahead of us!
It's just great that inquisitive people find out about these obscure wacky things that most people would never know about...
There's one in Philadelphia, the SEPTA Cynwyd Line. Only 8 trains a day serve the line in order to keep it open, 3 in the morning, 2 in the midday (forms 1 trip) 3 at night. While it has much more service then this is very low considering the nearby Norristown Line has 28 trains a day.
8 trains a day isn't too bad gunnislake service in the uk has a train every 2 hrs from 0500 to 2300
+cookric555 Train every 2 hours isn't bad for the UK.
Train once a day at Clifton, Manchester
Bloody hell! There must be loads of UK lines with only 8 trains or fewer a day.....the Esk Valley Line from Middlesbrough to Whitby for one.
Weekdays Middlesbrough to Whitby has 4 trains per day each way.
+Jen The Blue FGW services from Weymouth 7tpd, whereas SWT from the same station once every half an hour.
very nice !
In the 2000-2005 period the 'Parliamentary' service along the former GW North Main Line was much more useful than Geoff Marshall found was the service in this film. It was an up train to Paddington from High Wycombe serving Beaconsfield, Seer Green, Gerrards Cross etc, about 11.00. It appeared to fill in the frequency to London at that time. I used it a few times. It was slower than going to Marylebone, with the 40 mph limit on the singled old main line. Nevertheless, off-peak passengers at South Bucks stations took it to London, as it was there. It ran back to High Wycombe about 12.00.
The 'ghost train' service that Geoff M took in this film (11.16 down, Paddington - West Ruislip) became a service Paddington - High Wycombe with no intermediate stops: Paddington dep 11.35 High Wycombe arr 12.27, Mon-Fri. Fri 7 Dec 2018 (today) was its last run.
The replacement from Monday 10 Dec 2018 will be South Ruislip to West Ealing, then West Ealing nonm-stop to High Wycome, Mon-Fri.
The line east of Greenford to Old Oak Commonm can't be closed legally without statutory procedures; but perhaps it can be closed 'temporarily' for the HS2 works (which will last several years....) Yet it will surely still be needed to 'turn' HSTs and now IEPs, as explained by Geoff in this film.
moreee videos like this! everywhere in london plsss
I believe that section of track is also sometimes used if there is an issue preventing Chiltern trains accessing Marylebone
Yes, if there's an issue or engineering preventing Marylebone entrance, Chiltern use this line to go to Paddington instead.
I watched a channel 4 documentary program about train request stops once. Thay mentioned a parliamentary train that want one direction in the morning in great Manchester area. the conductor said hardly anyone uses it mostly empty.
Yes, Geoff made a video about this the other day on his own channel, you'll find it here:
th-cam.com/video/kmfI9YEj-k0/w-d-xo.html
A month ago I saw a grey and white train with tables in it with tools atop it and metal seats it said underground on it and it seemed old very old. It didn’t stop at my station(Ruislip station),just passed through at slow speed the seats had small holes in them it was going to Uxbridge . An elderly lady standing beside me who was waiting for here train like me said I quote “it’s like one of them ghost trains” has anyone else seen it too
I actually did the 10.57 South Ruislip - Paddington at the end of February with a London 1 Day Travelcard. There were 3 other passengers on it.
So this runs not very often but still runs to prevent it from closing and being tedious?
Martin Soendergaard-Jensen yes
I have traveled on other parliamentary services, one from Wandsworth Road to Olympia which no longer runs, and on the service which starts at Streatham Hill to London Bridge via Thulse Hill which I filmed while I travelled on a couple of years ago and is on my channel as such. That said in the case of the latter service it now runs in the opposite direction once a day on week days at 10:11am from London Bridge and finishing at Streatham Hill having travelled via Tulse Hill...
Love it!
You should include links to twitter handles in the description
***** Exactly, I'd love to follow you, the Londonist, and the camera guy on Twitter, but I'm sure there are other people like me that are too lazy to actually go to twitter and type everything out.
A quick link in the TH-cam description to your Twitters would definitely get you at least one follower!
at 1:17 these are the routes
Black: Parliamentary route
Grey: Great Western Main Line
Orange: Overground
Red: Central line
Brown: Bakerloo line
Green: District line
Yellow (on right): Circle line
Pink: Hammersmith & City Line
Blue: Piccadilly line
I love it.
that's interesting i went on a steam tour back in 2012 with 34067 tangmere to the west somerset that went that way.
Be aware if you go from South Ruislip in to town it goes in to London from the "Wrong" platform, the London bound platform is usually platform 4, but this goes from platform 3 for reasons unknown to me.