delightful radio program on British 'ghost stations'

During my two years living in France and Switzerland, I fell deeply in love with travel by rail. But alas, I live in a particularly rail-unfriendly region of a rather rail-unfriendly country. One of my guilty internet pleasures is consuming rail-related media so that I can feel like I’m having train experiences anyway.

Geoff Marshall’s YouTube channel is a favorite of mine. Le Ferrovipathe and Urban Traveler are a couple of Francophone channels that I like much more, but that produce less content. That said, I’d gladly rewatch Urban Traveler’s #TourDeFranceEnTER or Tour de Suisse en train series, which make me ache for the experience of taking European rail.

Anyway, thanks to one of Geoff’s more recent videos, I came across Ian Marchant and some of his own enthusiasm for trains. One of the few things I could easily track down after scouring his Wikipedia page and personal website was this fun BBC Radio 4 broadcast where he visits a number of “ghost stations”: railway stations that are kept open to avoid the hassle of closing them down, even though there are few (or no!) services provided through them.

I bookrmarked this video a couple of weeks ago, but I finally made some time to listen to it today while my eyes were recovering from dilation after an eye doctor’s appointment. It is a bonkers little program, with a lot of love for trains and some unbelievable details about British rail. I really enjoyed it, and I heartily recommend it to anyone with similar listening preferences.

• France
• Switzerland
• trains
• Geoff Marshall
• BBC
• BBC Radio 4
• Ian Marchant
• YouTube