Some of the worlds busiest train stations are located in Japan.
On most days there are no passengers.
On its way back to Cambridge, the train doesnt even stop.
The Shippea Hill station.
Otherwise the view is of field after field, some showing maize stumps, others now peat-black and ploughed.
But it wasnt always like this.
Hundreds of passengers used the station, including airmen from nearby RAF Lakenheath.
Trucks replaced vegetable trains and the community that grew up around the vegetable trade slowly died out.
The church and village hall disappeared, and the school closed in the 1970s.
The village is now incredible deserted.
The Kyu-Shirataki train station, on the island of Hokkaido, Japan, is also very quiet.
Kana Harada is, or rather was, the stations only passenger.
The company had announced that the line would stay open until she graduated from high school in March 2016. to watch the last train pull in.
They were greeted with treats from staff members.
Because, ironically, its cheaper to keep the line open than to close it.
These trains are officially known as “parliamentary trains”.
While the law no longer holds, the pressure to keep the line operational still remains.
Once a service is closed entirely, infrastructure deteriorates and the decay becomes irreversible.
Keeping trains running, even if its empty, helps maintain the infrastructure.
Photo credit:Shawn Spencer-Smith/Flickr
A parliamentary train pulls into Paddington station.
Another Amtrak station, in Thurmond, West Virginia, had295 boardings and alightingsin 2015.
It is the second least-busy station in the country.
