South Kenton - Least Used Bakerloo Line Station 

Ah yes, the classic slow-mo bin bag moment. A tried and tested filmmaking technique.

Thank you so much for a step into nostalgia. I was born and lived for over twenty years just round the corner. When I was 15 I got a Saturday job cleaning and restocking the shelves, mowing the lawns etc at the Windermere pub. This was mid 1960's when the old footbridge was there before they built the subway. On the way to work I used to stand on the footbridge as steam trains chucked minty smelling steam up each side as they passed. The pub was very busy then and I think the landlord was Mr Stainings (can't remember first name). Always took trains from South Kenton station where the ticket office was a wooden hut like construction as you entered the platforms. Going up from the pub side toward North Wembley station was Collars laundry where my father used to get is separate stiff collars and the Wrigleys spearmint factory which is large white building just before GEC Hurst research and the North Wembley station.

Sometimes bouncy, but always cosy 😂😂😂 that’s going to be my new tinder intro

Fun fact those 30 steps are the equal of a 15 storey building...

Do you think it being the “least used” station has anything to do with it not having barriers?

I love the Bakerloo, use it everyday commuting, the clackety old trains and their interior are brilliant. Although new trains will be very welcome, I personally will be sad to see these old-timers finally retire. Good work Geoff.

“It’s this bizarre mix of big trains, overground trains and little bouncy brown Bakerloo line trains.” - oh Geoff you do have a way with words.

I hope that trash bag was empty when you put your camera in there, otherwise, time for the disinfecting wipes!

This comment comes from the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. Why the hell do I love these videos so much?

I don't use Twitter and keep meaning to sign up. So posting here to say visited London last week to take little one to TFL museume and picked up your underground facts book! Keep up the great work.

I love South Kenton Station. Great for watching trains on the West Coast Main Line and as there's no ticket barriers you don't have to spend 1/2 hour explaining to the member of staff you're a railway enthusiast and just want to watch trains!

The Windermere pub is actually still open, and is well worth visiting - I've used South Kenton several times to get to the pub, and was last there in early December 2019. The inside of the pub is actually listed in CAMRA's inventory of historic pub interiors, as it is a beautiful unaltered example of a 1930s Metroland era pub. Parts of the pub are indeed rarely used, but the nearside door (closest to the underpass) should open if you give it a push.

I assume passenger stats are based on the other stations that the person touches in/out at. I bet there isn't that many people who get on and off between Queens park and Harrow & Wealdstone?

Can you do a least used station on the Emirates Cable Car?

Yeah this station is great for spotting too, no staff to annoy you saying you can't record or anything

I came for the binbag. Was not disappointed.

Geoff, after you've finished doing this series, do secrets of Southern / Southeastern / Great Western / Northern etc. - I think it could be quite interesting!

6 trains per hour underground, 3 trains per hour overground. 1 million underground passengers figures, 500k overground passengers figures. Looks like a simple ratio calculation to me - with exceptions for known journeys - SK to Euston or SK to Elephant for example.

It has Underground. It has Overground. But it apparently isn't Wombling Free. And Wimbledon is Underground only... Anyone else confused? #o.

I lived around the corner from South Kenton in the 80's and to quote an icon of that era, it has always had an "every day is like Sunday" feel about it. Good to see the old girl again though.

You can see North Wembley Station down the line. It is probably consideres least used because people fare dodge so the journey is not recorded.

Need some wider shots Geoff. Hard to really get a feel for it.

That pub certainly is not shut Geoff. A pleasant old pub, shame many others around have gone.

Best bin bag I've ever seen...............and in slow motion!

The best station to do trainspotting on the West Coast Main Line.

Always loved this line! Voted 4 it in the World Cup of tube lines too😁

i don't want this series to end.

That bin bag had me in tears. I thought about moving to South Kenton (not aware that it was that unpopular with commuters), now I'm not so sure.

Zary park run to the delights of South Kenton in two days! You cannot be any more exotic not eclectic than that Geoff!

You drink as much tea as me lol from a fellow tea drinker i very much enjoy your videos I don't get to ride trains as much as I would like but I live in Loughborough so I've got the great Central railway just down the road.

There’s a few lines in my experience where you have metro trains smack up against mainline ones. Top of my head is the Orange Line of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The southern section shares a cutting for several miles and stops with the mainline Amtrak tracks. The other is the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (Path) system at Newark and Harrison stations. While legally a railroad, the trains are clones of the current generation of New York City Subway equipment and they run feet from Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains.

Do you imagine that the proximity to Northwick Park station has anything to do with the lack of footfall?

also if you look towards northwick park, you can see chiltern trains!

30 steps= 15 floors

It is synced up with the time tables so when a tube train comes in and people touch the pad it relates those passengers to tube passengers

I'm declaring 3:03 an EBM ... "Emotional Bag Moment"

Idk if Geoff will see this, but in the summer of 2017 I visited all the least used stations on the TfL network (all tube and overground lines, TfL Rail and DLR) inspired by Geoff's least used stations video. I also calculated the scores of all the stations, as per Geoff's facilities scoring system!! Of course Geoff is doing it much better though!! 😂😂 Love the videos.

I worked at that pub for 5 years, can attest to Geoff’s comments about it being desolate !

Binbag 4K Megamix! Make it happen!

😂 view from inside the bin love it , that's gotta be standard now new feature , well bin view .👍😂

I love this channel very much, the underground is endlessly fascinating. I miss earls court particularly and its. complicated old school district line platforms.

The UK must have very well behaved wildlife in order to leave multiple transparent plastic bag with potentially yummy scraps exposed to the elements all over the country. Where I live they would be picked apart by the birds before the mammals got to them.

I think a tour of these might be in order if I get time when next in London...

I can't believe that Geoff did just throw away his camera for this video. Real dedication.

At 0:23 had to check twice. The light/camera at first looked like some sort of Star Trek spaceship haha 👽

Love your videos

Man, I'd love to do videos like this on stations in the Tokyo area. Regarding how they tell what's Underground traffic and what's Overground traffic, presumably as far as the system is concerned every single touch is part of a pair - entering and leaving the network. In calculating your fare when you touch out it knows where you went to and where you came from so for anyone who uses that Oyster pad it should know based on where they came from/ended up which service they used.

OK, so I'm sitting here thinking this weekend I need a trip out to visit South Kenton Station. And also that I might need to see some kind of counsellor 😊

First of all: This is amazing. Used to use this station every day and thought it was quite busy lol. Got proved wrong

My favourite station. Many happy memories with old friends on Norval Rd.

I would assume they take the full journey into account and work out whether it’s overground or bakerloo, then based on that ratio, distribute the remaining unknown journeys in the same ratio

For once a least-used station that I've actually used, after completing a section of the Capital Ring.

arrived here from Geoff's Q&A of 11/7/22, and oddly it is a vid I had not seen before - well worth it, and 156k views

How do they work out how many people used the Tube and how many used the Overground? My guess is, they sometimes physically count - by CCTV or in person and/or survey. They know where an Oyster user got on for a particular journey so that would give at least some indication of which train a user got off (unless you're trying to trick the system). Say a Euston to South Kenton train takes X minutes by Overground and a Euston to South Kenton via Euston Square and Baker Street on the Tube takes Y minutes, you can do some calculating and make some assumptions ... plus a lot of extrapolation and number crunching and a generous sprinkle of more assumptions and guessing.

They may work out the numbers of passengers of Overground and Underground by the 'station' you touched in at?

The two figures would probably be worked out based on the (other) station you have entered/exited from.

God I love those Bakerloo trains. I'll be sad when they go

The Windermere pub is actually trading, just closed when you went lol

When I saw this least used station video, I thought: why geoff won't do a video about least used station in Cambridgeshire. Then I realized it's Shippea Hill which he did long time ago haha

I was here for 666 views

I love watching all your videos can you make a video about gants hill on the central line

No, 30 steps is NOT equivalent to a 15 storey building before anyone says it, because that would equate to only two steps per storey!

I wonder how passengers survive if they are toilet desperate at the station.

I suppose they could work out passenger numbers using what station you tap out of/tapped into, eg, South Hampstead - South Kenton would have been done on the London Overground; however this only works for stations that aren't shared by the Bakerloo line and the London Overground; so I don't know what it's registered as if you tapped in at say Willesden Junction - South Kenton.

South Kenton Labyrinth number: 44

Brilliant video Geoff. I am a fan of the Bakerloo line as in my opinion it is the cosiest line in winter and all round (shame it gets baking in the summer tho)

I love South Kenton Station!

I actually used this station last year, so am in the 2018 stats! It's on the Capital Ring walk, which passes through the underpass

A most enjoyable video Geoff. The bin bag section was very haunting and atmospheric. And now a question: Is South Kenton the only station on the underground that can be turned into another station by the addition of 4 letters? (The station name that is, not the material of the station, before someone gets facetious with me! 😄)

It isn't hard - Start -> Finish on one line only: attribute to that line - Start -> Finish on part served by both line: apportion by % of service to each line, maybe even per hour - Start -> transfer to another third line or third line transfer -> finish: split as above as applicable.

I never knew this was the least used on the bakerloo, i went there in January. Here is a link to a video of a DRS/ Chiltern railways class 68 passing on the mainline ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zPTwkIXbzGU.html

nice one geoff

If I’m honest most of the people that come to this station are probably trainspotters 😂

3:01 south kenton bin bag moment

Overground figs would be tapping in at Euston or stations north of Harrow to Watford.

My mate lived there. Absolute dive.

They work it out from where else you tap

That pub is open I see people coming out of there

Hi. I have a really stupid question about the underground. Some of the platforms are really deep. How do they manage to get the trains down there? Some sort of lift I suppose but could be a very interesting video.

2:28 Get Carter

South Kenton? Really? It's a great Trainspotting location!

All the bin bags

I used to live in Kenton but used Sth Kenton a few times only. Not much going on outside the station except a pub windermerepub.com/ (Grade Two listed)

Poor ole Bakerloo line, cruddy stations and museum quality rolling stock - got nothing out of the PPP and nothing since.

30 steps? That’s the equivalent to a 15-storey building.

cosy? COSY? *COSY?* I literally hate the heat in summer.....

The most least used station in the whole London underground network is actually roding valley

"Look at that weirdo talking to a bin" 🙂

Perhaps it's total journeys divided by services - so say you had 3 million journeys made, with 66% of trains being tube and 33% of trains being big boy trains, you'd get the numbers average out that way. One for @numberphile perhaps

Greetings & Salutations to those watching this to see why it’s Geoffs least liked station from his recent Q&A video 😂 “feels a bit…….. strange” - Geoff 2022 👍

I thought he was gonna say something nice about my precious area

one of my favourite stations for trainspotting

I'm interested as to what the least used tube 'interchange' is. ie, stations with at least 2 lanes

Always Loved This Line Could Go to A different Station ☝️😎

30 steps, the equivalent (close) to a 2-storey building (36 steps would be that number).

South Kenton is rather gloomy

Haven't you done the least sandling and westernhanger in Kent because scale is not just the least used station in kent

Great video on underground trains mate 😊👍

I've only seen the 30 steps = 15 floors joke six times so far in these comments. Can I say it too? It gets funnier through repetition.

Went there a few weeks ago, bloody brilliant place for trainspotting