Visiting All Platform Zeros (Part 1) - Cardiff | Redhill | Rainham | Gravesend | King's Cross 

Interesting fact... In Cardiff, Platform 0 not only refers to this little annex for trains to stop at... but also the number of trains that Transport for Wales manage to run on schedule.

Seeing Geoff with his mother is heartwarming.

5:10 Me: Wow, that lady really looks like Geoff! Geoff: "This is my Mum, everyone" Me: Aww...

Did anyone notice that Geoff made Nero Express as in cafe Nero into zero express for platform 0. 11:53 timing.

The Gravesend story. The current platform 0 was platform 1 and there were two tracks through the middle for freight trains or non-stop Javelins if they were 12 cars long. The only way to extend the 10 car platforms was to remove the junctions at the county end so they built the new platform 1 where the up through line was, extended the original platforms to the bridge and changed the original up to platform 0. This was all completed in a week long possession where local trains terminated at Northfleet and a shuttle ran from Strood to Gillingham with buses in the middle.

Your mum bringing that flask of tea was so sweet and lovely - I hope I have a relationship with my mum like that when we're both older :)

To be continued? Should have said part 0 of 1.....

"All the platform zeros are starting to add up".Nice.

A couple of years ago when visiting London from the US during Christmas, we decided to go up to Cambridge. When we looked at the display board at Kings Cross, the platform number was "0". We thought certainly that must be an error. No train station has a platform 0. We went to the information desk, and of course, platform 0 was correct. How odd. Now I find out there are seven other stations in the UK with platform 0. Really odd!

Hi Geoff's mum!

Love your videos, Geoff. Happy New Year and many happy train journeys.

Yay first Geoff train adventure video of 2020. Put a smile on my face again just when I needed it. Love the adventure! Interesting journey 🙂 Happy New Year to everyone. Geoff and fans 🥳

5:04 - It's 9 minutes past eight, it's Sunday. 6:20 - It's now the next day, it's Tuesday... Um.

Never thought I'd see a crossover with Matt! And then Bec shows up too. Excellent stuff!

This is such a wonderfully nerdy idea, and I absolutely love it. #WeStopAtNothing

If I remember rightly, the former parcels platform at Preston Station has actually been used as Platform 0 at least once during engineering work.

Good to see you putting redhill on the map! (Something has to!) I live in Reigate and I still haven’t gone from Redhill’s platform 0 yet..,

Just been through Kings Cross 😂 Love the videos... Keep em coming.

Very good. Looking forward to part 2.

have got no idea why this was top of my recommendeds but it was v. enjoyable!

Really good backing track choice, goes with the chilled out, night travel vibe of the video

Two of my favourite hobbies (and channels) joining forces once again!

Superb fun & good idea to do very good information thanks

We got to meet your mum! This video made me smile so much! Happy new year Geoff

Happy New Year Geoff. Emotional scenes there meeting your mum on a Platform 0!

Happy New Year Geoff Marshall & Happy New Year Everyone Else Too

I'm loving the collaborations with the other youtubers!

A few years ago I got on the Virgin East coast train from platform 0 at King's Cross!

You must visit Leeds when the platform 0 opens

It's a pity J. R. Bowling didn't come up with "platform 0" at King's Cross rather than Platform 9 3/4, as then it would have actually come true a few years later and reality and fiction would have come together and we'd probably have all been transported to Hogwarts

RE imaginatively numbered platforms, I did once read in a railway magazine of a plan to build platforms 0, -1 and -2 at Manchester Piccadilly! Not sure whether the plan was to do a complete renumbering as well, though.

platform 0 at hooton does have charter trains actually stopping and starting from it so has been used in the latter days

I live at rainham where platform 0 is quite new, wish I knew you were coming, love your work.

I used to work on the Royal Mail platform in Tonbridge years ago. It was part of the then Tonbridge Mail Center. After Royal Mail retired the TPO's we stopped using the platform. It is still there and can be viewed from a couple of near by road bridges.

I live in Rainham. Southeastern, previous Connex, previous NSE have always used platforms 1&2. When Thameslink wanted to expand to Rainham, a bay platform was created to accomodate the GTL trains.

A mad and wonderful quest!

Honestly Geoff - when I first watched your videos I thought you were really boring. But then I kept on watching and now can’t stop.

Cool! Love your channel!

Really looking forward to part 2.

5:10 "Hello Mum!" ✋😊

I recently caught a Pacer Class 144 at Doncaster platform 0 to Hull.

Your mum is the sweetest taking you tea 🥰

There is a platform zero at Lidcombe station in Sydney. It is only used by the Olympic Park shuttle, but is busy thanks to the increasing number of people who live and work there now. Obviously during sporting events, concerts and the Easter Show it is incredibly busy. The other five platforms existed before the 2000 Olympics so platform 0 it became.

Nice to see this adventure from a different perspective after watching Matt's version! My Dad should have been studying for O-levels and A-levels when a lot of branch lines were closing down all over the country in the 1950s-60s and he had to go off travelling at weekends to try to get to them all before it was too late! I think he would have enyoyed your platform Zero adventure. I think he would be more interested in train numbers than platform numbers. How many of those have zeros in I wonder? I was surprised to find someone interested in his collection of tickets - Surprising how much railway memorabilia could sell on ebay!

You should do more 'Geoff and Mom' Train meetups!

This is great, love it,

3:26 just for the sake of clarification, Geoff says "the new Hitachi trains... they really shift." SHIFT. With an F. Just to clarify.

Oct 2019 was the first time in over 30 years I hopped on a train to London, from Norfolk, the last few times always arriving and departing platform one at kings cross. however on Friday, I almost missed my train back as it was at platform zero and it was only by chance that I found the platform, as I was looking for somewhere to sit!

Cardiff Central was my home station as I am a Cardiff boy original I was also under the impression that Platform 0 was really created not just as a relief platform but especially as a VIP platform after the Senedd (the Welsh Govermnent) was created particularly for the likes of the Royal Train when members of the Royal Family visit Cardiff, Llandaff Cathedral and South Wales. You will note VIPs can be easily whisked in and out of Platform 0 to the outside of the station easily without the security risks of having to battle through the rest of the station. With that use established it then can also act as a relief on special days like major international events at Millennium Stadium or elsewhere in South Wales (particularly on occasions such as when Cardiff has hosted Rugby World Cup, Six Nations Rugby, the FA Cup, the Olympic Games and even when Newport has hosted the NATO summit and the Ryder Cup). But just imagine how easily, say for example a member of the Royal Family visiting an international rugby match at the Millennium Stadium can be safely ensconced on the Royal Train whilst also keeping them separate more easily from drunken rugby fans trying to get on more local Valley line trains. You see, it’s quite cleverly thought out really!

I recently caught a train from King's Cross Platform 0. My home station of Leeds is also getting a Platform 0, but it won't be in use until later this year.

Very nice. I really enjoyed seeing stations in Kent too. I didn't know Rainham and Gravesend had a platform 0

Great to see my home town, Rainham!!!

Stockport is my local station, I didn’t realise how rare platform zeros were because I see platform zero quite often

INTRESTING........I JUST LOVE YOUR VIDEOS

Gravesend and Rainham both came about as part of the Thameslink program. The previous half hourly Charing Cross - Gillingham semi fast were replaced by Luton - Rainham Thameslink trains. With the associated timetable changes, neither station could manage with only two platforms (the Gravesend terminating trains used to reverse in platform 1 as was, necessitating Gillingham and high speed services to use 2 in both directions). There are over bridges as each end of Gravesend, and all Thameslink stations need to be 12 car, and the junctions needed to run platform 2 in both directions wouldn’t fit.

Can't wait to see Geoff's Part 2. Seen Doncaster to Edinburgh Haymarket from Matt's channel

Love your New 2020 Video End Credits!

A topic dear to my heart - I painted the 'Platform 0' sign for Horsted Keynes back in the 1990s, when we were rebuilding the canopy. The platforms were subsequently renumbered 1-5.

Nothing but fond memories of Redhill.

I can't believe this was the first video of yours that I ever saw and then never came back to leave a thumbs-up! Rest assured, my tardiness has now been rectified.

There are also stations with missing or unnumbered platforms. Off the top of my head (in Scotland, where I live and work on the railways) I can think of Stirling - which has no platform 1 (was a north facing bay platform, now part of the staff car park) Aberdeen - only the passenger platforms are numbered (3,4,5,6 N&S and 7 N&S) but platform faces for platforms 1,2 and 8,9 are still in situ (albeit with only one track running down the former double formation to 8 and 9 as access to and from the wash road at Clayhills depot). Up until recently, Edinburgh Waverley had no platforms 5 and 6 but these were recently rebuilt as east / south bound bay platforms.

Oh we love our British mums, always got a mug of tea to hand 😊❤

Very informational Geoff

8:56 “they’re really starting to add up!° :D

Must cost a fortune doing all these train journeys

Great video, was good to run into you at Cardiff!

Oh my goodness. MMXX! I hadn't seen it until now :O

Platform 5 was a bay platform from which the Portcawl & Measteg train service used - closed by Beeching in 1963

If you've ever been to Cardiff on a match day (we went to see a Wales v Ireland world cup warm up match) and you want to get back to your car that you've parked at Newport... you'll be very familiar with Platform 0. I think they put on extra trains on match days and use that platform to ease congestion. We were in a queue in that car park behind Gareth for over an hour after the match.

Geoff & Mum drinking tea from a flask was such a wholesome moment

Congrats Geoff, video is currently trending

Ahh good old Rainham! when South Eastern trains dont run on Sundays sometimes and theres always engineering workds I always get stuck at Rainham and have to get either a bus replacement or wait for a different train home to Ramsgate lol.

Think, I said this before, but again: your mom is awesome! 🤗

7.43 John Forster mentions Audley End; from what I remember, that bay platform for the Bartlow line did have a number, but I don't recall how it was labelled.

There are three Platform 0s (0A, 0B, 0C) in Kumamoto.

Hey hey! Yeah our platform 0 on Cardiff is in a bit of an odd place! I need to point out... There's a Platform 4A also... It's been some years since I've been to Cardiff Central station but it's definitely there!

11:58 The Lovely Makeaway Takeaway presenter Bec Hill on a Geoff Marshall video, love it👍

This is great - I wonder, will they introduce more...? Nice touch bringing your Mum into it...!

looks satisfying that roman numeral MMXX. happy new year (just in case i forget)

In the 1970s the bay Platform 5 at Cardiff General/Central was easy to recognise as there was a slight dip in the platform level and it was a slightly different shade of grey

There are six platforms in Stockport... Platforms 3 and 3A are two separate platforms. Also, another interesting fact, Leeds opened up a Platform 0 in December 2020, so that should be fun to look at. Keep up the excellent work

We have a platform 0 or O in Australia, it is at Lidcombe Station in Sydney's west, it was originally built for the Sydney 2000 Olympic games (knowen then as the sprint platfrom and smetines is still called that today and the station signage reflects both names of the platform. Lidcombe is still used and a major interchange for Sydney Olympic park for the people who now live there and visitors to major sporting and public events to transfer onto Olympic park services running every 10 minutes from early till late 7 days a week. It's is one of the most successful Olympic park rail networks still in operation in the world and is about to get connected to a new metro system in the mid 2020's.

7.47"Birmingham Moob "Moor" Street"....I died🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Charing Cross and Victoria trains both terminate at Gravesend on platform 0. Platform 0 is the end of the line stop. If you walk to the end of platform 0 you can get to platform 1 via lift and step free access.

So now we need to wait for Part 2: Northern Boogaloo

Just to inform you Geoff, Platform 0 at Haymarket doesn't have any timetabled services that start at it or terminate at it, it is only used if there is disruption or a cancellation.

You'll have to make a new video soon since Leeds has one (well, zero) under construction right now.

Happy new year Geoff and I’ve visited Redhill before

Brilliant video. Loved the guest appearance of Geoff's lovely mum, and the zero shaped snacks! Any polo mints on the day? 😁

Somehow I find it mental that you went to Rainham, my local station 😂 I can safely say that the only platform zero that I’ve used is at Rainham - the Thameslink trains are actually quite nice!

Geoff I've never been sure of Manor Park's extra platform, which could be called Platform 0 if it was ever labeled. Halfway down platform 1 the back wall finishes and there's a short platform, it is (or was) a passing loop for freight trains but I don't know if it ever used to be an in service passenger platform?

Gutted i missed you at Redhill! Home overlooks Platform 0!

The station ear where I live only had 16 passenger platforms, but 30 tracks going under the station building. The two remaining platforms are called tracks 29 and 30. So there could be a platform negative 1, etc.

Hi. When I visit my friends in Wasserbillig in Luxembourg, trains which terminate here from Luxembourg City arrive at a bay platform, not numbered 0 but numbered 9. Needless to say there are not 8 other platforms!

Fantastic video Geoff . Thank You! I really enjoyed. Are there also Fractional Numbered Platforms?

There’s a platform 0 coming to Leeds. They are currently making it so far.

Hi Geoff, platform 0 in Cardiff used to be what they called the "fish jetty". And apparently used for parcels and the old platforms 8&9 (riverside platforms) were parcels too. Wish they would reopen platform 5 though.

A theory to your question at ~ 10:40 I did some looking at the maps online and it looks to me that the ones marked as "platform 0" are always "before" platform 1 Haymarket for instance looking striaght ahead from the ticket line is 0, then to the left of that is one, to the left of that is 2, etc. So it makes less sense to name it 5 because then as you walk from the ticket line to the other end of the concourse you would pass 5,1,2... and since they probably didn't want to spend money on new signs to renumber from 1 they weent down from1 to 0.

love yr vids!

Glad to see our brief cameo