Elton & Orston: Least used station in Nottinghamshire

Elton & Orston,
25th May 2018

Yesterday I visited a station that I have been past numerous times but never explored, Elton & Orston. With just 128 journeys being recorded in 2016/17, Elton & Orston is the least used station in the county of Nottinghamshire. The station has limited facilities, but there is something fascinating by Britain's quiet rural railway stations such as Elton & Orston.

A Class 156 train passing
through Elton & Orston,
25th May 2018

Elton & Orston is located on the Nottingham-Skegness railway line, operated exclusively by East Midlands Trains. Despite being roughly two trains an hour in each direction using the line, Elton & Orston only receives two services a day; one towards Nottingham at 06:25, and one towards Skegness at 17:10. There are no services on Sundays from this station either. National Rail actually states "This station is served by a very sparse train service, currently only one train a day in each direction. The nearest stations with a more frequent service are Bottesford or Aslockton". 

Both Bottesford and Aslockton are located on the same line as Elton & Orston, the Nottingham-Skegness line. Firstly, Bottesford is slightly under 4 miles from Elton & Orston by road and receives roughly one train in each direction every two hours. With 65,465 journies being recorded in 2016/17, Bottesford, despite being considerably busier than Elton & Orston, is the least used station in Leicestershire. Furthermore, Bottesford is the only station in Leicestershire to not have a direct service with Leicester. Secondly, Aslockton receives a slightly more frequent service than Bottesford and is 3 miles from Elton & Orston by road. Aslockton saw 30,572 journies in 2016/17, despite having more services than Bottesford. 

A view of Elton & Orston
from the barrow crossing,
25th May 2018

Elton & Orston is the joint 10th least used station in the country, alongside Stanlow & Thornton in Cheshire. There are limited facilities at Elton & Orston, there are two shelters, litter bins, a help point, a car park and bicycle storage, other than that, there is not much going on. There are two platforms at the station, and in order to change between the two, you have to use a barrow crossing over the tracks. There are no ticketing facilities at this station, however, you can purchase tickets with the train guard at no extra cost. 

Station sign on the platform,
25th May 2018

The station code for Elton & Orston is ELO. Hold On Tight, a few Electric Live Orchestra references are coming up. There was no Mr. Blue Sky on my visit to the station. If you need assistance at Elton & Orston, you will need to use the Telephone Line at the Help Point. I waited for the 17:10 towards Skegness and got off at Grantham in order to make the Last Train to London. Please Don't Bring Me Down, I promise this is the end of ELO. 

What makes Britain's railways so special? Partly it is stations such as Elton & Orston. There are over 2500 railway stations in Britain with millions of daily journies, however, there are small stations that only serve a handful of journies. Despite just 128 annual journies, Elton & Orston, like every station, plays an important role in building communities and connections.