A railway station serving almost nobody? This is the hidden corner of England that's worth seeing

For a railway station that serves a local population of roughly zero, it was no real surprise to learn that arriving or departing from Shippea Hill posed timing issues that far more punctual and resourceful people than myself would struggle to resolve. On weekdays, there is one service a day that passes through this implausibly remote part of the Cambridgeshire Fens at just after seven in the morning. There are two services on Saturday and none at all on Sunday. According to the latest available rail passenger statistics, a grand total of 76 people have alighted or boarded at Shippea Hill in the previous 12 months. I was never destined to be the 77th. Such are the absurd logistics involved in getting from London to Shippea Hill by rail, I reluctantly decided I had no choice but to find this oddest of places by car. My chief question upon arrival, hours after that early morning loco had trundled past the platform, was this: why on earth is there a railway station here at all, serving, so it would seem, absolutely nobody? There’s a slew of what enthusiasts call “ghost stations” around the UK. These are railway stations with absolutely minuscule passenger numbers that tend to ha