The next station is Chorleywood.
Hello again, we're out on the tube,
this time on the metropolitan line.
We've been slowly counting down
the least used stations on every line.
It's the turn of the penultimate one,
on the metropolitan,
we're going to Chorleywood.
(doors whirring)
Chorleywood is in zone seven
and is actually in Hertfordshire,
one of the eight metropolitan line stations,
not actually in greater London.
It opened in 1889,
originally as "Chorley" "Wood", two words,
with metropolitan railway steam trains,
and today, is served not just by the underground,
but is part of the national rail network as well
with a half-hourly Chiltern service here,
running between Marylebone and Aylesbury.
Straight away, my attention is drawn from the main entrance
to the rear entrance that leads out to the car park.
Now here at the rear end of the northbound platform,
not only is there a gorgeous old sign,
saying for the station car park,
there's also the old signal box down the end here.
There's a brilliant little point here,
where back in cash days,
you had to leave your unpaid fares,
so if you hadn't paid for your ticket,
you'd just dump your money in.
I wonder if it still works?
(coins clank)
The exit on this side leads out to a car park
and this large step free ramp,
and then some steps down this alleyway,
which I find strange, because nowhere nearby,
is there a rounder, or even a sign, saying underground?
And that brings you out to here,
like a little back side street,
around the back of the station.
There's a Costa Coffee and shops, but there's no sign.
Even this sign here doesn't say "to the tube station",
it's like a hidden way into the tube station
that you'd never knew was here.
Back at the station,
it was time to count the steps on the footbridge
between platforms except hang on, I can't,
because there isn't a footbridge.
Instead there's a subway with quite steep ramps down
to take you under the tracks instead.
Ooh it's gone all echoey,
because I've gone inside the subway.
You saw there at the car park,
there's the ramp for step free access.
But on the tube map, it's a full blue blob,
meaning step free access to both sides.
I'm wondering whether they consider this rather steep ramp,
which goes down, and through here,
to be a way of getting step free access to both sides,
because it's quite steep.
It's actually 10 degrees steep
in case you're wondering.
Chiltern trains continue to rumble through.
There's old signage here that still refers to British rail.
There's also one of those rare tube stations
that publishes a complete timetable of all its trains,
tube in blue, Chiltern in red.
But what about facilities?
Well, yes, there's a ticket hall with a gate line
with ticket machines, dot matrix displays,
a bike rack, and yes, of course my favourite,
a litter bin.
(toilet flushes)
And yes there's a toilet,
quite a clean one too,
just check and wash my hands then.
(water running)
(door creaks)
Anyway, my absolute favourite thing
about Chorleywood is this.
The waiting room on the southbound platform.
Just got these really old, nice red wooden benches.
A creaky door, the labyrinth is there.
On a winter's day, it's very welcome.
It's also got a handy whiteboard up here,
which is great for projecting passenger stats on.
As per other stations,
as it's a national rail station with Chiltern trains,
presumably through where the oyster
is touched in and touch out,
they can tell which are tube passengers
and which are national rail Chiltern passengers,
because the figures are listed separately.
If you look on the Wikipedia page,
it lists them as different entries.
Anyway, for the last four years,
the passengers at Chorleywood, tube only,
have been around about the 1 million mark, fairly steadily,
but in 2017, it lost a quarter of a million
down to just 0.75 million passengers.
And I don't know why.
The Chiltern national rail stats
have been fairly steady around 0.6, 0.7,
fallen slightly recently to 0.5 of a million,
but why the tube passengers have decreased by a quarter?
I don't know.
(people chattering) (doors closing)
So here's how it stacks up against
the other lines in this series to date.
Chorleywood gets 750,026 tube passengers per year,
and there's only one line left to go now.
Overall, it does have a a quaint charm to it.
I think this is the first tube station this series,
maybe North Ealing was a little bit quaint,
but this, out in the suburbs,
not even in London,
definitely quaint, definitely.
(train whirring)
So there you go,
that's your least used station on the metropolitan line,
which means we have just one more station
and one more line to do.
It is of course the turn of the central line.
Loads of you already know what it is.
Press subscribe and we'll do it very soon.
We'll find out the least used station,
not just on that line,
but of course on the whole of the underground.