The Least Used Railway Station in France

Today's mission is simple: try and get to the least used railway station in the whole of France...
Sign the "Save the Aubrac Line" petition: www.change.org...
All The Stations on KZbin: / allthestations
Geoff's "Least Used Stations" playlist: • Least Used Stations
INSTA - / the.tim.traveller
TWIT - / thetimtraveller
FACE - / thetimtraveller
RESEARCH
"Estimates of Station Usage" pdf by the UK Office of Road and Rail: dataportal.orr...
"Fréquentation en gares" by SNCF: ressources.dat...
"Top 10 des gares les moins fréquentées en France" by Topito: www.topito.com...
MUSIC CREDITS
All The Stations theme music originally by Steven Francis: • All the Stations (Exte...
Cover version by Abandoned Rugs: • All The Stations ROCK!...
IMAGE CREDITS
Aubrac Line footage by Antoine Levesque / Urgence Aubrac: • La ligne de l'Aubrac, ...
Photo on Les Cabrils wikipedia page by Kelaïerz : commons.wikime...
Garabit viaduct: commons.wikime...
Millau viaduct: commons.wikime...
Roquefort cheese: commons.wikime...

[@morganr4332]

The Geoff cutaway is golden

[@JamesTobiasStewart]

Yeah that was hilarious.

[@romainsavioz5466]

And Geoffrey Marshall Just missing the camera picking shots

[@KermitTheFud]

saw the video expecting to see an allthestations reference but a full on cameo was unexpected and absolutely hilarious

[@mortenpoulsen1496]

That's a brilliant cut in. Nice to know they are mates.

[@captainufo4587]

Should we address the piano rendition of the "Geoff theme" in the background?

[@BMWDriver1992]

He single-handedly made the station's passenger figure go up by about 7%.

[@qjtvaddict]

Lol

[@mreese8764]

And for 15 Euros you can double the official numbers without even travelling at all

[@danielpetri3475]

@@mreese8764 but only if you prefer another station as the least used one

[@Gstrangeman96]

Percentages get very weird that way when you're dealing with small numbers. I had that realization when reading about the murder rate in Norway, the terror attacks in 2011 more than doubled that figure.

[@Gautier-cw9bu]

Yeah for these prices if you want to go to the least used station and it's too far you just buy ten tickets to or from it and and go to the second least used station, now the least used

[@hugobouma]

"I am self employed and it is before 10am" I know that sound

[@Azivegu]

I felt personally attacked when he said that.

[@paultidd9332]

I know the feeling too!!

[@jetaddicted]

Make it 11 and I’ll relate.

[@MrBrennan118118]

I wfh, he touched my soul

[@MatecaCorp]

I love how the literal least used railway station in France has far more trains per day than many of the busiest in any given US state

[@EricWeissometer]

Atlanta and Denver have only one intercity train in each direction per day

[@anthonybanchero3072]

@@EricWeissometer Better than Houston, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis.

[@Admirel2]

People criticize America for not having a big rail network... but no one uses the one we already have!

[@JonBrownSherman]

​@@Admirel2 That's because it's designed to favor freight at the expense of passenger service and doesn't receive any political support in most areas.

[@larryjanson4011]

no it is because over 90% of the passenger traffic if only for commuters on the east coast' around ny, dc, and such. here on the left coast we have only one train a day each way north and south. then the "valley train, but it stops in a (*) of a city with a 3 hr bus to connect to anything. with no service to the north. and one a day each way out of the state to the east. then south in la. i believe they have two/three trains a day leaving the state.

[@usget]

The nerd KZbin fraternity is absolutely fantastic.

[@sydnorth5868]

Agreed.... but it won't be complete until we see a video from Avery the Cuban American!

[@usget]

@@sydnorth5868 I don’t know who that is but I have a feeling I’m about to waste my whole afternoon on a brand new channel...

[@sydnorth5868]

@@usget Russell don't waste your time. Avery is someone who comments on a whole load of British train related videos, whether they be from Geoff, Tim or others!

[@goodwood-rc4nx]

vicky looks as she should this one imao

[@metamoof]

I wonder if we’ll get a special visit from Dylan of Dylan’s travel reports?

[@Darwinek]

When Tim arrives at the Les Cabrils station, I can totally imagine the frightened elderly couple inside the house peeking through the curtains, "Jacques, lock the door. There's some weirdo here again after three months."

[@AndreasDelleske]

These problems are being solved with a shotgun in the US.

[@ShadowDragon8685]

@@AndreasDelleske Even here in teh US you can't just pull a rooty-tooty point-n-shooty and make the bang-bang because someone is being a weirdo geek about little-used infrastructure. If they take out a crowbar and start attempting to obtain forcible entry to your premises however, all bets are off.

[@theoeri2802]

Probably all those 14 travelers are some weirdos visiting the station because it's the least used station in France

[@lorenzoblum868]

@@theoeri2802 a local rugby team

[@carlosvanvegas]

Perhaps they'll think they are being invaded

[@archietompkins5065]

We need a proper Geoff and Tim collab

[@jorgrademaker]

Did anyone already do the least used station in Azerbaijan?

[@souravrudra666]

Yes Please!!!!!

[@Azivegu]

Havent they already done that? Or was it just another crossover episode? I honestly cant remember.

[@dragosd460]

Im sure if this Covid thing wasn’t about we would have had the best Tim and Geoff collabs

[@hbp2m]

Add Jago Hazzard and you've a hit.

[@murrayshed]

I have stayed in that station building years ago as my band were on tour and the bass players sister owned it at the time. We set up our equipment on the flat roof area and played Black sabbath songs to the surrounding mountains whilst stoned out of our teeth on quality French weed!! How funny that it should pop up on my KZbin feed!!

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

So you went there before Tim made it cool.

[@murrayshed]

@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 probably before Tim made it out of the womb.........😂😂👍

[@Pomaufour]

Oh man if I could travel back in time I would gladly come listen to you my man. Love it when music is played in unlikely places

[@gormster]

can you fucking *imagine* if these two events had happened at the same time Tim rocks up to the least used station in all of France and there’s a fucking heavy metal band on the roof blasting out _Paranoid_

[@petershillito]

The piano version of that one song that Geoff uses in basically every video was a great touch. You just needed to have your camera on the ground and either crouch down to talk into it and/or act like it's your first time walking up to it and this would be a very convincing Geoff video.

[@TheTimTraveller]

*takes notes* thanks, these tips will be useful for the inevitable Part II of this video after Angry Correct Person comments to let me know that Les Cabrils isn't the least used station in France and I should go somewhere else

[@CallieMasters5000]

@@TheTimTraveller Geoff scratches his nose a lot in every video too. He can't stop touching it.

[@ziran123]

@@TheTimTraveller How many Vicki feet was the platform? You didn't have your tea with you.

[@JasperJanssen]

The piano version of the QI theme during e pedantry section was p good.

[@EdJonesVideos]

Thank you! I knew I recognised it from somewhere!

[@topito]

Salut Tim ! Merci d'avoir cité nos articles dans la vidéo ! :D

[@TheTimTraveller]

Ah merci à vous Topito, vous étiez presque les seuls à publier cette information ! D'ailleurs si vous pouvez me dire où votre journaliste a trouvé ces chiffres sur les gares les moins fréquentées j'aimerais bien savoir :D :D

[@topito]

Ça fait un ou deux ans que je regarde ta chaine (avec mon compte personnel) !😄 Continue ce que tu fais, c'est hyper intéressant :) Bonne continuation !

[@majorian6201]

@@topito Niveau esquivage de question on a vue plus élégant. Je peux comprendre que vous ne vous rappeliez pas/sachiez plus (différents départements tout ça tout ça), mais vous auriez pu au moins répondre avec un minimum de professionnalisme. Surtout quand on sait que vous êtes une marque.

[@topito]

@@majorian6201 C'est étonnant, nous avions répondu avec la source de notre article mais notre commentaire à visiblement disparu, on citait un article de Capital datant de 2015. (Il est surement dans les spams de @Tim) Je mettrai le lien dans un autre commentaire, pour éviter qu'il se fasse supprimer.

[@topito]

Je reviens 2 jours plus tard, le commentaire s'est fait supprimer. Sympa KZbin.

[@unlapras9365]

Am I the only one who would like to see Tim, Geoff Marshall and Jay Foreman in a single video ?

[@anderslarsen6009]

Geoff and Jay already did some videos but you probably already know that.

[@gabri_maybe]

And also,tim has appeared in some of Jay's vids,with Geoff

[@anderslarsen6009]

@@gabri_maybe in the same video? I am pretty sure that I have seen some cameos by Tim in one of Jays videos but not with Geoff or maybe I have missed it :-)

[@gabri_maybe]

@@anderslarsen6009 I think tim and Geoff appeared on a unfinished London vid about Bicycles and that lot

[@anderslarsen6009]

@@gabri_maybe You are right, I think i mixed up my Tim´s and Geoff´s :-)

[@ebolavir]

When I went to Les Cabrils station, to visit La Borie Noble community (two kilometers by road, or a 600 m walk through forest), it was a fully operational railway station, with a Chef de Gare and train crossing in operation. Year 1970, George Pompidou president of France.

[@didiermeurgues4267]

Apparently, the chef de gare still lives in the station with his dog and his blue car. Tim should have asked his ticket to him :+) !

[@lillywho]

Loved the inclusion of Geoff! _"Oh Geoff would have to say something about this vid- Oh there he is!!"_

[@ohauss]

"Bloody foreigners! Now we lost our status as the least used station because he posted a video on the internet and now our passenger numbers have doubled!"

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

This must be how the folk of Torpenhow felt after Tom Scott's video.

[@-wealuka7367]

The Shippea Hill moment

[@apveening]

Doubled? I'd say trebled is probably closer.

[@HernTheHunter]

This sounds just about right. Of course I was reading your line in Monty Python style imitation French accent.

[@ShaunCheah]

"The first travel KZbinr to record a hiking montage and soundtrack it entirely with pedantry." Tom Scott would like a word. (A good case could also be made for CGP Grey.)

[@TheTimTraveller]

Fair point. Although you do realise that you are now being pedantic about pedantry...

[@ukeleleEric]

@@TheTimTraveller This could collapse in on itself if someone became pedantic about this point - we could be stuck in a pedantry black hole...

[@jackielinde7568]

@@TheTimTraveller If we can't be pedantic about pedantry, what's the point on being pedantic about anything at all?

[@FrietjeOorlog]

@@TheTimTraveller The best kind of pedantry, surely.

[@nomadMik]

Metapedantry would be an interesting band name.

[@trainsandtrams2020]

The combination of British humor with French scenery is quite a winning formula! Nice clip :)

[@mfaizsyahmi]

Tim pre-empted us all by having Geoff reacting _inside_ the video rather than here in the comments.

[@philipashbourn1538]

Tim mentions Severac le Chateau as an insignificant station. Nearly 30 years ago driving from Agen to Geneva we stayed overnight in the town. As usual a visit to the local railway station after dinner was on the agenda. To our surprise the station was full of life life with the expected stop of the overnight Beziers to Paris train. For a short time the station was busy with passengers getting on and off. These were pre TGV days when overnight trains were still running. The next morning in daylight we could clearly see that Severac le Chateau had been an important junction with disused loco shed and other remnants of a once busy railway.

[@mildertduck]

Is it just me who wants to watch "Toutes Les Gares" with Tim, Geoff and Vicki?

[@OtterBops]

Yep, that totally needs to be a series.

[@truckerallikatuk]

We are many... many I say!

[@mike_maple]

Alle der Bahnhöfe please- I'd definitely watch an All The Stations collab set in Germany

[@ToolkiT73UK]

Let's start with Alle stations.. part 1 (NL) and 2(BE) ;)

[@truckerallikatuk]

@@ToolkiT73UK Definitely! This would be one to watch!

[@grapesofwraith1066]

Love the piano renditions of Geoff's "Least Used" music and the "All the Stations" music at the end, great way to cap off the cameos!

[@cricri6624]

Congratulation ! You are one of the 14 persons who used this railway station this year ( and maybe the first one in 2021 )

[@iamagi]

No, he is now messing with these numbers. Might even be 25-30 this year due to this video

[@holdyourbreathwhencounting2584]

Since he didn‘t buy the ticket to the station he hasn‘t even improved the numbers 😭

[@paulsengupta971]

He may have bought a ticket *from* the station, so putting the numbers up to match the next least used station.

[@_tyrannus]

Tim, I'm French and I've been loving your channel since I stumbled upon it. Many of my compatriots (myself included to some extent) could use some of that enthusiastic appreciation for the little (sometimes not so) curiosities of this country and others. I had never a single time heard about most places/things you covered, when - as you've proven over and over - there's almost always an interesting story to be told about them, and a nice old local who will happily share it with whoever cares. As a train nerd, I am of course also very fond of your choice of topics.

[@martijnm71]

bonus points for the binbag in the wind

[@Nynke_K]

That was a proper facility, that binbag! Someone changes that regularly!

[@holdyourbreathwhencounting2584]

Maybe those are the recorded 14 visits a year? 🤔😅

[@robertwilloughby8050]

Yes, and seemingly with an unworn, new, pair of socks in it - did Francois in the Station house get the wrong size on his monthly trip to Clermont-Ferrand and then throw them away in disgust?

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

@@Nynke_K Maybe not too regularly, seeing as only 14 people go to the location each year.

[@MrTheGadfly]

"2 trains in each direction" sounds like the small village I grew up in in Canada. But at the time, that 'small village' had over 300,000 people. But with a fairly disinterested provincial government.

[@Richardincancale]

Next time you’re passing through(!) you should pop-up to Chaudes Aigues where there the hottest hot spring in Europe 82 degrees C. Take an egg with you and you can cook it for lunch! Since medieval times houses have underfloor heating in winter by diverting the water through channels under them. Fun place!

[@TheTimTraveller]

Oh wow so that's what's at Chaudes-Aigues? I knew it sounded like fun! Cheers for the info :)

[@Richardincancale]

@@TheTimTraveller it’s not called ‘hot eggs’ for nothing ;-)

[@barvdw]

You'll nee a bus trip for that, Chaudes-Aigues isn't on the line itself. Unfortunately, many smaller spa towns are not (no longer..) on the railway map, even some with names as Vittel, Contrexéville or Le Mont-Dore...

[@voornaam3191]

Chaudes Aigues, that translates to Hot Needles. No egg involved. Learn some French at school. Please do.

[@f205v]

@@voornaam3191 If I'm not mistaken, it means "Hot waters", where Aigues is the Lang D'oc (old French) word for waters. Same as Aigues-Mort in Camargue. The origin is from ancient Latin "AQUA".

[@matthewbrotman2907]

I first watched this before seeing any of Geoff’s videos, but now I can see what a masterful job Tim did of hitting Geoff’s trademarks: walking between stations, the bin-bag swaying in the breeze, “you can see there used to be a second track over there”, rattling off the station’s amenities or lack thereof. Apparently you can’t get there from Clermont-Ferrand anymore, the train from Béziers now ends at Saint-Chély-d’Apcher.

[@hugobouma]

Geoff Marshall's Least Used Stations theme 1:35 QI theme 4:22 QI again but French (would that be IQ?) 5:16 "All the Stations" theme 10:32

[@TheTimTraveller]

Haha :D I think technically it would be AI - assez intéressant

[@JeremiCzarnecki]

Oh no, "Assez interessant" goes by "Naked Attraction" in the UK

[@doublej1076]

@@TheTimTraveller I think "Interesting Asses" would be a different show entirely. Maybe only available on satellite. At least for one of the American definitions of "ass".

[@MirzaAhmed89]

It's French-sounding, not actually French, since there are no words sung. End Pedantry.

[@ryanmitcham5522]

I completely missed the QI theme the first time around, thanks! Think i was filtering it out trying to listen to what was being said (think music is better during quiet bits than when when somebody is talking!)

[@kabochaVA]

Hello Tim! 8:23 "Fête" can mean party, celebration, festival "Fêtes" (plural) can also mean holidays, public holidays (e.g. "les fêtes de Noël" -> the Christmas holidays).So on a timetable, "fêtes" means "public holidays". That being said, your French is really good, with only a few mistakes here and there.

[@edwardlees4585]

Tim, I don't think they mean 'festivals' but 'public holidays'. There are often extra services if those fall midweek for example.

[@TheTimTraveller]

Yes it's public holidays - that was my franglais brain malfunctioning

[@edwardlees4585]

@@TheTimTraveller It happens to me from time to tlme too. I enjoyed your recent films in the Saumur area. We are in Chalonnes sur Loire, about 30kms west of Angers.

[@michelmartin3064]

In fact « dimanches et fêtes » stands for « dimanches et jours de fêtes », annual non-working days like Christmas, May 1st, July 14th... Aha, I imagine a festival held in Les Cabrils with a special train for the event !

[@mattsyson3980]

@@edwardlees4585 In an attempt to get better integrated in France I have joined the comite des fetes in my village. I am happy to be 'The English idiot' (singular in my village) on the basis most occasions end up with wine and food of some sort.

[@edwardlees4585]

@@mattsyson3980 I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for that.

[@martinneumann7783]

7:30 This is a Renault 9 in the background! Wonderful!

[@zehan2316]

"Geoffroy Lemaréchal" hilarious

[@hairyairey]

I didn't get that as I failed to spell it out in my head...

[@DanLoudShirts]

What an entirely fabulous video! Being a 'Least Used' veteran I applaud your efforts. The subtle and not-so-subtle reference's to Geoff's least used videos are sublime. The station facilities, the nod to the Least Used and ATS themes, all brilliant. Geoff was even good enough to wear one of my t-shirt designs. I think my LUS comrades and I can whole-heartedly welcome you to Team LUS!

[@samuel999]

Wouldn't be fair to do a 'least used station' video without Geoff and Vicki - great job!

[@constancel4211]

Excellent video ! Safety tip : in France pedestrians walking on a road are supposed to walk on the left side so they can see cars coming in front of them.

[@psymar]

Same is true in the US but nobody in the US actually knows that

[@Maddin1313]

The vicious cycle of 'people don't use the train' -people use the train less -train schedules are reduced -people use the train even less

[@57thorns]

There is a cut-off point for public transport when it is useless except for students visiting the grandparents (oddly specific, but a true story). If you have to make that single bus (or train) at a weird time, but are going a longer distance, it is not useless. If the times means you can't work a full day (or have to spend 10 hours in town shopping) it is also useless. And that is when the numbers really drop. But the first sign is that the railroad is allowed to degrade so that speeds are lowered, while the standard of cars and roads increase so their speed is increased, until the car overtakes the train.

[@TheZapan99]

The cycle is even more vicious when you realise SNCF has "station-killers." Chefs de gare (station managers) that are transferred to rural areas to change the time tables to be as absurd as possible, making sure nobody can use those trains to get to the next town at working hours, until nobody uses the line and they can justify killing it to save profits. Of course, because SNCF is terribly lazy, they don't bother changing their roster of station-killers, so user associations are able to track them down, and know when a line is in danger, by the name of its manager alone.

[@HDreamer]

@@TheZapan99 And then there's Japan, where a station that was due to be closed was kept open until one girl graduated from school in the neighbouring town. or at least that's how it was discribed online.

[@cubasfidelcastro]

@@TheZapan99 Are such rarely used stations a big issue for the SNCF?

[@TheZapan99]

@@cubasfidelcastro Killing stations is also used as a political weapon. Because the SNCF is in bed with communist syndicates like SUD or CGT, they make sure rural areas that vote conservative are slowly drained of their voters by closing lines and forcing families with kids near progressive urban centers. Some conservative mayors in the South have resisted, by opening private rail companies on touristic lines, but you have entire sectors of the country that have been asking for high-speed lines in vain for 30 years, because SNCF considers conservative towns like natural obstacles.

[@xxjayehxx]

I like the way you actually speak another language competently - quite rare on this type of channel.

[@BoG_City]

I would actually love an All The Stations France Edition! The music in the background feels so comfortable when you see someone filming themselves in a train station

[@zork999]

The "bin bag blowing in the wind" shot was classic. ;)

[@ThermoMan]

I want to know who empties the bin and how often! And how they get there

[@MelodeonTunes]

Loved the wind blown bin at 7:46 very Marshallesque

[@volkerlisiewicz3801]

I've been following the channel for quite some time now. I'm into the same stuff - mediocre mountains, railways, nerdy geographic stuff and tiny countries. I've explored all this until my partner was diagnosed with cancer in 2018. Watching this channel (among others) kept me sane when I was challenged to care for her besides my job. She's dead now, and let's hope for the pandemic to end so we can all go back to the nerdy stuff.

[@andrewatherton316]

A tea- sprayingly good video! Hats off to Vicky, Geoff and Simon Pegg for their cameo roles.

[@calibrazxr750]

Well, I signed the petition and coughed up 10 bucks, (for reasons that I neither truly understood, nor bothered to learn), to try and help the cause. It is not so much a mark of my generosity, but one of my enjoyment of this channel. Oh, and of both my stupidity and laziness in paying for something without truly knowing why.

[@foowashere]

Well done! 👍

[@calibrazxr750]

@@foowashere it was done, but the well part is up for discussion. But thank you kindly.

[@deancosens5710]

The QI theme over pedantry corner was a good idea!

[@davidchurch3472]

Gore, in Southland, has one train in each direction per day, for passengers, plus occasional excursion. So did Tauranga, Bay of Plenty. We arrived at Auckland Station about 10am and asked what time the trains were to Tauranga, and were told 9 o'clock. I said, "what, no trains until this evening", and she said "No, tomorrow morning" !

[@callummartin5481]

The cameo of Geoff is what i needed to make me smile this morning. Nicely done!

[@runforitman]

8:12 I think you forgot to mention that they even graciously provide a bin

[@zacm.2342]

When I saw the title I thought "Need to get Geoff on this". Then he and Vicki appeared in the intro! Great stuff. The piano cover of the music he uses in his 'Least Used' series was bril. And the joke at the end of doing ATS but french - cutting Geoff and Vicki back in there was perfect! Don't envy the working out to find the least used though. Or the getting there. Both are ridiculously awkward.

[@cat_city2009]

6:45 *sees a tiny, easily crossable fence* "How do we get to it?" Most British response ever. "Where is the queue, mate?"

[@psirvent8]

Yeah, except it's a private home with even a guard dog as seen later in the video. The actual station was on the right and had obviously no fence.

[@jerry2357]

There is something truly desolate about French wayside stations between trains. I once just missed the train at a wayside station somewhere near Rouen, and I had to wait about two and a half hours for the next one: it’s not like Switzerland, with hourly trains. The only thing that briefly relieved the tedium was a short freight train coming through.

[@andrewbrown464]

The beginning of this video made me very happy because I remember walking to Beziers station early on a July morning in 2019 and I watched the first few seconds of the video and thought it looked familiar and it WAS and I'm happy now.

[@fernbedek6302]

Now I want to know what Canada’s least used station is... and how many days’ walk that is from the nearest settlement.

[@kathytoy5055]

Or moose shelter.

[@57thorns]

If (parts of) Canada is anything like (parts of) Alaska there are trains that will stop on the line to deliver to individual remote settlers. While not technically a station, those are places that the train stops to pick up or deliver cargo and passengers.

[@dat581]

Or we could go for Australia’s least used station and how many weeks walk it is to the next one...

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

It depends on what counts as a station. On some of the rural lines, you can be let off anywhere it's physically possible to do so, which you arrange with VIA beforehand. The next level up are the "flag stops" which also have no station infrastructure at all, but are an official location where the train could stop. Moving up from there, the "stops" increase in infrastructure, first adding a sign, then a shelter, and then eventually a "platform" (a little paved square). This continues all the way up to Malton Station which is a proper suburban railway station. If you restrict yourself to the Corridor (intercity) lines, my guess is that Coteau, Gananoque, Glencoe, Grimsby, and Wyoming would be contenders for least used.

[@cjeam9199]

@@OntarioTrafficMan Amused by impressive pedantry of comment. Then by appropriate username. And then by realising, upon visiting your channel, that I’ve already watched some of your videos.

[@iankemp1131]

For those who complain about British trains, quite a few French and European rural services are very infrequent like this. A classic is Cuneo-Ventimiglia, once rated in the top 10 scenic journeys in Europe. It now gets just 2 return trains a day and is almost impossible to do both ways in daylight (especially from the more populous Turin end) or to do the obvious loop to Nice. It isn't helped by the French having "deferred maintenance" on the sections that they own but don't use so that trains crawl along there at about 20 mph - they speed up noticeably in Italy.

[@fuzzynutter8344]

Hilarious cameo by Geoff and Vicki...and “Is that Simon Pegg?”....🤣. Like the piano variation of the Least Used Station theme tune too!

[@ToolkiT73UK]

@1:00 I was just thinking about them when you described your destination and hey presto! Great cameo!

[@docvideo93]

"It is a rural line with trains running at weird times." Soo like Amtrak outside of the Northeast.

[@ringsystemmusic]

Genuinely no clue why we haven’t nationalized it, but then again, knowing the US gov, that would just make it even worse!

[@JonBerry555]

@@ringsystemmusic Amtrak is already nationalized, but not at the same time, since its a quasi-public corporation. The US Government all 100% of Amtrak's stock, but it is a for-profit corporation subsidized by the Federal Government and the States. Regardless, the station in this video still get more trains a day than many US Cities

[@qjtvaddict]

@@JonBerry555 sad

[@veronicaquackenbush8886]

I have a very vivid memory of getting off one of the three weekly Amtrak trains at Mariposa (from memory, I might be misspelling), the station for Phoenix, Arizona, in the middle of the night (2-ish AM) and the middle of nowhere (and desert nowhere at that) and waiting 45 minutes for a taxi I had to call myself :P If I tell this to my friends in Europe, they don't believe me. A city the size of Brussels with three trains a week, stopping in the middle of the night, at a station 40 kilometers away? (for reference, Brussels has over a thousand trains a day from half a dozen stations within walking distance of the city center)

[@ReptilianLepton]

Service is in a sad state even in much of the Northeast. For example, there is exactly one train per day in each direction between Harrisburg and Pittsburg.

[@martijnkosters9024]

Two reasons why this video is wonderful 1. 'Is that Simon Pegg?' flat out killed me 2. The recreation of 'certain tunes' just for this video

[@andymacvannan1412]

My sister used to live in this railway station back in the 1990s! My band also stayed here whilst on tour and we even had a jam on the roof of the wee building attached to the station. It has hardly changed... There used to be a big commune nearby and a wee farm up the hill where she also stayed for a time. Amazing to see this now - Wow! Incidentally, one of her dogs was called Millau. :)

[@foowashere]

Amazing! I imagine it’s been closed (unmanned) for a long time then.

[@andymacvannan1412]

@@foowashere 1990s wasn't that long ago in my head anyway:) Yes was unmaned at the time and the railway was under threat back then too. I remember 2 people getting on a train during a 2 week visit. Quite a spectacle it was. Ha ha.

[@foowashere]

@@andymacvannan1412 haha, yeah I know, the 90's is still a recent time in my mind too. :D It's sometimes hard to believe that you can meet adult people born in the 90's--seems like a right paradox to me, it was just a while ago. :p

[@andymacvannan1412]

@Aidan Collins aye its is a different take on the same story. Murray was the drummer and I was the bass player so he naturally is a little more 'flowery' in his account :)

[@dtvfan24]

Thanks for this, having watch Geoff. its nice to see a french train vlogger. thanks for such lovely videos

[@tallulahbeaverhausen4382]

"Is that Simon Pegg ?" : a question every person asked before subscribing to this channel.

[@jackielinde7568]

Sadly, I had to look up Simon Pegg and realize he's the Shawn of the Dead guy and apparently the Bad Scotty from the Star Trek remake films. Does this mean I'm NOT allowed to subscribe to this channel? Also, One of my ex's had a cat named Tallulah. She got the name from a Tori Amos song. And now I'm realizing that she may not have had the gender of the name correctly, seeing her cat was a boy... He also was a butthead of a cat. Have you ever seen or heard of a mean drunk on catnip? No... Well... He was. I'm going to chalk all of this up to an ex who was really obsessive with Tori Amos and the internet was still a new kind of thing that not a lot of people were using in 1998. So, here's to me acknowledging that you are, in fact, not a mean boy kitty who should never be given catnip ever, and wishing you a wonderful day and hoping I'm the weirdest person you run into.

[@tallulahbeaverhausen4382]

@@jackielinde7568 Meow.

[@hairyairey]

I'm annoyed that I never saw the resemblance until today and I'm a big Tim and Simon Pegg fan. There's a movie plot right there, where Tim pretends to be Simon Pegg (well, Simon Pegg's character).

[@hairyairey]

@@jackielinde7568 catnip affects cats differently, ours gets very confused by it!

[@jackielinde7568]

@@hairyairey Yes, I'm very well aware that cats can have different reactions to the stuff, having had several cats who had different reactions to the stuff. But Catnip is often compared to weed because they both tend to have the same general effects on those that take it. This cat (Who was already an arfhole without the stuff) would become a mean drunk. That's what made it so unusual. Quite opposite from what normally happens. That being said, there are also people who become mean drunks when using weed.

[@CarputingYT]

Awesome video, Tim! Hope you have a great day!

[@ze_rubenator]

I'll be honest, this station looks more urban than 90% of stations in Norway.

[@qjtvaddict]

Ouch

[@n1thmusic229]

And 95% of all viarail stops in Canada, just look at Luke viarail station

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Cheers, I really enjoyed this light hearted look at a railway line I last visited about 55 years ago on a French school exchange trip.

[@arthemis1039]

Nice to have you visit Hérault! Im from Montpellier but spent childhood holidays next to Banassac La Canourgue, pretty unexepected to hear about them in one of your videos !

[@PANTECHNICONRecordings]

“It’s really windy” 😂😂😂😂 I reckon Vicki would have something to say about that...

[@nrellis666]

The cut-away of Geoff coughing up his tea caught be by surprise

[@Shomononosh]

So apparently there used to be 4 tracks at this station, which you only see on main lines these days (and not in all stations either). I've taken the Aubrac line when I had just moved in Aurillac, and you were on the fastest part of the line, as the part between Neussargues and Millau is consistently slowed down, and on the Garabit viaduct you drop to 10 km/h. Passengers like the 900 students and nearly 300 employees of the hotel school in Saint-Chély-d'Apcher were not the only ones wary of a closure of the line, as a bunch of businesses along it have expressed concerns over having to send tons of trucks back on the roads instead of relying on freight trains to the ports of the Mediterranean. So the work that's currently being done until this autumn on the northern part of the line have been welcomed rather warmly, as the possibly increased speed on the 160-kilometre stretch between Millau and Neussargues could mean more trains. If you ever come back and want to do the full ride from Béziers to Clermont, my only piece of advice would be to avoid doing what the TF1 journalists who reported on the line a few months ago did at the mandatory connection in Neussargues, because they rushed back into a train without looking at the signs on the platform and went back down the line

[@geoffreyguez]

Le ferovipathe as done some videos on the least used station in Île-de-France (Paris region), you should get in touch with him :) Nice vidéo !

[@edbrown1121]

The station facilities and the bin bag blowing was a great homage to Geoff.

[@droganPaul]

Very brave going over the Garabit viaduct! 😂 That was the Cassandra Crossing... a 'great' 70s film about a mutant virus I seem to remember.

[@electragaming4140]

I wondered if somebody would notice the bridge 😊

[@geraldhenrickson7472]

I traveled this line in the year 2000. The trip was quite affordable yet the tracks and train were in such poor condition that we slowed to a joggers pace quite often. It took all day yet was fun nonetheless. Thanks for the video.

[@samtremblaybelzile]

I went to Chaudes Aigues on a 6th grade school trip. It actually is pretty fun. They have the hottest hot spring in Europe, with water coming out around 80 degrees Celsius. From what I recall there's a pretty nice old village around it. You might be interested to visit if you're ever in the area again.

[@cathjj840]

That's quite apt (suspected as much): chaudes aigues means 'hot waters', aigue being an old word for water

[@APOTwixx]

ABSOLUTELY LOVE the Geoff Marshall collaboration!!

[@Phelie315]

Oh Clermond-Ferrand, that city featured in my French textbook back in school, I think someone's grandparents were from there or something :D

[@pediluveverdoyant6488]

I'm a bit late, but I believe a french train enthusiast channel called "Le Ferrovipathe" made a video about the actual least used station on the SNCF network, called "Base Aérienne" on the Blanc-Argent railway, which barely has a platform and welcomes a whooping total of "0" travellers per year. (actually the train driver says some people get off there sometimes, pedantry corner)

[@tanevw]

Pretty cool man. Loving your videos, I've been following you for a while, I really enjoy seeing all the rarities you visit, but I didn't expect this. I'll tell you a story. The village of Roqueredonde is where I was born. Actually, it is where my name was registered, I was born on La Borie Noble. You walk past it in your video. It's closer to Les Cabrils than to Roqueredonde. We've moved out to the Netherlands when I was 2.5 years old, but I was there last year on holiday in summer, loving the weather and the food in the glorious region of the Languedoc. So you @TimTraveler are now one of the I don't know how few people who know and have seen where I was born. I was born in 1994, so it might be 400 people or so? You want to know the best part of the story? I was born on the seventh of February :)

[@JagoHazzard]

26 dislikes? Well, now we know how many people were planning to post, "ACTUALLY, I think you'll FIND, the least-used station in France is..."

[@jeroenl8352]

1:47 / 9:50 You can hear a piano version of the music used in Geoff's least used station video's

[@EElgar1857]

Your style is so great, you could make ANYTHING worth watching!

[@ThePixel1983]

"Vous êtes ici" XD - Yeah, very useful!

[@ashakydd1]

In Japan, more than one village turned themselves into tourist destinations to save their train routes. I actually visited Kishi station and met the then Station Master cat as well as visit the shrine for the past Station Master cat.

[@glennet9613]

I travelled from Aumont Aubrac to Bezier on that line a few years ago, the scenery is incredible, particularly north of where you stopped. They were talking about closing it then, I’m pleased they haven’t, it would be a great shame to lose it.

[@nigelt1218]

I saw the start of the video and immediately thought of Geoff ! A few seconds later, there's Geoff :) What a great homage. Plenty of Easter Eggs to be seen. The subtle QI music as well...........

[@switcher656]

The timetiable sounds like the bus connection in the village I grew up: One bus at 7am towards the next 'city' one back at 2pm. Very convenient for pupils traveling to school and back. :-)

[@idahagen9760]

I love that it is the QI music in the background for pedantry corner ❤

[@nanba25]

Well done ! I myself spent one night in the late 70's in a tiny hotel located maybe 20 meters from one of the ends of the Garabit viaduct (all metal frame), along the same line. The night was absolutely silent, but the first train came around 6:30 AM or so, across the viaduct and past the hotel… early wake up

[@beentheredonethat6885]

This is my local line. My station is Campagnac - unlimited parking and excellent food and accommodation at the Hotel de la Gare. This must be one of the few lines in Europe where you can occasionally look out of the train window and see both ends of the train. In the rural Aveyron nothing ever happens...ever.

[@paulgrougnie7028]

here are some new from this train line: It closed in December 2020 because the tracks were too damaged and reopened in November 2021. But it is still not sure if it will stay opened since it would need a tone of money.

[@rolandbol7350]

April 2024 - it's still in the timetable.

[@paulgrougnie7028]

@@rolandbol7350 yes, they finally raised a funding plan for the track works. it should be fine and should not close now.

[@loupellizzari]

Great video. Reminds me of my mom's hometown station, Prezza in l'Aquila ,and surrounding which also had a very very low station attendance which led to the station's closure even though the train still passes there. FS even removed the main track and the siding became the main.

[@WeldonGHunter]

You can tell you're truly fluent in French when you can make a Gallic grunt like at 6:50

[@carltonpoindexter2034]

Thank you for posting this and the POV shot of hiking from one who can no longer hike or even walk long distances. It is virtual-world beauty.

[@trippydrew8492]

Seeing the title I thought this was a Geoff video. Seeing the intro I realised it wasn't. Seeing Geoff really confused me. I love this channel.

[@domundtgregor6683]

10:29 oh, Tim !!! you are what we French call a "sacré farceur" ... I wonder how many viewers on KZbin spilled their coffee/tea like him !

[@jonas1015119]

the "KZbin Research Paradox" is called Cunningham's Law btw

[@TheTimTraveller]

Ah brilliant! I knew it must be a thing. And your comment is a perfect example of it

[@foowashere]

Awesome! *googles*

[@jonas1015119]

@@TheTimTraveller True!

[@Banom7a]

that's the trick I use on Stack Overflow

[@adrien5834]

@@Banom7a 'At's a good trick. I think I'll steal it for myself. Muhahaha.

[@Gstrangeman96]

That timetable and travel information board in that station used by 14 people per year is more up-to-date and better maintained than the one at the bus station near my home in Italy which is used by at least that many people per day.

[@iamtimmycouk]

Alright, Geoff

[@ysteinlangaker4730]

I think the natural scenery around Les Cabrils looks so nice and interesting! Probably a very beautiful decidious forest with ivy climbing up the tree trunks. I can imagine the spring there must be beautiful!

[@gillchatfield3231]

Despite the timetable showing direct trains from Clermont-Ferrand to Béziers, I haven't been able to find a direct train on ticket websites (sncf, trainline). Both show at least 1 change at Nîmes. I stay in Clermont-Ferrand most years and thought this would be an interesting trip to add. The train to Le Mont Dore used to be a lovely winding route through beautiful scenery, but is now effectively a rail replacement bus service.

[@MarceloBenoit-trenes]

There arent any direct trains from Béziers to Clermont F. You must change at least once at Nimes.

[@TalesFromTheBlahSide]

That stretch of road and line at 3:51 looks just like that used in the final scenes of the Burt Lancaster film The Train.

[@guyavni8834]

Geoff and Tim in the same episode? It's like watching batman collaborating with superman.

[@newbeginnings8566]

Beautiful idea to get away from the virus madness... Your little walk looked lovely. You saw the late train on Sundays and Public Holiday dates not festivals...