'Ghost railway station stops me seeing my son - my disability makes travel impossible'

A disabled dad said he had not seen his son for eight years because trains only stopped at his closest railway station once a day. Michael Jewkes uses a mobility scooter and represents residents in Polesworth, near Tamworth, as a parish councillor.

The 47-year-old said a better local rail service would "massively help" him keep in touch with his son, who lives in Swansea in south Wales. But Polesworth is served by just one daily train, a pre-7am stop which serves Tamworth, earning it the title of the Midlands' least-used station in the year to March.

Just 118 passengers got on or off - an average of less than one every three days - and there are no southbound services, a bridge to access the closed platform, or ticket facilities. It is one of several 'ghost stations' across the UK where services can be as rare as once a week, yet they never close.

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Michael, who is also disability officer for Labour for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, said: "A frequent train would be a massive help, my son lives in Swansea and I have not seen him since I became disabled. I have been here for eight years now and let's just say using that train station is an impossibility.

"You can only get a train one way and once a day, what use is that to anybody? "If they can get it sorted it could help the village thrive like our carnivals and Dickens Night and Christmas Market coming up. Many people commute to Birmingham from here too.

"We have thousands of people come and it's only a little village but a train station would make things so much easier. As a village, parking is a big issue. When it comes to disabled people like myself I use a mobility scooter which is my only way of getting around. You can't catch a bus, taxis are few and far between and extremely expensive.

"I can't even get to Atherstone, which is my nearest administrative town, and if I have an appointment with the council I am looking at a £20 taxi ride. They need to renovate the whole station as it needs doing, it needs a foot bridge which is not a massive job.

"Our previous government twice promised to sort this out but nothing happened. This is me talking as an individual not a councillor.

"It would mean I could see my son." Polesworth's sole service is known as a Parliamentary Train and fulfils a train company's obligation under the Parliament Act of 1844 to have at least one service per day.

Other ghost stations include Bordesley station in Birmingham which only sees one train a week. West Midlands Railway said there was a financial consideration when deciding to close a station, especially if it might need reopening in the future. Sometimes it is easier and simpler to keep a station open with a service running at least once a week.

Polesworth's travellers only have one option - northbound to Tamworth. This is due to the footbridge between its two platforms being removed during modernisation of the West Coast Main Line in 2005 and not replaced. Across the UK, six stations clocked up 150 or fewer entries and exits in the last year, according to the Office of Rail and Road. They were:

Denton, Greater Manchester - 54

Shippea Hill, Cambridgeshire - 70

Ince and Elton, Cheshire - 86

Polesworth, Warwickshire - 118

Reddish South, Greater Manchester - 128

Coombe Junction Halt, Cornwall - 140