OF all the sights the North East has to offer, London travel vlogger Paul Lucas had his sights set on something special on a visit to the region - a trip to Teesside Airport railway station!
Recent figures showed only two people had used the station in the last year - and they were both Mr Lucas.
And his appraisal of the station helps explain why it was one of the least-used in the whole UK.
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He said he doesn’t think the station is ‘fit for purpose’ after it emerged he was the only person to use the station in a full year.
Mr Lucas runs a YouTube channel cataloguing trips he makes around the world.
He said: "One of the things I really like doing is taking random trains, or little-used flights and airports, and obviously Teesside being a fairly small airport and having one of the UK's least used railway stations was just too good to resist.
Read more: Only two people used Teesside Airport train station in a year
"And a couple of times in the previous year I've actually flown from Teesside, just for the novelty value really. I'm not local to Teesside, but the airport is pretty unique in terms of what it's like in the UK."
Paul who is known as Wingin' It online said the main problem he found with Teesside Airport was the public transport.
One of the two trips he took to the station was on September 30, 2020.
Paul who lives in London added: "[The train station] is not very practical for most people using the airport and the time that the train is due to arrive is not coinciding with any flights and it's half a mile from the terminal as well, which isn't great.
"There was a bubble in figures for last year and the year before for the station, another YouTuber called Geoff Marshall, he had a thing about taking in all the least used stations in Britain and he did a video on Teesside Airport, and of course, that made people want to visit for the novelty value.
"The other thing to bear in mind is that the figures that are released are only counting people whose tickets have Teesside Airport as a destination, so it's possible that other people have got on and off there but have been on zone tickets or a ticket to Darlington and they've got off early. So, there's obviously some passengers there that haven't been counted by the figures, but whatever it is it's going to be extremely low."
Paul pays for all his travel himself, companies do not pay him to travel on their trains or take their flights. He said he travels on trips that he thinks are personally interesting.
He said: "The train is not convenient. There's only one train, perhaps maybe two trains a week.
"The only reason that it runs is legally to keep the station open, so if the train company doesn't run any services at all to Teesside Airport for a certain length of time, legally they have to go through a closure process, which is really expensive, to close the station. So, instead, they just stop one train there a week and they try to make that train as inconvenient as possible.
"So it's only on a Sunday that you can arrive at Teesside Airport in the middle of the day."
Each trip Paul arrived at Teesside Airport Station before taking a flight to Heathrow and Amsterdam, he also stayed in the hotel on site.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “The plan has always been to upgrade the station and bring it back into meaningful use. As our airport welcomes more and more passengers, we will work with the rail operators to convince them to reintroduce more frequent services”.
Paul's YouTube channel can be found here.
Below is Paul's video from when he travelled to Amsterdam in 2019 from Teesside Airport using the train station.
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