Interesting. The fact that it might be cheaper to just keep a line going for years instead of just closing it is mind-boggling.

There's one like that running near where I live. Once a week, at about 9.30am on Friday mornings, a single train runs from Stockport to Stalybridge. There is no return service back the other way. Apparently it has just enough railway enthusiasts use it to keep it open. There's also a really good pub at Stalybridge station but 9.30am is a bit early for beer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_to_Stalybridge_Line

I was expecting that they ran the trains along an under used route to get them to the place needed to run another route. Interesting that it is due to simply not wanting to do the work to close it.

This reminds me of the trains that still ran during the big snow storm in NYC at the beginning of the year, even though the idiot governor who doesn't understand how things work "shut down" the MTA... http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/0...way_shutdown_new_york_decision_necessary.html