Condor7 - since you have your location as Penrith - can I ask: how aware is the general Penrither of the availability of the S&C to Leeds? That is to say, is the station at Langwathby used to any extent by said population as a railhead for heading in the Leeds/Bradford - or is it just the odd railway bod who would even think of going that way?
(Same question could be put to Alston population, I suppose, but my guess is that's a significantly smaller place.)
As it so happens my wife and I are volunteers (along with one other) who look after Langwathby station which part of a partnership with The Friends Of The Settle & Carlisle Line and Northern for all the stations on the line.
As to what percentage of the Penrith population are aware of the S&C I would have no idea however I suspect it is quite high as I have never met anyone in the area who does not know about it. What I do know is that, apart from locals Langwathby is regularly used by people from Penrith as it is only about 5 miles away and takes about 10 minutes in a car and the parking is free.
Over the winter these numbers would be quite small and used mainly by those wanting to commute however once the weather starts to pick up it can be quite heavily used by those just wanting a day out. Settle and Skipton being two popular destinations as well as Leeds. Last month on one sunny midweek day while the schools were off I counted almost 30 passengers catching the 11.18am towards Leeds, which was only a two carriage train so dread to think how the loading were as it continued on its journey.
With regard to Alston then I would say much less usage, but it is about 15 miles away on a road over the Pennines that can get closed in the winter.
What does surprise me is the lack of a regular bus service between Langwathby and Penrith. There is just one bus on a Friday. For a couple of months in the summer there is also a once a week bus from Alston to Penrith but that is it.