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Number of Services Per Station Stats

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FrankieGTH

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25 Jun 2019
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Hello there,

I have collated how many services each station gets per week (passenger calls), taking into consideration reduced services on Sundays. I can't promise every figure is exact (realtimetrains spits out different numbers on a day by basis for some stations as the VAR and STP services fluctuate) but the figures are a very good guide.

From this, I have worked out on average how many entrances and exits (E&E) for each service at each station. You can question the methodology, but again I think it's a good rough guide. I have not included interchange figures, just entrances and exits.

Example...

Harrow-On-The-Hill
  • 487 services per week
  • 69.57 services on average per day (487 ÷ 7)
  • 2,518,034 entries and exits last year according to official figures
  • That makes 6,917 entries and exits per day (2,518,034 ÷ 364 days)
  • 6,917 E&E per day ÷ 69.57 services per day = 99.43 passengers per service
Random things that pop out at me...

Bath Spa, 142 services per day, 6,395,694 E&E last year
vs
Ford, 186 services per day, 114,594 E&E last year

Harrow-On-The-Hill, 69 services per day, 2,518,034 E&E last year
vs
Bishopstone, 74 services per day, 33,686 E&E last year

I attach the spreadsheet with the figures, I hope some of you might find it interesting and you can compare how many services your station gets in comparison to others.

Edit: I believe some of the very small stations are reporting 1 less service than in reality. i.e. Clifton should be 12, not 11. I can see how that's happened but it would be too much effort to fix it on a Sunday evening!
 

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johnr57

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wow - what a fascinatingly interesting piece of work, well done and thank you

re sorting by least pax makes more interesting reading
 

bhb

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Thanks! I do like things like this!
But, Harrow on the Hill cannot be a good example, it's on the metropolitan line, so must get a lot more than 487 trains per week? I know they won't all be national rail services, but, how would the exit/entry data show that?
 

yorkie

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Thanks! I do like things like this!
But, Harrow on the Hill cannot be a good example, it's on the metropolitan line, so must get a lot more than 487 trains per week?
The number of NR trains is known (the figure given does not include LU services; if they did the figures would be exponentially higher!).
I know they won't all be national rail services, but, how would the exit/entry data show that?
There are estimates that differentiate between NR vs LU usage. How accurate those estimates are (given fares are inter-available on this route), I don't know.

But the average passenger count is stated to be approx 50 alighting and 50 boarding per train. This is plausible but it's really a guestimate. At peak times there will be many more than that, but off peak much fewer.
 
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imagination

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One arguable issue with the list would be that a train that terminates somewhere is counted as one train, and then when it starts back in the other direction it counts as another. The first train will only have exits, and the latter only entrances. Meanwhile a station where a train calls only counts as one service, but will generate both entries and exits.

To demonstrate - Henley-on-Thames lists 31.57 passengers per service. This means the average train that picks up passengers here will pick up (roughly) 31.57 people. Down the line at Wargrave, the figure listed is 3.82. Here, each train that picks up passengers and generates entries also drops off passengers to generate exits (or can do at any rate), so the average train that picks up passengers here will pick up just 1.91 people.

This would go some way to explaining why places like Chelmsford and Bath Spa, with very few terminating services, are so high up the list. The average train that pulls into Seven Sisters will only drop off half as many passengers as the average train that pulls into Marylebone.
 

FrankieGTH

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25 Jun 2019
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Interesting, I hadn't thought of that, good point.

Another thing I played around with was the disproportionate amount of services against how many E&E each station gets...

So Ford is ranked 1,659 in how many people it serves, but ranked 359 in how many services it gets.

1rINZus.jpg


at the other end of the scale...

ZIqu5Rw.jpg


The people of Barnstaple should write to their local MP! :D
 

yorkie

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So Ford is ranked 1,659 in how many people it serves, but ranked 359 in how many services it gets.
I believe this is an interchange station so you'd expect it to get a better service, proportionally, than the number of people who exit/enter there.

The people of Barnstaple should write to their local MP! :D
If only it wasn't at the end of a branch line (or a branch line with several similarly well used stations!)
 

thenorthern

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At around 25 passengers per train someone should electrify the line to Corby and introduce 12 coach trains to the town as it's in dire need even more so that Nottingham, Leicester and Derby. :lol:
 

mikey9

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Very interesting - looking at Highland services the data suggests 38 per day for Mallaig...?
 

bigfoote

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Yes to an extent. Most people change at Barnham (1 stop down the line). It's busier and gets a full service.

Ford has a lot of scheduled stops, I believe, to prevent congestion with the Bognor shuttle. Preferable to have a scheduled stop rather than to hold it at signals closer to Barnham.
 

FrankieGTH

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Very interesting - looking at Highland services the data suggests 38 per day for Mallaig...?

Hmmm, that 38 includes a great deal of SHIP services, which obviously shouldn't count. I removed BUS services but hadn't thought of ships! There appears to be more ships on Fridays and weekends I assume because of tourism? I know there are SailRail tickets, but didn't know you could use a rail ticket to also catch a ship at Mallig.
 

kieron

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The number of NR trains is known (the figure given does not include LU services; if they did the figures would be exponentially higher!).
Looking at the figures for Harrow & Wealdstone, the "number of services" column does seem to include LT services along with the others. Does TfL collect passenger numbers in a similar way?
 

Mojo

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Looking at the figures for Harrow & Wealdstone, the "number of services" column does seem to include LT services along with the others. Does TfL collect passenger numbers in a similar way?
Harrow and Wealdstone and Richmond (as well as intermediate stations) will include Underground trains in the data as the line is owned by Network Rail, similarly the Wimbledon branch south of the bridge at Putney even though the line is owned by LU it operates under NR rules.

London Underground does publish data on passenger numbers, you can find a spreadsheet on the TfL website: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/multi-year-station-entry-and-exit-figures.xlsx
 

kieron

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Thanks. The notes on that table say that some counts include NR passengers, but don't say which ones are affected. I don't know much at all about how the NR entry/exit figures treat London.

If the two organisations' figures for this station overlap, though, then I can't just use these figures to estimate how many people used an average NR service, or anything like that.
 

NorthOxonian

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I am very impressed by Bordesley (obviously the figure is heavily distorted by the fact it gets one train a week). Is that mainly from Birmingham City fans or residents of Bordesley itself?

I'd be interested to see (and might to make myself) a version of the disproportionate table using the ratio of the rankings (so #20 E&E and #50 services would get 0.4 for example). There seem to be quite a few stations which punch well above their weight (Exeter Central for instance), but many of these would still be in the top 500 for service levels, so they'd never be able to have a difference of 1,200 like Barnstaple.
 

deltic

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3,201
Hello there,

I have collated how many services each station gets per week (passenger calls), taking into consideration reduced services on Sundays. I can't promise every figure is exact (realtimetrains spits out different numbers on a day by basis for some stations as the VAR and STP services fluctuate) but the figures are a very good guide.

From this, I have worked out on average how many entrances and exits (E&E) for each service at each station. You can question the methodology, but again I think it's a good rough guide. I have not included interchange figures, just entrances and exits.

Example...

Harrow-On-The-Hill
  • 487 services per week
  • 69.57 services on average per day (487 ÷ 7)
  • 2,518,034 entries and exits last year according to official figures
  • That makes 6,917 entries and exits per day (2,518,034 ÷ 364 days)
  • 6,917 E&E per day ÷ 69.57 services per day = 99.43 passengers per service
Random things that pop out at me...

Bath Spa, 142 services per day, 6,395,694 E&E last year
vs
Ford, 186 services per day, 114,594 E&E last year

Harrow-On-The-Hill, 69 services per day, 2,518,034 E&E last year
vs
Bishopstone, 74 services per day, 33,686 E&E last year

I attach the spreadsheet with the figures, I hope some of you might find it interesting and you can compare how many services your station gets in comparison to others.

Edit: I believe some of the very small stations are reporting 1 less service than in reality. i.e. Clifton should be 12, not 11. I can see how that's happened but it would be too much effort to fix it on a Sunday evening!

Just stumbled upon this - a fascinating data set do you mind if I produce a blog on this with a link to your spreadsheet?
 

Deafdoggie

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29 Sep 2016
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I am very impressed by Bordesley (obviously the figure is heavily distorted by the fact it gets one train a week). Is that mainly from Birmingham City fans or residents of Bordesley itself?


Mainly football crowds. It gets additional services on matchdays, so the figure is to be treated with caution.

Indeed, having done the weekly train, I can assure you it really isn’t used much, or indeed, at all, apart from match days, when there are very more trains laid on. A difficult station to quantify really.
 

Birkonian

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19 Sep 2017
Messages
185
I'm sure that this is a fantastic piece of work - I don't have Excel on this laptop to view it - however, figures for my local station, Spital, will be skewed by Merseyrail missing it out regularly to make up time.
 
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