Wasn't the service only every two hourly until recently as well? The service increase would generate demand increases.
Sometimes unreliable Wiki says that occurred in May 2021.
To put it in context, the increase is 9 return trips a day.
True.
However 'trend is your friend'.
2021-22 had some lockdowns in UK IIRC, so not a completely uninterrupted financial year to 31 March (when most companies in your country end theirs).
North Road in 2021-22 had 56818 entries and exits combined, so c.28409 boardings or an average of 59 each way, per day.
Shildon: 56818 or 77 a day.
Newton Aycliffe: 74760 or 102/day boardings.
The terminus at Bishop Auckland: 146000 entries and exits combined, meaning 200 boardings per day.
So all up, typically 474 boardings a day including the 36 from Heighington, which means 3318 a week.
There are 103 departures from Bishop Auckland weekly, so median loading per train was 32.2.
Given the first train on the up isn't until 0726 on Mons to Sats and 0814 on Sundays - too late for starting at 0700 hours at a hospital in Darlington to use, and returning on the down there are no late night trains normally - it's quite reasonable patronage.
27 to 36 boardings a day isn't a huge raw number, but there may have been some residents in 2021-22 who'd yet to have confidence to use public transport for medical appointments or shopping, so in the circumstances, not bad.
I'd assume trains in the middle of the day at say 1300 hours and the last one or two in the mid evening are more poorly patronised, so perhaps a peak period weekday train has 60 or 70 by the time it gets to Darlington in the morning or when it departs from there at 16XX or 17XX.
So let's be pleased increases are occurring, even if as Watershed correctly says, a drop (so far) is evident at the vast majority of stations.
I've now shown two branch lines (BA and Sheringham) that seem to be doing quite well. Just great.
In Melbourne, Oz, the socialist State Premier refuses to mandate public servants returning to their desks, so while some do 'three days a week', hardly any do so every weekday. Our formerly crowded peak period trains often lack standees and sometimes don't even have all seats occupied on six-car sets. (An extensive suburban rail network with c.15 lines, longest of which is 58km). So a worldwide problem: from The City to the farflung ends of the earth where I reside.