Station Usage 1997-2015 interactive graphic

andyfrommk · 24 Jan 2016

Better Transport has released a map showing rail usage in growth terms.

http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/maps/rail-usage.html

Doesn't look good for the Marston Vale line, also I'm not sure why Bedford St Johns shows a 500% increase and then goes on to become the equivalent size to Bedford Midland.

RailUK Forums

Iskra · 24 Jan 2016

Great find.

Bradford Forster Square 743% growth since 1998- very impressive what some new trains and a decent service can do!

Wakefield Kirkgate- 76911% growth. Wow.

quantinghome · 24 Jan 2016

Iskra said:
Great find.

Bradford Forster Square 743% growth since 1998- very impressive what some new trains and a decent service can do!

Wakefield Kirkgate- 76911% growth. Wow.

There is some passenger growth in these numbers, but they are heavily skewed by a change in allocating passenger numbers between two stations in the same town.

Trainfan344 · 24 Jan 2016

Norwich, Diss, Stowmarket and Ipswich all show over 100% growth. Stowmarket nearly 200%

backontrack · 24 Jan 2016

In the northern Highlands, all stations have seen increases except for Scotscalder, Forsinard, Kinbrace, Kildonan, Rogart, Culrain (-74% due to Carbisdale Castle YH closing) and Achnashellach.

Alness experiences a whopping 1068% rise in usage since 1997, with Fearn, Invergordon, Muir of Ord and Tain also recording significant increases (646%, 663%, 437% and 366% respectively). On the Kyle Line, the biggest increase is at Duirinish (276%); all HML stations have tallied increases in usage.

GatwickDepress · 24 Jan 2016

Looking at my old local, Ore increased 876% between 1998 and 2016. Growths on the Marshlink seem average, with decreases at Winchelsea and Three Oaks - likely the low service provision and increased bus links aided the decrease.

backontrack · 24 Jan 2016

I've just checked, and Culrain's decrease of 74% is the largest loss of custom in Scotland. Ardlui loses 67% of its passengers; Ashfield is down by 63%; Bowling by 62% and Loch Eil OB by 60%.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Although Kirkby-in-Ashfield is apparently near Penrith and Dent.

hock:

Both have increased, so it's all good. Appleby is down by -12%, however. It's good generally to see more red than blue on a UK map (!); I'm pleased to see that there are more increases than decreases.

backontrack · 24 Jan 2016

Bad news on the Esk Valley line. Only 5 out of 13 stations east of Nunthorpe experienced increases. Whitby is down by -18%.

Castleton Moor, shockingly, is down by -81%.

Danby: -54%
Glaisdale: -45%
Egton: -42%
Grosmont: -33%
Battersby -26%
Lealholm: -24%

Great Ayton is up by 56%, Kildale by 24% and Commondale by 18%. Otherwise, a miserable lack of usage. The line needs better trains and services, and a better timetable.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
STOP PRESS: Pontefract Baghill is down by -92%.

Poleswoth drops by -75%. Rugeley TV is up by 7,777%, which is quite cool. Luton Airport Parkway is up by 74,011%.

yorksrob · 24 Jan 2016

I notice that Normanton has had a 187% increase with the same lousy timetable and old rolling stock. I still haven't seen any indication that this will change.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I'm not quite sure how Appleby seems to have gone down !!

WelshBluebird · 24 Jan 2016

It's probably worth pointing out two fairly obvious things:
1 - Some of the changes will be due to stations getting gatelines / ticket machines being installed etc so some journeys that used to be unpaid are now actually paid for (and so allocated against the station).
2 - For some lines, tickets are not issued for the specific station because of TOCs zoning stations. Ask the guard for a ticket from Ton Pentre (unmanned station with no ticketing facilities) to Cardiff return for example and you will likely get sold a Treherbert to Cardiff return.

yorksrob · 24 Jan 2016

backontrack said:
Bad news on the Esk Valley line. Only 5 out of 13 stations east of Nunthorpe experienced increases. Whitby is down by -18%.

Castleton Moor, shockingly, is down by -81%.

Danby: -54%
Glaisdale: -45%
Egton: -42%
Grosmont: -33%
Battersby -26%
Lealholm: -24%

Great Ayton is up by 56%, Kildale by 24% and Commondale by 18%. Otherwise, a miserable lack of usage. The line needs better trains and services, and a better timetable.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
STOP PRESS: Pontefract Baghill is down by -92%.

Poleswoth drops by -75%. Rugeley TV is up by 7,777%, which is quite cool. Luton Airport Parkway is up by 74,011%.

When did it go over to its current 'not very useful' timetable ? Wasn't it two trains passing mid way at one stage, which might have proved more useful, hence higher patronage.

jimm · 24 Jan 2016

backontrack said:
Bad news on the Esk Valley line. Only 5 out of 13 stations east of Nunthorpe experienced increases. Whitby is down by -18%.

Castleton Moor, shockingly, is down by -81%.

Danby: -54%
Glaisdale: -45%
Egton: -42%
Grosmont: -33%
Battersby -26%
Lealholm: -24%

Great Ayton is up by 56%, Kildale by 24% and Commondale by 18%. Otherwise, a miserable lack of usage. The line needs better trains and services, and a better timetable.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
STOP PRESS: Pontefract Baghill is down by -92%.

Given that numbers at the Esk Valley stations are low to start with, all it would take to achieve a big percentage swing up or down is a modest change in the number of school children regularly using an individual station to travel in and out of Whitby. A better timetable and the opportunity to commute into Middlesbrough would help but these are small villages, so there is bound to be a limit on how many people will ever use the trains.

Re Pontefract, someone with local knowledge may have the answer, but is the figure not simply down to a more accurate allocation of actual footfall within the stations group for Pontefract? Efforts to sort out where people really go at Worcester has resulted in some pretty big swings between Shrub Hill and Foregate Street in recent years, so might the same have happened at Pontefract?

ChiefPlanner · 24 Jan 2016

No offence to the hard work of the user group - but Marston Vale was a dead duck back in the 1990's when I had operational charge of it - a fall in school traffic and an indiffernent off peak usage says it all. Does not really meet the needs of a mobile 21stC user base with better roads and 2 cars or so. School traffic fallen drastically from a requirement once for a 4 car DMU....

St Albans City however , with 107%+ and Flitwick with 97%+ shows where the action is.

yorksrob · 24 Jan 2016

ChiefPlanner said:
No offence to the hard work of the user group - but Marston Vale was a dead duck back in the 1990's when I had operational charge of it - a fall in school traffic and an indiffernent off peak usage says it all. Does not really meet the needs of a mobile 21stC user base with better roads and 2 cars or so. School traffic fallen drastically from a requirement once for a 4 car DMU....

St Albans City however , with 107%+ and Flitwick with 97%+ shows where the action is.

The stations at the eastern end of the line seem to have grown by a large percentage (albeit from a low base).

Rapidash · 24 Jan 2016

Alot of growth on the Riviera and Avocet lines in Devon, with minimum 100% growth common across them, less so on the Tarka and Gunnislake branches, which have seen quite a bit of decline, especially the request stops.

Digby has 1081% which is a wee bit mad. :lol:

yorksrob · 24 Jan 2016

Rapidash said:
Alot of growth on the Riviera and Avocet lines in Devon, with minimum 100% growth common across them, less so on the Tarka and Gunnislake branches, which have seen quite a bit of decline, especially the request stops.

Digby has 1081% which is a wee bit mad.

For Gunnislake it seems to have been the suburban stations that have declined. The ones towards the end of the line seem to be doing pretty well. Same with Barnstaple !

For some reason Hunts Cross seems to have relocated to Launceston.

TheNewNo2 · 24 Jan 2016

I like the idea but I don't believe the data. Clifton Down is showing entries/exits below 200, and down 80% since 1999? Yeah right...

andyfrommk · 24 Jan 2016

TheNewNo2 said:
I like the idea but I don't believe the data. Clifton Down is showing entries/exits below 200, and down 80% since 1999? Yeah right...

Are you confusing CLI (Clifton in Salford) with CLF?
The data seems to be from the Office of Road and Rail.

On another note I discovered why Bedford St Johns seems to have such a huge increase

All change at Bedford!
Some other statistical collection changes resulted in startling differences at groups of stations sharing a common ticketing system location.

One such place is Bedford which has Bedford St. Johns, a typical small unstaffed halt, close to the neighbouring Bedford Midland. They share a common revenue identification location and Bedford Midland saw official passenger numbers decline 4% from 3,448,926 to 3,303,270

Under a mile away at the single two car single platform Bedford St.Johns halt, official passenger numbers increased from 9,320 to 154,976, an increase of 1563%! This is because of a more accurate method of allocating rail journeys and as St. Johns carries Bedfords school traffic of 100 pupils a day, the former annual usage statistics of under 10,000 were clearly incorrect.

Lockwood · 24 Jan 2016

Shepherd's Bush: 2,675 -> 4,433,470 (165,637%)

Statistics are fun.

Hadders · 24 Jan 2016

Rapidash said:
Digby has 1081% which is a wee bit mad.

Suspect some of that growth is down to the nearby rugby ground, as well as the new housing.

exile · 24 Jan 2016

TheNewNo2 said:
I like the idea but I don't believe the data. Clifton Down is showing entries/exits below 200, and down 80% since 1999? Yeah right...

Except it's NOT Clifton Down, but Clifton in Greater Manchester.

billio · 25 Jan 2016

It would be nice to see figures for metro lines and tramways plotted on that map as well.

The map also shows there are some large areas of population and individual towns not covered by the main line network. I wonder if there were lines in these areas, whether they would show the same volume and increases of use shown by other new lines or lines with improved services.

I would suggest there is a need for a long term plan on the possible location of new lines to prevent routes being blocked by new development.

Cherry_Picker · 25 Jan 2016

What's the story with Kings Cross? I know a lot of these numbers say more about the problems with accurate data collection (in my neck of the woods the estimated usage for Birmingham Moor Street and Snow Hill in the 90s is laughably inaccurate) but Kings Cross was about 40 million in '98, peaked at 50 million and dropped to just over 30 million last year. Wikipedia suggests it dipped to 20 million five or six years ago. The numbers are all over the place.

507 001 · 25 Jan 2016

Amazing >1000% increase for Liverpool Central and Moorfields, with both handling more passengers in 2015 than Lime Street!

Busaholic · 25 Jan 2016

From what has been said above, the phrase 'lies, damn lies and statistics' comes to mind. Better to get an idea of passenger numbers from areas or particular lines rather than individual stations, surely? I recall a while back one of the Dorking stations was reported to have only been used about 45 times in a year, or some such figure, and when someone went to investigate 14 people got off there from the one train!

crehld · 25 Jan 2016

Busaholic said:
From what has been said above, the phrase 'lies, damn lies and statistics' comes to mind. Better to get an idea of passenger numbers from areas or particular lines rather than individual stations, surely? I recall a while back one of the Dorking stations was reported to have only been used about 45 times in a year, or some such figure, and when someone went to investigate 14 people got off there from the one train!

I've developed a bit of a reputation on this forum for my scepticism on the ORR station usage figures, mainly because I feel it underestimates true usage. Being based on ticket sales it obviously doesn't adequately capture anything which isn't a point-to-point ticket. While some attempt is made to 'infilll' the data, for example from PTEs and making estimates on a very limited range of ranger and rover products, the methodology report is quite open about the fact that those not purchasing a ticket, either because they evade the fare or are not sold a ticket (the two are not the same thing), and people travelling on staff passes are not included whatsoever. This is particularly an issue stations without ticketing facilities and where it is not commonplace for passengers to be sold tickets on board to be particularly underestimated (I reckon Hellifield sees at least 35,000 to 40,000 passengers per year but the stats say only 29,000, and I reckon last year's increase is down to a more concerted effort by on board staff to sell tickets rather than the ORR's speculation of "possibly tourist traffic").

All of this said, I can't see any other feasible way to gather accurate station usage save for counting every person in and out 24/7. So the data is what we've got, but it does need to come with a rather large health warning! Indeed the ORR methodology report makes it explicit that the data underestimates true demand in many places (and indeed overestimates demand where it is advantageous to split tickets).

CapitalStar378 · 25 Jan 2016

There are quite a few stations with 1997 figures that didn't exist then. The Ebbw Vale branch is a good example. Why are there figures in there at all?

DaiGog · 25 Jan 2016

Cherry_Picker said:
What's the story with Kings Cross? I know a lot of these numbers say more about the problems with accurate data collection (in my neck of the woods the estimated usage for Birmingham Moor Street and Snow Hill in the 90s is laughably inaccurate) but Kings Cross was about 40 million in '98, peaked at 50 million and dropped to just over 30 million last year. Wikipedia suggests it dipped to 20 million five or six years ago. The numbers are all over the place.

Could be something to do with the new(ish) ticket gates, or even the relocation of the Thameslink station to St Pancras, given that the data is on entries and exits?

The Ham · 25 Jan 2016

Busaholic said:
From what has been said above, the phrase 'lies, damn lies and statistics' comes to mind. Better to get an idea of passenger numbers from areas or particular lines rather than individual stations, surely? I recall a while back one of the Dorking stations was reported to have only been used about 45 times in a year, or some such figure, and when someone went to investigate 14 people got off there from the one train!

However, even allowing for towns as a whole some places still show some above average figures. Although Farnborough Main isn't amazing at +78%, Farnborough North is +16,735% (a low start point of just less than 4,000), however add them together and you end up with +115% which is still fairly reasonable (when Basingstoke as a comparison has seen +97%).

pitdiver · 25 Jan 2016

ChiefPlanner said:
No offence to the hard work of the user group - but Marston Vale was a dead duck back in the 1990's when I had operational charge of it - a fall in school traffic and an indiffernent off peak usage says it all. Does not really meet the needs of a mobile 21stC user base with better roads and 2 cars or so. School traffic fallen drastically from a requirement once for a 4 car DMU....

St Albans City however , with 107%+ and Flitwick with 97%+ shows where the action is.

I live in Flitwick, no doubt the figs will go up again as some 500 new houses are being built at this time.

Station Usage 1997-2015 interactive graphic

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