Trivia: Most and least used parts of light railway networks

[Intercity 225]

Hi,

We've had numerous threads about the most and least used components of the national rail network but we haven't when it comes to light rail.

Please post anything you know that you deem to be relevant, I don't want to hider the thread with restrictions. For guidance though, here's the kind of things that I'm looking for:

Most/least used stations
Busiest/least used sections of track
Most heavily/least used services

And so on...

To clarify, every light rail system in the UK can be posted about.

Go!

 

[DanNCL]

The most used station on the Tyne & Wear Metro is Monument, I think the least used is St Peters, but i'm not 100% certain on that one. The busiest section of track is between South Gosforth and Pelaw, which has a train every 3 minutes in peak hours. The rest of the network has a train every 12 minutes during the day, every 15 minutes during evenings and Sundays. There is an empty stock line between Manors and West Jesmond, which will be the least used section of track (I can only think of one occasion where a train has used that line with passengers on board).

 

[Dr Hoo]

The Herdings Park branch of the South Yorkshire Supertram network seems to have only a half-hourly service most of the time. This has always struck me as being rather low for a 'new build' facility.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

The old BR line through Oldham Werneth must have been one of the shortest lived as an electrified light rail route. Personally I would have retained it to allow occasional trains to bypass the town centre and run express from Manchester to & from Shaw & Crompton & beyond.

 

[Ianno87]

On Manchester Metrolink, Pomona was always the quietest stop on Phases 1 and 2. Built to serve local development that has never really materialised. Potentially will see more life when it becomes an interchange for the Trafford Park Line. Don't know how any of the Phase 3 stops compare.

Quietest part of the system is probably Broadway-Eccles. Suffers from an elongated journey time to the city centre compared to buses. Apparently only built to justify EU funding for part funding of the Salford Quays extension (the rest of the extension is very well used these days)

Busiest section (indeed, the most frequent rail service in the UK per track!) is almost certainly Cornbrook-Deansgate Castlefield - currently 35 trams per hour, becoming 40 through to St Peters Square post Trafford Park Line.

The old BR line through Oldham Werneth must have been one of the shortest lived as an electrified light rail route. Personally I would have retained it to allow occasional trains to bypass the town centre and run express from Manchester to & from Shaw & Crompton & beyond.

Definitely shortest lived (excluding the DLR car demonstration on the Fallowfield Loop as part of Project Light Rail). Next shortest lived is probably the original DLR Island Gardens branch (1987-1999).

Although closure of the direct Oldham route I believe improved the business case through avoiding duplication of infrastructure maintenance (including the tunnels), and frees up the former railway land to be sold off.

 

[Bald Rick]

Busiest section (indeed, the most frequent rail service in the UK per track!) is almost certainly Cornbrook-Deansgate Castlefield - currently 35 trams per hour...

Victoria line, dear boy?

 

[HowardGWR]

Weymouth Tramway is not exactly congested at present.

 

[pdeaves]

Least used track in passenger use could well be the east side of the triangle in/near Sheffield city centre. It only has a couple of services per day (that, on the main line, we would term 'parliamentary' nowadays), effectively as stock positioning moves.

 

[30907]

Sorry, thought you were asking about Light Railways and was about to check out the Colonel Stephens lines....

 

[edwin_m]

Victoria line, dear boy?

Pretty much the same in trains per hour IIRC but obviously the Victoria carries more passengers. If we're talking light rail only, how does Cornbrook compare with the busiest part of the DLR? The centre of Croydon does quite well for tram frequency, Sheffield probably not far behind, but the rest of the UK tram networks don't have enough suburban branches to generate a decent frequency in their city centres.

 

[Ianno87]

Also on Metrolink, Altrincham Platform 2 sees passenger use only rarely. I've only ever done it on the T68 farewell tour in 2014.

On Tramlink, one of the platforms at Beckenham Junction (nearest the NR station) was similarly 'rare' for many years, but now both platforms see regular use.

Victoria line, dear boy?

OK, second...

 

[Bald Rick]

OK, second...

It's not often I catch you out - date duly noted

 

[randyrippley]

does the whole of the Manx Electric Railway count?

 

[Intercity 225]

Thank you for all the responses so far, very interesting reading.

The old BR line through Oldham Werneth must have been one of the shortest lived as an electrified light rail route. Personally I would have retained it to allow occasional trains to bypass the town centre and run express from Manchester to & from Shaw & Crompton & beyond.

I never knew about this, so am I right in thinking that it was converted to Metrolink but then decommissioned? If so, how long did it last for and what was the service pattern?

On Manchester Metrolink, Pomona was always the quietest stop on Phases 1 and 2. Built to serve local development that has never really materialised. Potentially will see more life when it becomes an interchange for the Trafford Park Line. Don't know how any of the Phase 3 stops compare.

Thanks for confirming this, suspected it would be Pomona. It's actually a station I frequent fairly frequently because I'm a Manchester resident and have a keen interest in the Ship Canal and it's former docks. The Metrolink inspectors were once performing a ticket check there when I was disembarking which I found most unusual, especially as I was the only one leaving the tram and there was nobody waiting to board! Will be interesting to see if it's patronage also increases as a result of the new apartments that have been recently constructed. Is there anywhere that reports on Metrolink station usage figures in a similar way to the national network?

Least used track in passenger use could well be the east side of the triangle in/near Sheffield city centre. It only has a couple of services per day (that, on the main line, we would term 'parliamentary' nowadays), effectively as stock positioning moves.

Also never know about this so thank you. Are you referring to the triangle near Ponds Forge?

 

[Intercity 225]

does the whole of the Manx Electric Railway count?

Whilst technically not part of the UK I don't see why not. What do you know regarding the most/least used aspects of it? Or do you mean the entire railway? If so, why?

 

[gnolife]

The most used station on the Tyne & Wear Metro is Monument, I think the least used is St Peters, but i'm not 100% certain on that one. The busiest section of track is between South Gosforth and Pelaw, which has a train every 3 minutes in peak hours. The rest of the network has a train every 12 minutes during the day, every 15 minutes during evenings and Sundays. There is an empty stock line between Manors and West Jesmond, which will be the least used section of track (I can only think of one occasion where a train has used that line with passengers on board).

I'd be quite surprised if St Peters was actually the quietest on the Tyne and Wear metro - it's used by quite a lot of football fans on match days instead of Stadium of Light

 

[Ianno87]

Metrolink station usage statistics sometimes get put out in stuff like the TfGM Committee Papers, which are published on tfgm.com

You want the Rail and Metrolink networks sub-committee, I think.

The direct Oldham Route lasted from the opening of the first stage of the Rochdale route as far as Oldham Mumps (temporary) in July 2012 (Shaw in Dec 2012), until the route through Oldham Town Centre was commissioned (after a week-long switchover) in January 2014.

 

[Ianno87]

Trams were every 12 minutes (to Mumps temporary, then Shaw, then Rochdale Railway station). Originating from St. Werburgh's Rd, later East Didsbury (from summer 2013)

 

[edwin_m]

The direct Oldham Route lasted from the opening of the first stage of the Rochdale route as far as Oldham Mumps (temporary) in July 2012 (Shaw in Dec 2012), until the route through Oldham Town Centre was commissioned (after a week-long switchover) in January 2014.

The section from the temporary Mumps to re-join the former railway at Derker, including a rather dramatic diagonal transit of a major junction on the Oldham Bypass, didn't open until the line was extended to Shaw so had an even shorter service life than the rest of the route. This also included a temporary junction with a single point to allow trams to access the town centre route for testing and training, which was plain-lined and doubled towards the town centre during commissioning. Last time I looked the track across the road junction was still there - looks like a horrendous job to rip it out!

Some of the intermediate turning loops at Blackpool are probably pretty lightly used, if they're still there.

 

[Ianno87]

I recall for a while the Wimbledon-end exit of Therapia Lane depot saw very little use - all scheduled arrivals and departures were to/from central Croydon.

 

[DanNCL]

I'd be quite surprised if St Peters was actually the quietest on the Tyne and Wear metro - it's used by quite a lot of football fans on match days instead of Stadium of Light

Nexus recently published usage figures in response to a Freedom of Info request on what do they know.com. I was surprised myself when I looked through the spreadsheet; I'd expected the quietest station to be somewhere like Bank Foot. This is the page which has the spreadsheet https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/automated_announcements_track_ma_2#incoming-962177

 

[DanTrain]

The Tinsley - Rotherham chord is pretty quiet

 

[pdeaves]

Also never know about this so thank you. Are you referring to the triangle near Ponds Forge?

Yes, that's right.

 

[cuccir]

Nexus recently published usage figures in response to a Freedom of Info request on what do they know.com. I was surprised myself when I looked through the spreadsheet; I'd expected the quietest station to be somewhere like Bank Foot. This is the page which has the spreadsheet https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/automated_announcements_track_ma_2#incoming-962177

St Peter's is surprising; I wonder what the data is based on and if somehow the collection method is missing the high numbers during Stadium of Light events. Pallion is second quietest and that would have been my guess for the quietest.

 

[D365]

The Herdings Park branch of the South Yorkshire Supertram network seems to have only a half-hourly service most of the time. This has always struck me as being rather low for a 'new build' facility.

My impression is it's just a convenient place to put a reversing siding!

 

[edwin_m]

My impression is it's just a convenient place to put a reversing siding!

Along with some other parts of the Supertram route, it was designed to serve areas of high-density housing. But after a prolonged wait for funding and construction of the tram, most of the housing had been demolished in the meantime.

 

[Altfish]

Also on Metrolink, Altrincham Platform 2 sees passenger use only rarely. I've only ever done it on the T68 farewell tour in 2014.

I think it gets used about once a week on a Thursday(?) for an hour or so when they clean/inspect the track on P1

 

[D365]

Speaking of rarely used platforms:

Mudchute P3
Stratford International DLR P2