Announcement of Station usage estimates for 2011-12?

[Markdvdman]

My local station Merthyr Tydfil is up to 452k and ahead of Radyr now. Llanelli is also up over 400k which I frequent.

Treforest is heavily up, and Pontypridd heavily down.

Looking at Ponty though, take out last years figures, and it is on an upward spiral.

It will be interesting to see the figures for Fishguard and Gowerton in the future though!

Some figures can be taken with a pinch of salt though, as I guess this is true for many.

Many times I have asked for a day return from Merthyr Tydfil to Cadoxton, and I get it to Barry or Barry Island instead.

So, without incredible video evidence - in a statistical sense, it has to be variable +/- 3% or so!

 

[MisterWhippy]

Is this not just a symtom of the Overground becoming far more popular now than it was ever imagined? Does the info contain those who use it as an interchange(pink readers)?

I used H&I as an interchange yesterday from the Overground to Underground, the Overground train was packed from Stratford (This was the 13:45) and majority of people that got on, got off at H&I. It was fascinating seeing the thousands of people there on a Friday afternoon.

 

[Gathursty]

How did Altnabreac fare? :P

 

[Philip Elliott]

Re narborough presumably a mistake as there is absolutely nothing to do with West Midlands PTE anywhere at the station...
I would guess that the big increase at narborough is mainly on Sundays as the first train towards BHM is always packed. Why on earth is Leicester down 50 grand.

No it is not a mistake. Narborough is the furthest station for which the "ntrain West Midlands All Zones" ticket is valid. As well used as the station is (I used to commute from there), the usage figure is way above the actual. This is because many Leicester to Birmingham commuters split their season tickets at Narborough resulting in 4 journeys per day (circa 900 per year per person) that don't actually happen.

 

[Gareth Marston]

No it is not a mistake. Narborough is the furthest station for which the "ntrain West Midlands All Zones" ticket is valid. As well used as the station is (I used to commute from there), the usage figure is way above the actual. This is because many Leicester to Birmingham commuters split their season tickets at Narborough resulting in 4 journeys per day (circa 900 per year per person) that don't actually happen.

Yes a good reminder that these are for tickets sold not actual journeys made. I travel to S Wales frequently and split Newtown-Shrewsbury on my Cambrian railcard, then Shrewsbury to Cwmbran and then Cwmbran to final destination.
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Shropshire's stations in order...

1. Shrewsbury 1,730,390
2. Telford Central 1,032,584
3. Wellington 559,684
4. Ludlow 292,860
5. Gobowen 204,768
6. Shifnal 121,998
7. Church Stretton 119,274
8. Whitchurch 108,120
9. Albrighton 104,806
10. Craven Arms 100,364
11. Wem 100,324
12. Cosford 61,378 (station closed for a good period during the year)
13. Oakengates 52,214
14. Knighton 25,094
15. Yorton 9,560
16. Prees 8,670
17. Bucknell 4,486
18. Hopton Heath 1,554
19. Broome 1,472

Big increases for some of the stations on the Shrewsbury-Wolverhampton line.

Hopton Heath storming ahead - up from 680 in 2009/10!

Treyclawdd (Knighton) Rugby Clubs pitch is in Shropshire also as is the station.

 

[HowardGWR]

Bridgnorth can beat some of those!

 

[TheJRB]

How did Altnabreac fare? :P

Up from 172 in 10/11 to 238 in 11/12.

 

[WatcherZero]

Cause of large decrease not clear (possibly related to generic Merseyside issues)

Any idea what this could mean? (Rice Lane)

Generally theres healthy rises in usage nationwide but in Merseyside and a couple of stations just outside the Merseytravel PTE area there was actually a small fall in usage. They dont know why this occured but speculate it may be a new PTE ticket for which Merseytravel were not supplying them with data. They pledge to investigate the discrepancy for next years figures.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Generally theres healthy rises in usage nationwide but in Merseyside and a couple of stations just outside the Merseytravel PTE area there was actually a small fall in usage. They dont know why this occured but speculate it may be a new PTE ticket for which Merseytravel were not supplying them with data. They pledge to investigate the discrepancy for next years figures.

Chester is down 3%, against the trend of most nearby stations. Seems very odd.
Might be the impact of the all-zone Merseyrail "Day Saver" ticket which would not be counted at the far end (Chester races etc).

 

[northwichcat]

Might be the impact of the all-zone Merseyrail "Day Saver" ticket which would not be counted at the far end (Chester races etc).

Would have thought that would that would have increased Chester tickets e.g. instead of buying a Northwich-Birkenhead ticket you might buy a Northwich-Chester ticket and a Merseyrail day ticket so 4 additional entries/exits for Chester should be counted.

There's 2 other factors I can think of:
1. Saveaways moving to standard ticket stock making it easier to count how many each station have issued.
2. Reduction in long distance passengers on Virgin services at a time when local passenger numbers have increased.

 

[swcovas]

For anyone interested:

Cambrian main line +5.4%
Coast Line +1.5%
West Wales main line +5.3%
Pemb Dock Line +7.6%

HOWL seen virtually negligible increase except Sugar Loaf's stunning 35% increase!!!

All this on what was supposed to be a "no growth" franchise!

 

[northwichcat]

HOWL seen virtually negligible increase except Sugar Loaf's stunning 35% increase!!!

Wonder if that's down to better ticket checks for passengers boarding at unstaffed stations or an actual big increase in passengers.

 

[Proud Salopian]

All this on what is a "no investment" franchise!

Corrected for you..
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Wonder if that's down to better ticket checks for passengers boarding at unstaffed stations or an actual big increase in passengers.

Or it could be one or two additional walking parties using the station in the whole year. We're talking 30-40 additional passengers..

 

[swcovas]

Corrected for you..
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Or it could be one or two additional walking parties using the station in the whole year. We're talking 30-40 additional passengers..

Could well be a couple of walking parties.....my comment re 35% inc was tongue in cheek!!! On a serious note I have been on the train a number of times when it has made a stop and quick back of fag packet calculation has made me doubt the authenticity of the published numbers. One of the guards also told me that passengers joining often have tickets to/from other stations, usually Llanwrtyd or Cynghordy or rovers, and are doing a walk returning from Sugar Loaf. I don't know, maybe the true figure is 4-500?

 

[cle]

So beyond the weird accountancy stuff with Liverpool and Birmingham, is Highbury & Islington the big success story of the year?

I'd be keen to see the next lot of figures, with even more Overground growth. Other places like New Cross Gate, Denmark Hill and the core I'd expect to be much busier! Clapham too obviously, but it gets lost with all the other movement there.

 

[telstarbox]

Why doesn't Manchester United FC station appear in the statistics?

 

[WatcherZero]

Why doesn't Manchester United FC station appear in the statistics?

They stopped including it, they consider it a specials stop with no regular service so entries and exits data is meaningless.

 

[sheff'd victoria]

Are we to assume that Brigg, with its Saturdays-only service is excluded from the list? Or did it somehow escape the bottom 10?

Brigg gets about 800+ passgengers a year

 

[LE Greys]

Here's the ECML in graph form, if anyone's interested :P


Station Usage on the ECML by Mikez2605, on Flickr

EDIT: Changed the graph slightly to show the stations regularly served by East Coast in a different colour

Thanks for that. So Stevenage and Peterborough both get higher use than Doncaster and are mighty close to York. That's interesting. Finsbury Park is a convenient point to reach the Victoria and Piccadilly Lines (assuming this ignores people changing to the GN&C). Proves what I always say about the suburban belt, I just wish we had a breakdown of how many from Stevenage and Peterborough are heading north rather than south.