Apr 2023–Mar 2024 station / flow statistics

[sjoh]

Kildonan​	240​
Elton and Orston​	212​
Clifton (Manchester)​	202​
Chapelton (Devon)​	186​
Coombe Junction Halt​	140​
Reddish South​	128​
Polesworth​	118​
Ince and Elton (Cheshire)​	86​
Shippea Hill​	70​
Denton​	54​

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Nov 2024 ==


Overall passenger numbers (2.85bn) are where they were about 10 years ago.

The Elizabeth line is so hugely noticeable on this, as is London & SE.

n

• Maryland is busier than Birmigham International (I find this especially dubious as apparently Stratford is the main destination/origin pair which is a 10 minute walk away!)
• Ealing Broadway is busier than Marylebone

Part of me thinks these numbers are slightly elevated but still it empahsises the passenger number impact on the line / the not as strong passenger recovery elsewhere. As always the ORR calls it "Estimates of station usage"

I'm not 100% sure of this, but my understanding here is that whilst TfL treat taps on the pink transfer readers as a continuation of journey, NR treats them as a start/end of a new journey for statistical purposes, which could explain these two and similar others. I.e in the raw data provided to NR from TfL, the log indicates it as a transfer onto the TfL system rather than a continuous journey from a non-TfL contact point. Essentially the data validity is a victim of the changes to contactless/oyster payment thresholds in the Zones. If that makes any sense whatsoever? I think I've confused myself here!

 

[NSEWonderer]

Is Liverpool St and Tottenham still adding those tapping in/ putting tickets in for the tube in their NR statistic?

 

[Acfb]

Every station on the Harrogate line (including York and Leeds) had an increase in numbers, as did Bentley (SY), Oxenholme and Penrith

Reston (increase) and East Linton had quite similar numbers despite East Linton only being open for 3 months

That’s what I’ve seen so far

East Linton is not too bad given the irregular service. It could be getting around 70,000 for the whole year which is not too far off Kintore's last year numbers. Interestingly Drem's numbers have more or less held up and Dunbar and North Berwick have gone up significantly again so it's good that East Linton appears to be 'new' rail usage and not just abstracting from those stations.

 

[Western Sunset]

I think the Elizabeth Line skews much of the central London info, fuzzing the distinction between underground (in its widest sense) and National Rail.

 

[Horizon22]

I'm not 100% sure of this, but my understanding here is that whilst TfL treat taps on the pink transfer readers as a continuation of journey, NR treats them as a start/end of a new journey for statistical purposes, which could explain these two and similar others. I.e in the raw data provided to NR from TfL, the log indicates it as a transfer onto the TfL system rather than a continuous journey from a non-TfL contact point. Essentially the data validity is a victim of the changes to contactless/oyster payment thresholds in the Zones. If that makes any sense whatsoever? I think I've confused myself here!

Don’t think there’s any pink readers on the Elizabeth line. But yes new “taps” of journeys already ongoing which TfL might count as an interchange might instead be seen as an entry/exit.

That being said around London there are plenty of TOCs with oyster usage for some time so I don’t see this as being unique.

 

[J-2739]

This is so exciting for me! This is like Christmas before Christmas! I need to thoroughly digest this information when I get home!

 

[Old Yard Dog]

The figures for Ince & Elton are hardly surprising. There are only two trains per day each way (M-Sa) between Ellesmere Port and Helsby. One is at 0633 and the other at 1906 with the incoming services a little before. In the last 100 days, 35% of morning trains and 62% of evening trains have been cancelled.

 

[A S Leib]

Given that Newcastle's now only ~40,000 behind York, I wouldn't be surprised if it overtakes York next year or the year after if the Northumberland line, restoration of the second Manchester service and a third London service all come in (although of course York benefits from two of those as well).

 

[Kite159]

Maryland is busier than Birmigham International (I find this especially dubious as apparently Stratford is the main destination/origin pair which is a 10 minute walk away!)

Probably the cheapest ticket to bypass the gateline at Stratford for those customers whom think payment is optional and are heading to Stratford.

 

[ainsworth74]

Now wondering about the two season-ticket holders at Berney Arms...

I reckon that must be someone(s) trying to boost the numbers.

 

[cle]

Quite. Nevertheless I’m sure that the usual suspects who love to play at MML re-timetabling will continue their comments that the station is ‘over served’, ‘should be transferred to Thameslink’ (with 25’ extension of journey time), ‘should be diverted onto the Slow Lines north of Bedford/Sharnbrook’, ‘only be served by a shuttle from Kettering’ and so on.

This is a very good touché for the Corby discussion - of which I have been a part. So I'm glad to see growth. One point I would make - those Slow lines should be much less slow, and should have these services on them, ideally!

TfL track the wifi on peoples' phones, so they have a pretty good idea

Do they pass this to ORR for this exercise? Isn't this only for the wifi users?

 

[AMD]

Southport and Edge Hill routes are both interesting as they are showing up the short farers - yes there is a reasonable flow between Lime St & Edge Hill, in that a good few dozen people do this every day; however Southport to Birkdale looks notably suspect as those numbers suggest over 1300 journeys every day, which I can tell you from what I have seen is definately not the case.

 

[Peter0124]

I also think Argyle Street's busiest stop being Bridgeton seems a bit odd, it was Rutherglen last year IIRC. Possible short faring there too?

 

[cle]

Does anyone have this as an excel? I couldn't use the new file types...

 

[JW4]

Does anyone have this as an excel? I couldn't use the new file types...

Yeah

 

[stuu]

Do they pass this to ORR for this exercise? Isn't this only for the wifi users?

Not sure, the methodology report should mentioned it. Anyone who has WiFi on their phone turned on will ping the routers en route even if they don't deliberately connect to it. So at a guess they get at least half of all travellers, and probably a lot more

 

[JW4]

Does anyone have this as an excel? I couldn't use the new file types...

 

[A S Leib]

I've got the CSV file open but not the ODS one; does the ODS one show the year-on-year change?

 

[DDB]

As an example of "if you provide it, they will use it" Spondon which has gone from a handful of peak time only services a day to an almost clockface of hourly in the peaks and once every two hours off-peak has seen a rise from 8,536 to 24,486!

 

[philosopher]

Is Liverpool St and Tottenham still adding those tapping in/ putting tickets in for the tube in their NR statistic?

How do they know whether these passengers are using the Elizabeth Line or Central Line? Are they assuming all these passengers use the Elizabeth Line as that is the quickest, or do they make an estimate of the split between the Elizabeth Line and Central Line.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

What the hell is up with that CSV file?

Charlbury,"58,792","199,116","17,618","275,526","1,155",0,London Paddington,"148,370",[z],[z],[z],[z],3004,CBY,South East,Great Western Railway,[z]

Free clue to whoever works the spreadsheets at ORR: numbers are numbers, not strings, so don't output the data with the thousand separators left in...

 

[markymark2000]

Southport and Edge Hill routes are both interesting as they are showing up the short farers - yes there is a reasonable flow between Lime St & Edge Hill, in that a good few dozen people do this every day; however Southport to Birkdale looks notably suspect as those numbers suggest over 1300 journeys every day, which I can tell you from what I have seen is definately not the case.

Bache feels the same. 98,262 journeys between Bache and Chester. Means at least 270 people are making that journey each day. Figure seems to be quite high compared to reality.

 

[NSEWonderer]

How do they know whether these passengers are using the Elizabeth Line or Central Line? Are they assuming all these passengers use the Elizabeth Line as that is the quickest, or do they make an estimate of the split between the Elizabeth Line and Central Line.

That's what has me confused. The Elizabeth line gateline coming directly from Liverpool Street NR has passengers using it for 4 different tube lines in addition to the Elizabeth Line. Tottenham Court road also has 2 tube lines accessed thru same gateline ontop ofnthe Elizabeth Line.

 

[Horizon22]

That's what has me confused. The Elizabeth line gateline coming directly from Liverpool Street NR has passengers using it for 4 different tube lines in addition to the Elizabeth Line. Tottenham Court road also has 2 tube lines accessed thru same gateline ontop ofnthe Elizabeth Line.

For those using contactless & oyster there will also be an end destination and therefore certain journeys can be discounted.

Otherwise they will make some educated assumptions that X% of passengers are taking the Elizabeth line versus the central line probably based on passenger data and monitoring.

Obviously it’s going to be an estimate but that’s all the ORR technically claims these figures are!

 

[hwl]

For those using contactless & oyster there will also be an end destination and therefore certain journeys can be discounted.

Otherwise they will make some educated assumptions that X% of passengers are taking the Elizabeth line versus the central line probably based on passenger data and monitoring.

Obviously it’s going to be an estimate but that’s all the ORR technically claims these figures are!

And ORR have a lot more faith in data from TfL compared to DfT's as it can be sense checked much better with Origin-Destination analysis and hasn't had DfT's crude 13/18/23year old attempt at crude data smoothing already applied to it.

With Project Oval expansionn it will be very hard to tell the difference between genuine growth and better passenger numbers.

 

[Farigiraf]

Some countries/counties' least used station has changed. These being:

Country/County	Previously	Now	Notes
Kent	Snowdown, was also Kemsing the year before	Swale	Swale was least used every year until 2021/22
Shropshire	Broome	Hopton Heath	These two halts on the Heart of Wales tend to swap around each year. This year it was only a matter of 8 passengers!
Durham	Teesside Airport / Redcar British Steel	Heighington	Teesside Airport and Redcar British Steel are now de facto closed
Wales	Sugar Loaf	Roman Bridge	Sugar Loaf has some amount of tourists and hikers. Roman Bridge is in an unpopulated valley off a main road.
Scotland	Scotscalder	Kildonan	Will most likely be Altnabreac next year if things don't progress
Buckinghamshire	Little Kimble	Fenny Stratford	Only if you count Milton Keynes as part of Buckinghamshire. This is the first time Little Kimble's been overthown since the last round of station closures many years ago. Shows the stability (if nothing else) of Chiltern, while the Marston Vale Line deteriorates further.

 

[ainsworth74]

Durham

Teesside Airport / Redcar British Steel

Heighington

Teesside Airport and Redcar British Steel are now de facto closed

Redcar British Steel isn't in Durham! It's in Teesside (and if you want to be historic, North Yorkshire).

 

[BankQuayLowLvl]

Don’t think there’s any pink readers on the Elizabeth line. But yes new “taps” of journeys already ongoing which TfL might count as an interchange might instead be seen as an entry/exit.

There are pink readers at Whitechapel on the Overground platforms. Not sure if there are any on the District/H&C - and also not sure if the methodology would count an Overground-Elizabeth Line journey as 1 or 2 journeys.

More generally, there must be some serious guesswork involved in these stats. Yesterday I had the option of Jubilee + Northern or Overground + Elizabeth Line from Canada Water to Tottenham Court Road; J+N was marginally quicker according to Citymapper but O+EL is obviously a nicer journey. No need to tap pink readers as fare is the same both routes. Getting reliable numbers for how many passengers are likely to choose a particular route (for that and many other similar journeys) must be nigh-on impossible.

 

[Peterthegreat]

Redcar British Steel isn't in Durham! It's in Teesside (and if you want to be historic, North Yorkshire).

Surely if you want to be historic it should be the North Riding.

 

[cle]

I can't get the spreadsheet to open properly. A shared Google 'Sheet' would be better.... if anyone works that way!

Also very interested in the YoY changes... more so than the Crossrail boom.