Busiest unstaffed station?

[MidnightFlyer]

Either by way of trains calling per hour, or, more preferably, by number of passengers per year.

I think I worked this out a while ago, and Filton Abbey Wood seems to ring a bell passenger-wise, with 598,032 passengers last year. However, does anybody know for sure?

Cheers

 

[cuccir]

Well your figure for Filton Abbey Wood is correct. Don't know the area but according to national railway enquiries it is staffed.

Supplementary question:
What's the quietest staffed station?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Supplementary question:
What's the quietest staffed station?

By number of trains - Mallaig / Kyle / Wick (all 4tpd)
By number of passengers - Carstairs (staffed 42 hours a week, 14,000 passengers last year)

 

[Ivo]

FIT is staffed 1615 - 1915 Mon-Fri (presumably for MoD traffic; source: FGW Network TT).

The obvious example would be Cardiff Bay (685,608, 09/10). Needless to say however, it has an unfair advantage given the route it is on! Having said that, it doesn't even have a ticket machine, unless something has changed in the last nine months.

 

[Sun!]

Still no ticket machine, though with only one carriage the guard must get through the train most of the time, plus most people will get off at Queen Street and the cheapest ticket you can buy at the station in from the Bay before you go through the barriers.
The route does get very busy at peak times.

 

[richw]

The falmouth truro branch I read sees nearly a million passengers a year without any ticketing facilities. If you discount that very few join at perranwell, most come from 3 stations!

 

[p123]

By number of passengers - Carstairs (staffed 42 hours a week, 14,000 passengers last year)

Wow! I always wondered when passing through Carstairs why there was a ticket office there?

It's not really staffed all the time, is it? Why... but... why?

 

[Mojo]

FIT is staffed 1615 - 1915 Mon-Fri (presumably for MoD traffic; source: FGW Network TT).

This, and the time quoted on the National Rail website has been incorrect ever since the TVM was installed there several years ago.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The falmouth truro branch I read sees nearly a million passengers a year without any ticketing facilities. If you discount that very few join at perranwell, most come from 3 stations!

The conductor seemed quite busy issuing tickets when we were there end-July to mid August(staying in a hotel very near to Falmouth Docks station). I remember the London Midland liveried Class 153 being on this line.

 

[EltonRoad]

Supplementary question: What's the quietest staffed station?

By number of trains - Mallaig / Kyle / Wick (all 4tpd)
By number of passengers - Carstairs (staffed 42 hours a week, 14,000 passengers last year)

Oban has 3 tpd (excluding summer Saturdays).

 

[Mojo]

Is there an operational reason for the staffing of Carstairs, such as train dispatch, or responding to incidents in the vicinity of the station?

 

[richw]

I remember the London Midland liveried Class 153 being on this line.

strangely their is a london midland liveried train on today!

 

[142094]

MetroCentre is also one of the busier stations without staff - usage figure is probably lower due to the fact some trains are so busy the conductor can't get down.

 

[scotsman]

Is there an operational reason for the staffing of Carstairs, such as train dispatch, or responding to incidents in the vicinity of the station?

Neither - it's a busy alternative to Lanark

 

[HH]

Plenty of Scottish stations are staffed far higher than their English equivalents would be. Partly it's due to TS seeing ScotRail as a service, and partly (I suspect) it's because they are creating jobs.

The Franchise specified a lot of staffing, far beyond what is necessary for operational reasons.

 

[bAzTNM]

I'll put in a vote for Bellgrove in Glasgow. That always seems busy. According to Mother, the station was staffed about twenty years ago.

 

[Mojo]

Steeton/Silsden station has around 650,000 p/a and is unstaffed. It has been reported here in the past that the usage stats are likely to be higher than actual usage due to being on the PTE boundary with customers splitting tickets.

 

[The Sleeper]

The stats on station usage are a myth as they are based on Lennon data, so where do rover/ranger tickets/ zone tickets get allocated to..HQ issues of course! Doh:-[ FGW got its it's act together when they allocated their carnet tickets to the branch terminus they were issued on which is a good move showing the branch making more dosh than was thought of. The revenue from Railcards is also allocated to TOC HQ's; I think unless anyone knows different?

 

[michael769]

Plenty of Scottish stations are staffed far higher than their English equivalents would be. Partly it's due to TS seeing ScotRail as a service, and partly (I suspect) it's because they are creating jobs.

The Franchise specified a lot of staffing, far beyond what is necessary for operational reasons.

I agree. trying to get a reduction in staffing past TS would be very difficult indeed.

I think it is also part of TS's aim to make the railways more attractive to encourage modal shift away from cars.

 

[Crossover]

Not the busiest by far but a couple I remember looking at (in a debate about the staffing of Rugeley Trent Valley :roll was Batley which last year recorded 242,000 passengers and gets 4tph (2 each way) and Morley which last year has 270,722 passengers and has the same service pretty much as Batley.

On the same line, Mirfield also last year got 281,000 passengers and gets 4tph (with the potential for another occasional train if GC start stopping there rather than just passing through)

 

[Urban Gateline]

Wakefield Kirkgate - 484,000 passengers last year, Unstaffed...need I say more?

 

[HH]

The stats on station usage are a myth as they are based on Lennon data, so where do rover/ranger tickets/ zone tickets get allocated to..HQ issues of course! Doh:-[ FGW got its it's act together when they allocated their carnet tickets to the branch terminus they were issued on which is a good move showing the branch making more dosh than was thought of. The revenue from Railcards is also allocated to TOC HQ's; I think unless anyone knows different?

Railcards don't get allocated anywhere - they're treated entirely separately. Tickets bought with Railcards are allocated like normal. I guess everyone thought that the effort and expense to allocate them wasn't worth it. It's very small beer compared to overall sales.

For resource allocation you look at where tickets are sold and footfall anyway, not income allocation. Of course if TOCs regain the right to determine the SLC, then things may change.

 

[The Sleeper]

Railcards don't get allocated anywhere - they're treated entirely separately. Tickets bought with Railcards are allocated like normal. I guess everyone thought that the effort and expense to allocate them wasn't worth it. It's very small beer compared to overall sales.

For resource allocation you look at where tickets are sold and footfall anyway, not income allocation. Of course if TOCs regain the right to determine the SLC, then things may change.

Many of the branch line customers are sold tickets from Advantix machines based at the nearest mainline station - so do tickets issued on these get allocated to station of origin or the mainline station? Also many fares are cheaper than from the station of origin which may not have off peak day returns only std day returns so it is cheaper to buy a ticket from where there is an OPDR from rather than pay for a more expensive SDR -another issue that the TOC's don't wish to look at as it would lead to revenue extraction by offering all stations OPDR

 

[martinsh]

Of course if TOCs regain the right to determine the SLC, then things may change.

Sorry to be thick, but what does SLC mean ?

 

[Deerfold]

Steeton/Silsden station has around 650,000 p/a and is unstaffed. It has been reported here in the past that the usage stats are likely to be higher than actual usage due to being on the PTE boundary with customers splitting tickets.

Usage is very high - I'm not sure so much is down to splitting - most services to/from North of Skipton don't stop there. A lot of people drive there as not only do they save half the fare to Leeds but also the £5 a day parking fee. Steeton & Silsden has the largest car park for an unstaffed station I've ever seen and still has problems with pople parking elsewhere.

Saltaire station has 586,000 p/a without being on a boarder. Saltaire and Steeton both have 8+ trains per hour for most of the day Mon - Sat, 3p2h on Sundays. West Yorkshire has a lot of unstaffed stations with over a quarter of a million users. Many don't even have ticket machines.

Todmorden is staffed for most of the day but only sees 416,000 p/a as is Hebden Bridge with 582,000.

I suspect the reasons behind where is staffed are mostly historical. As far as I know no stations opened or reopened since the 80s in West Yorkshire has been staffed.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Prestwick Airport must be pretty high on the list.

 

[The Sleeper]

Sorry to be thick, but what does SLC mean ?

Service Level Commitment as contained in the Franchise Agreement. However, a little known cop out clause is contained in Community Rail designated Lines (those which have a Designated Community Rail Partnership -CRP -such as my Tarka Line) whereby the SLC can be changed in agreement with the CRP; the TOC and the DfT.

 

[exile]

Queenstown Road Battersea with about 1,000,000 passengers a year.

 

[Zoe]

Plenty of Scottish stations are staffed far higher than their English equivalents would be. Partly it's due to TS seeing ScotRail as a service, and partly (I suspect) it's because they are creating jobs.

The Franchise specified a lot of staffing, far beyond what is necessary for operational reasons.

Both of the Livingstons though are unstaffed which is surpising considering how large the town is that they serve.

 

[Urban Gateline]

Queenstown Road Battersea with about 1,000,000 passengers a year.

Technically QRB is staffed, the Gateline is in operation from 6:30-9:30am and sometimes from 4pm to 7pm too, so at least one Gateline staff will be there, if not also an RPI too!