ORR Rail station usage

[WatcherZero]

Methodological changes.

Tyne and Wear updated demand model used for PTE ticket infill with net effect of reducing number by 0.4m mainly by lower demand predicted for Sunderland station. Validation manual counts were carried out at Sunderland and matched the new model.

Sunderland -334,827 -42%
Newcastle -164,744 -3%
Wylam 5,171 +4.8%
MetroCentre 821 +0.2%
Blaydon 106 +2.1%
Manors 18 +0.4%

Manual counts were carried out at 10 group stations to recalculate station split.

Bedford (unchanged)
Canterbury (tiny change)
Dorking (tiny change)
Edenbridge BR (16.7% more allocated to Edenbridge than Edenbridge Town)
Falkirk (10% higher to Grahamston than High)
Helensburgh (tiny change)
Newark (18.5% more to Newark Castle than North Gate)
Portsmouth (2.2% more to Southsea than Harbour)
Southend (allocation ratio for Central and Victoria were flipped approx. 25% change while 3% more allocated to East)
Wakefield (unchanged)
Worcester (13.4% more to Foregate Street from Shrub Hill)


Southend branch 6 stations with the same price for season ticket to London, currently most are allocated to the most distant station Southend Victoria.

New Methodology/Old Methodology
Southend Victoria London (ALL) 130,944, 1,689,770
Prittlewell London (ALL) 383,195, 56,511
Rayleigh London (ALL) 270,238, 6,997
Rochford London (ALL) 873,041, 173,084
Hockley London (ALL) 275,511, 27,085
Southend Airport London (ALL) 43,995, 23,477
Southend East London (ALL) 372,199, 446,698
Southend Central London (ALL) 152,261, 227,223
Westcliff London (ALL) 274,576, 125,115


Until January 2014 all PAYG tickets sold were allocated to London BR station group, this means that for the last quarter of 2013/14 used the old allocation while 2014/15 used the new allocation and so data for 2013 interchanges isn't reliable and directly comparable. Stations seeing more than a 10% change in entries/exits because of this more accurate allocation of PAYG ticket sales:


Canada Water 1091%
West Ham 184%
Whitechapel 175%
Harrow-On-The-Hill 121%
West Brompton 117%
Blackhorse Road 109%
Shadwell 53%
Seven Sisters 48%
Highbury & Islington 41%
Willesden Junction 36%
Stratford 32%
Greenford 30%
Kentish Town 30%
Ealing Broadway 27%
Queen's Park (Gt London) 24%
Barking 24%
West Hampstead 19%
Shepherds Bush 19%
Balham 17%
Brixton 15%
Limehouse 14%
Vauxhall 12%
Walthamstow Central 12%
Greenwich 12%
Clapham High Street 11%
Wimbledon 11%
Woolwich Arsenal 10%
London Bridge -10%
Liverpool Street -10%
Fenchurch Street -19%
Farringdon -22%
Moorgate -28%
Kensington Olympia -33%


Because of the closure of London Bridge a formula was created to predict how this impacted other stations i.e. stations passengers would have used instead and allocate London Bridge tickets to them.


Avocet Line Rail User Group complained that Digby & Sowton usage should be lower than was recorded in stats, after investigation found that it was likely an anomaly in allocation of FGW student season tickets and a reallocation methodology change has been implemented Digby and Sowton -36%, Exeter Central +11%, Exeter St. David's +3%.

-0.7% change in Greater Manchester due to reduced allocation of PTE journeys made per ticket (implementation of evening peak restrictions).

 

[70014IronDuke]

10 Largest Increases:

1. Energlyn & Churchill Park (15,939 to 69,390) 335% Newly opened Dec 2013
2. Pevensey Bay (6,838 to 25,464) 272%, Tourist activity
3. Manea (3,694 to 10,794) 192% increased services from Jan 2014
4. Prittlewell* (163,802 to 424,804) Up 159% Change in Southend branch methodology
5. Blaydon (5,014 to 11,880) Up 137% timetable improvements
6. Newark Castle* (240,454 to 538,503) Up 124% change in allocation of group stations
7. Melksham (23,930 to 51,858) Up 117% New service introduced in 2013
8. Dalmarnock (100,360 to 217,120) Up 116% station refurbishment and introduction of Sunday services
9. Stewartby (16,012 to 32,330) Up 102% New college opened nearby with progressively increasing intake
10. South Bank (12,544 to 22,860) Up 82% on trend
...

I hear an appeal from the ghosts of the coal staithes at Dunston for 9th ranking, M'lud

2,336 to 4,904 = 110%. (Improved service from Dec 2013 IIRC, like it has trains now ).

Unless you have a minimum starting threshold of 5,000 - but then you'd have to drop Manea.

 

[WatcherZero]

Its the list ORR publish in the notes.

Edit: checked, they have a minimum 10,000 entries/exits qualification for the list.

 

[Gareth Marston]

It's still a 20K (3%) overall net loss for Wrexham.
And all the long distance travel is from General.
The Borders Line stations seem flat so there is no great increase on the line.

i thought all those through trains to Cardiff were what folk in N Wales wanted?

Cambrian is a bit of mix and skewed by the line being closed North of Harlech until September 2014 and the impression the rest of it was. Overall up 6%, Coast was up 10% but Aberystwyth was down 1%, small growth elsewhere on mainline but Upper Severn Valley grew 7% with Welshpool clocking 9%. These stats of course pre date introduction of extra Cambrian trains by 6 weeks. 2015/2016 should be interesting.

 

[dk1]

...SHIPPEA HILL!

The stop had just 22 passengers using it this year. That's still ten more people than last year, when usage plummeted from 50 to just twelve people. That's really quite surprising!

So what do you guys think?

Not really a surprise. Around 10yrs ago there where 2 daily Scoolchildren who travelled to Thetford each morning (collected from Ely on the return) then this fell to 1 as the Sister left school. A couple of years ago the lad left leaving nobody whatsoever apart from a chap who boarded the 19:28 departure to Ely on Saturday. Not seen him for over a year now. The station & service is next to useless.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Is anyone else having trouble opening the .xlsx file?

I just get a prompt giving me the a (less than fantastic) opportunity to purchase / trial a copy of office365.

I'm on Windows 7 and Office XP. Yes they are old but they are legitimate copies. Why pay again.

Pacers are much older but people aren't forced to upgrade every few years!

 

[Kite159]

My local station (Grateley) has gone through the quarter of a million mark

 

[Solent&Wessex]

A couple of stations are missing : Wedgwood, Barlaston and Norton Bridge.

All 3 stations are still open, albeit served by a rail replacement bus service, and you can still sell tickets to them.

Closure by stealth!

 

[bicbasher]

Is anyone else having trouble opening the .xlsx file?

I just get a prompt giving me the a (less than fantastic) opportunity to purchase / trial a copy of office365.

I'm on Windows 7 and Office XP. Yes they are old but they are legitimate copies. Why pay again.

Pacers are much older but people aren't forced to upgrade every few years!

I can't get it to open in Google Sheets.

 

[crehld]

Is anyone else having trouble opening the .xlsx file?

I just get a prompt giving me the a (less than fantastic) opportunity to purchase / trial a copy of office365.

I'm on Windows 7 and Office XP. Yes they are old but they are legitimate copies. Why pay again.

Try this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=3

Pacers are much older but people aren't forced to upgrade every few years!

Tell that to the new Northern franchise holders
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I can't get it to open in Google Sheets.

Google sheets has trouble with large amounts of data. I used to use it to record my journeys but after 500 or so records it just wasn't able to cope and I moved to Excel. Try open office (or any of its derivatives) instead.

 

[Rapidash]

Decent growth across Devon. Would not be surprised to see Exmouth hit a million by 2020, which is not bad going for a single track branch reliant on Pacers.

Exc edging ever closer to toppling Exd for busiest Exeter station too.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Try this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=3

Excellent.

Did the business.

Thanks very much.

 

[hassaanhc]

Increases have continued on the Hounslow Loop. Well done to Chiswick for breaking the 1 million barrier , which leaves only Barnes Bridge below that figure (but it has some way to go still). Very surprised that Kew Bridge overtakes Hounslow to become second, and remains the busiest unstaffed station, with Isleworth, and Syon Lane, coming next in that list. Really looks silly that Chiswick comes below those three yet has a ticket office .

Over on the Greater London stations on the Great Western, Hanwell has dropped by almost 11,000!

 

[onlinespotting]

The UKs busiest and quietest stations revealed http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35105105 - notable is Teesside Airport which has risen to third place
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
What's everyone's view on it?

 

[brad465]

Was looking forward to seeing Waterloo top 100 million, but just a tad off it seems

 

[onlinespotting]

I see a Reddish South is on there but Denton is not, does anyone know what place Denton has?

Also what about Gainsborough Central? Is it now sharing Lea Road's numbers? I'm sure there was only 5 passengers one year

 

[onlinespotting]

A couple of stations are missing : Wedgwood, Barlaston and Norton Bridge.

All 3 stations are still open, albeit served by a rail replacement bus service, and you can still sell tickets to them.

Closure by stealth!

But will people just buy a bus ticket rather than a train ticket?

 

[Solent&Wessex]

But will people just buy a bus ticket rather than a train ticket?

They might well do, but that is beside the point. The stations aren't closed so any tickets issued to or from them from somewhere else should be counted accordingly.

If I buy a ticket from Manchester to Barlaston, how does it get accounted for?

 

[greatkingrat]

Presumably it would be allocated to the station where you change from train to bus (Stone?). It is no different to a Heathrow Bus ticket being allocated to Reading or Woking.

 

[Bletchleyite]

How do they count interchanges? I note in the figures (derived from these) on the LM franchise prospectus they say zero interchanges at Leighton Buzzard - but it is a well known fact among LM commuters that a large number of people *do* change at LBZ going between Bletchley and Euston at certain times of day in both directions because it gives a faster journey and the connection is very reliable for operational reasons.

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

I'm surprised RBS is not on the top ten quietest list

 

[Solent&Wessex]

Presumably it would be allocated to the station where you change from train to bus (Stone?). It is no different to a Heathrow Bus ticket being allocated to Reading or Woking.

It is very different.

Heathrow Bus is an add on to the rail ticket on a service never provided by rail. Heathrow Bus is not a rail station.

Barlaston / Wedgwood / Norton Bridge are passenger railway stations which are still open and have never been closed.

 

[FenMan]

Yay! My local station, Blackwater, has made it over the 500,000 mark at last.

Also nice to see King's Lynn is now close to the 1,000,000 mark and Downham Market is now just under 500,000. The 10-year growth of paying (!) passengers on that stretch of the Fen Line is impressive - 56% and 77% respectively.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Its the list ORR publish in the notes.

Edit: checked, they have a minimum 10,000 entries/exits qualification for the list.

Fair enough.

Away from the "top 10s" - there are some interesting/encouraging ups, along with some puzzling and worrying downs.

Hmmm. Was going to put Mansfield Town and Woodhouse as interesting ups - but I see now that the numbers are only recovering to 2009-10 levels. Why did they drop off so much in between times?

Matlock (and Matlock Bath to a lesser extent) show steady growth year on year - Matlock since 2009/10, 155,500 to 208,000 - must be good news for the line.

Aschurch, which gets a pretty measly service, steadily up to 87,000 (65,000 in 09-10) - not exactly headline grabbing, but I find that quite surprising considering its service.

Are there long-term decline trends on the S&C?

I see Appleby down to 57,000 - was nearly 71,000 in 2010/11, Kirkby Stephen slipping below 30,000, and some of the other wayside stations weakening (no time to go back to the numbers.)

At least Settle seems to be achieving steady growth - up to 148,000 - was 121,000 in 09-10.

Perhaps the most puzzling (at least to me) is Weymouth - down to 756,000, from 816,000 peak in 2012-3. OK, that would be the Olympic year, but it is back to the numbers of around 09-10, rather than the 795,000-ish numbers achieved meanwhile.

 

[terryc]

I see a Reddish South is on there but Denton is not, does anyone know what place Denton has?

Denton is listed
Row 680
1415 120
1314 110 ... 9% uplift

 

[sarahj]

I just dont get these:

Newhaven Town 350,000
Newhaven Harbour: 40,000

No way for every 7-8 punters at Town does one get off at Harbour. It's more 40 to 1. Is it based on ticket sales, as for some reason folks seem to hold more tickets for harbour than go there?

 

[Scotty]

I see a Reddish South is on there but Denton is not, does anyone know what place Denton has?

Also what about Gainsborough Central? Is it now sharing Lea Road's numbers? I'm sure there was only 5 passengers one year

Hasn't there been an increase in usage, to try and get an better service?

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

What were RBS's figures?

 

[TBY-Paul]

What were RBS's figures?

1570 (2015) up from 1418 (2014). Next year will see a big drop, I'm guessing.

 

[Mr Mean]

My local station Mirfield continues to show above average growth (7.45% [approx up 34,000 on last year]). This is despite the awful facilities (glorified bus shelter), subsiding platforms that are partially fenced off, lack of step free access and little parking provision - evening and Sunday services are also poor. It will soon be over 500,000 passengers per annum - potentially as soon as 15-16 is recent growth continues. Is there a general rule where if a station usage is above a certain level then certain facilities have to be provided?