Railway station statistics post WW2

[deltic]

Does anyone know where you can find the number of open railways stations on British Rail for each year from 1945 to the 1980s?

 

[coppercapped]

Try the Annual Report and Accounts of the BTC and later the BRB. My copy of the 1967 report shows in the Financial and Statistical Accounts Year 1967 section that at the end of 1967 there were

Stations:
Passenger and freight 447
Passenger 2303
Parcels 19
Freight 729

For the years between 1945 and 1948 I don't have any definite data but I would suggest that the accounts of the Big Four would cover such information and also possibly any statistical returns made to the Ministry of Transport.

 

[deltic]

I take it these are not on line anywhere?

 

[coppercapped]

Only if somebody has scanned them so I'm afraid that I have no idea. The accounts were always published by HMSO so I am sure that the National Archives at Kew would hold copies.

 

[Dr Hoo]

I have seen various tables produced listing the number of 'closures' in many years. These are normally in books and articles about the 'Beeching Report' either purporting to show that what he proposed was 'nothing new' or alternatively that it was a 'massive ramping up'. If you can find one of these and apply it progressively to a known number at the start (e.g. on nationalisation in 1948) you should be able to get a reasonable estimate.

(There is bound to be a degree of argument and error around new openings, mergers, transfers to/from London Transport, 'private' stations, excursion platforms, etc. but hopefully not enough to obscure the general picture.)

 

[S&CLER]

Michael Bonavia's book British Rail: the First 25 Years, p. 228-9, gives summary figures comparing 1948 and 1972. Total stations (inc. freight only) fell from 8294 to 2766 in that period, or by 2/3rds.

 

[deltic]

Michael Bonavia's book British Rail: the First 25 Years, p. 228-9, gives summary figures comparing 1948 and 1972. Total stations (inc. freight only) fell from 8294 to 2766 in that period, or by 2/3rds.

thanks - does it give numbers just for passenger stations

 

[S&CLER]

thanks - does it give numbers just for passenger stations

Yes: On 1.i.48 there were 1886 stations open for passengers & parcels, plus 4815 passenger & freight, plus 1593 freight only.
On 31.xii.1972 there were 2198 passenger & parcels, 182 passenger & freight, and 386 freight only.
BR used to issue annual booklets called BR in Facts and Figures (or something like that). I had one for around 1970 but can't find it . They gave the details you are looking for.

It may be worth noting that the decline in passenger stations was more marked than the decline in some other BR assets; e.g. route miles in 1972 were down by 41% (on 1948), track miles down by 43%, freight vehicles down by 78%, staff down by 64%, flat marshalling yards down by 90%, hump yards by 63%. Over the same period loaded train miles were down by only 11% for passengers, but 55% for freight.

 

[deltic]

Yes: On 1.i.48 there were 1886 stations open for passengers & parcels, plus 4815 passenger & freight, plus 1593 freight only.
On 31.xii.1972 there were 2198 passenger & parcels, 182 passenger & freight, and 386 freight only.
BR used to issue annual booklets called BR in Facts and Figures (or something like that). I had one for around 1970 but can't find it . They gave the details you are looking for.

It may be worth noting that the decline in passenger stations was more marked than the decline in some other BR assets; e.g. route miles in 1972 were down by 41% (on 1948), track miles down by 43%, freight vehicles down by 78%, staff down by 64%, flat marshalling yards down by 90%, hump yards by 63%. Over the same period loaded train miles were down by only 11% for passengers, but 55% for freight.

thanks - very helpful