Which stations has the lowest passenger numbers ?

[The Planner]

Polesworth considering you can only get to one platform.

 

[paul1609]

Stations in PTE areas also get poorly represented by these figures, particularly if a lot of passengers use zonal travelcards. Sadly I suspect that in some cases they are used as an excuse to offer inadequate services.

Out of the top ten, Dorking West is in a group with Deepdene and Central whilst Doleham has suffered from an almost parliamentary service after having most of it's trains withdrawn for the introduction of the Ashford - Brighton fast service.

To be honest though Dorking West does see very few passengers its very poorly situated behind an industrial estate on the edge of the town. Its man use is on Saturdays by Ramblers and Birdwatchers going to Ranmore common on the North Downs.

Despite being a fairly regular user of the Marshlink line going back to Thumper days I can only remember 2 passengers getting on at Doleham both cyclists. Doleham is named after the nearby farm and to be honest there is nothing else there. It was a failure right from the start originally being built as Guestling station. Guestling is about 2 miles away on the main A259 trunk road and has a half hour bus service to Hastings and Rye.
There is much nashing of teeth by rail enthusiasts about the poor service the marshlink stations receive but locals actually much prefer the fast service to Brighton. The main problem is that the services are 2 car class 171s which are now becoming badly overcrowded between Eastbourne and Brighton.

 

[yorksrob]

Well yes, I honestly couldn't disagree with you there, though If Dorking West had all of it's passengers properly accounted for, and Doleham had a useable train service, I doubt very much that they'd be in the top (or bottom) ten of the whole network. (I'm sure I can remember the odd passenger at Doleham - albeit very rare)

With regard to the through Ashford - Brighton service, whilst this has undoubtedly led to a rennaissance of the Ashford - Hastings route, I seem to remember that out of the three downgraded stations on the line, Three Oaks almost always seemed to get a smattering of passengers in Thumper days, so maybe that one at least is due a few extra stops.

 

[John @ home]

I did not suggest that Water Orton was on the WCML at all.

Agreed.

I think you have quoted me out of context

See this post for the context.

John

 

[Phoenix]

Polesworth considering you can only get to one platform.

Im sure one yeah it was quoted to have 0.5 people on average use it per day cause at least one passenger used it for a single on way trip.

 

[Drsatan]

Mottisfont & Dunbridge station on the Wessex Main Line is hardly used, even though it has an hourly service to Salisbury and Southampton provided by SWT's 158s. Only on a few occasions have I seen someone get on/off at Mottisfont & Dunbridge

 

[Fincra5]

Not sure if it's actually been closed yet but I think Newhaven Marine was in that category for some time.

Newhaven marine is a "open-closed" station. A train runs from there to lewes, stopping nowhere, but passengers cant get on at newhaven marine or get off.

 

[Geezertronic]

Agreed.See this post for the context.

John

I think you and the poster of that reply are getting confused. See this post for my original post

 

[darkpowers]

Yes, the trouble with these statistics is when they are used by who don;t understand the limitations of the data, such as dft civil servants, the press etc. AFAIK the statistics make no refernece to whether the station is part of a group as with Helensburgh), or have a derisory service like one train a week or two a day. There was also some discussion on the West Country branches, where, on the St Ives line at least, there are no local point to point single/day return tickets available, which has depressed the numbers. As such, I think these statistics need to be read with caution as they often fail to indicate how much a station is actually ued.

I agree. Llanhilleth is my local station, and whenever I've caught a train from there the tickets are usually marked as being brought at Ebbw Vale Parkway, and by my observation, Llanhilleth is better used than the stats suggest.

 

[466.networkers]

Swale must be on the list somewhere, yes, it gets 2 tph to Sheerness/Sittingbourne (until late evening when it goes to 1tph in either direction) but passenger numbers are almost 0.

 

[Voyager 2093]

Sudbury & Harrow Road on the Chiltern Mainline?

 

[scrapy]

Official figures also show some stations to be better used than the are. Examples are Strines, Middlewood and Glazebrook boundary stations on the edge of the Greater Manchester ticketing area (all with approx 1 train every 2 hours). Passengers using rail rangers, free passes and traincards (not Strines) buy tickets from these stations to destinations such as Buxton and Warrington, but only a few passengers board and alight at these stations.

 

[furryfeet]

Rather than just guessing, I've had a look at the official Network Rail statistics. :roll:

07/08 Exits & Entries

Crosskeys 8
Llanhilleth 10
Helensburgh Upper 47
Reddish South 47
Dorking West 52
Tees-Side Airport 52
Denton 53
Coombe Halt 54
Doleham 56
Buckenham 97
Barry Links 98
Sugar Loaf 111

so where does Norton Bridge fit into this ?
No trains stop there at all, so is the replacement bus service popular ?

 

[tbtc]

Rather than just guessing, I've had a look at the official Network Rail statistics. :roll:

07/08 Exits & Entries

Barry Links 98

That's surprising that a station with a peak hour daily service (albeit one for peak hour in Edinburgh more than peak hour in Dundee) only gets about two passengers a week - most of the others are places with one train a week.

Any station that has less than one person getting on/ off per "stop" is a bit strange, to me

 

[Mojo]

Swale must be on the list somewhere, yes, it gets 2 tph to Sheerness/Sittingbourne (until late evening when it goes to 1tph in either direction) but passenger numbers are almost 0.

That's quite an interesting thing you have raised there, having just checked the official figures (which are likely to be almost spot on for Swale station), I wonder if it could have the most amount of trains compared to the number of passengers that use the station.

 

[466.networkers]

That's quite an interesting thing you have raised there, having just checked the official figures (which are likely to be almost spot on for Swale station), I wonder if it could have the most amount of trains compared to the number of passengers that use the station.

I travel on the 0721 Sheerness - Sittingbourne and the 1707 Sittingbourne - Sheerness every weekday, and nobody gets on either of those trains. So I think Swale is the least used station with the most amount of tph.

 

[Kneedown]

Time to shove my pennorth in!

Peartree, just south of Derby, and Havenhouse, just before Skegness. There are a few other stations in Lincolnshire that would never have any passengers if it wasn't for the Schoolkids in the morning and evening.

 

[Edvid]

Sudbury & Harrow Road on the Chiltern Mainline?

Going slightly OT - here's a 5-month article on the.....err......crap side of that very station. hock:

 

[Capybara]

I happened to be using the one train per week (as it was then) that stopped at Tees-side Airport a few years ago and was surprised when about six passengers, in three separate groups, were waiting to get on. Given that the reason I was travelling was for an early kick-off football match and the train was packed, they very nearly were unable to get on! It is also likely that their journeys were unrecorded as on packed trains like that the ticket collectors rarely make it through the whole of the train to check tickets. Interestingly, not long after that, Northern installed new station name boards and timetables on the notice boards.