Station Usage Figures for 2011/12

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

They've been released today and are available to download at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1529

I won't have time to download and look at them until later, though I'm sure others on the forum will appreciate the heads-up... 

[John R]

Thanks II.

Continued solid growth in much of the west, although in general it seems a bit lower than in the previous year (eg combined north somerset stations were 6% higher, against 10.9% the previous year). However, this is probably as 10/11 performance represented a bounce back from the general fall seen in 09/10 following the recession, so the growth has now returned to a more normal level.

Over a 7 year period many stations are showing growth of between 50% and 100%, with those where the service has noticeably improved performing best (eg Severn Beach line where Clifton Down is +232% ie over tripled). Conversely, where the service has got worse over that period, there's been a fall, with Melksham down 58% in that period. Up only 3% this year, the period included the successful summer sunday service, so only growing by 300 in a year (ie 150 return journeys) surprised me somewhat.

Of course, these figures are out of date by the time they are published, with the following year just ending. (Why does it take so long to produce them?)  With overall rail use having risen again in the last 12 months, I can confidently predict a further increase this time next year.

[John R]

Note also that there has been an attempt this year to include the effect of St Ives branch ranger tickets, which has seen an additional 297,000 entries and exits at St Ives, though curiously they've attributed around half of these to have the other end of their journey at Carbis Bay, and relatively few at Lelant Saltings, when I'd have guessed the other way around. They may have taken the distribution of non ranger ticket figures to estimate where people using their ranger got on and off - I guess there's a limit to how much research and local knowledge can be done, although having made the effort, you'd have thought they might have asked someone.

Interestingly none of the other rangers (eg Looe Valley line) have been similarly allowed for.   

[DavidBrown]

Don't have Excel so will have to wait until the figures are posted either here or on relevant Wikipedia pages, but reading the report it's interesting to see Lympstone Commando in the top 10 of passenger decreases. Continuing the trend, according to the report, but what would the reason for this 'buck in the trend' station be?

[grahame]

Figures added to some of my graphs and you can see changes by postcode area via URLs such as
http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=BS

Raw data showing comparison of years at
http://www.wellho.net/resources/ex.php?item=h309/railstats.txt

New stations (in 2011-12) not yet added to the tables:
WPE ...  1081332  ... "Wapping"
CAC ...  90976  ... "Caldercruix"
SIA ...  56834  ... "Southend Airport"
ARM ...  126086  ... "Armadale"
BSV ...  91632  ... "Buckshaw Parkway"
WCA^▸ (Wiltshire Climate Alliance) ...  3643542  ... "Whitechapel"
BKR ...  43258  ... "Blackridge"
SQE ...  1801232  ... "Surrey Quays"
FAR ...  4942964  ... "Farringdon"
SMC ...  136  ... "Sampford Courtenay"
CDN ...  467004  ... "Coulsdon Town"
HGG ...  1172578  ... "Haggerston"
SDE ...  1658564  ... "Shadwell"
HOX ...  1042854  ... "Hoxton"
DLJ ...  2276848  ... "Dalston Junction"
CAW ...  4883228  ... "Canada Water"
SDC ...  2617616  ... "Shoreditch High Street"
ROE ...  979092  ... "Rotherhithe"
OKE ...  3526  ... "Okehampton"

[grahame]

Our "page top charts" updated too - look for stations in an area, and for stations with similar passenger numbers.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/smr/SVB.html

Need to be logged in as member to access this portal for anywhere except Melksham.  If you're NOT a member, why not sign up now! - http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?action=register

[Plymboi]

Anyone know what plymouth's figures are. From that massive excel table I got 4 million ha ha that's wrong isn't it.

[grahame]

Anyone know what plymouth's figures are. From that massive excel table I got 4 million ha ha that's wrong isn't it.

3580   PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains)   PL4 6AB   SX 476554   50.3778173616   -4.1433631306   Plymouth   1519011   1629011   1845958   2026852   2249849   2278718   2401082    2596746

Last figure 2011/12 then goes back year by year.

[grahame]

And I note some shining examples of improvements where a decent service is provided:
Dronfield   12502   14882   17548   17710   35372   114552   144228    152792
Parson Street   7231   14293   19172   32511   46670   57374   68840    77722
Severn Beach   29295   37088   38202   54034   74712   88504   113480    141714

And what happens when a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) reduces services:
27446   24426   22001   38081   27656   10028   11046    11330   

[Plymboi]

Anyone know what plymouth's figures are. From that massive excel table I got 4 million ha ha that's wrong isn't it.

3580   PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains)   PL4 6AB   SX 476554   50.3778173616   -4.1433631306   Plymouth   1519011   1629011   1845958   2026852   2249849   2278718   2401082    2596746

Last figure 2011/12 then goes back year by year.

Thanks I don't think that excel document was meant to be viewed on an iPad

Nice increase again Im guessing its increases across the board.

[Electric train]

Maidenhead amazes me how busy it is taking entry / exits and transfers is over 4 million

[Plymboi]

Calstock has seen a decrease for 2nd year running. But all the other tamar valley stations have increased. Dockyard has a large nice increase which I'm surprised at.

[RichardB]

Calstock has seen a decrease for 2nd year running. But all the other tamar valley stations have increased. Dockyard has a large nice increase which I'm surprised at.

As you say, a really good increase at Dockyard.  The other Plymouth stations are good too.

In terms of Calstock and the other rural stations, I wouldn't worry too much.  We have the unusual situation where up to a fifth of the journeys from these stations are made with our Carnet tickets and these don't go through the LENNON^▸ (Latest Earnings Nationally Networked Over-Night ) system on which these figures are based.

The journey figures from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) for the Tamar Valley Line show a 1.3% increase in 2012 over 2011 (calendar years) - that's just over 2,000 journeys to a total of 175,105.  The 2010 figure was 164,448.

These figures include the Carnets, which are added in manually by FGW each four week period, but the people compiling the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) data will be using the raw data. 

[johoare]

Maidenhead amazes me how busy it is taking entry / exits and transfers is over 4 million

I think it shouldn't be a surprise to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) though really.. Although it appears to have been.. Even though passenger numbers have steadily increased since they took over from Thames trains, the trains are just now horribly overcrowded a lot of the time. Investing in some new longer trains at the start would have been sensible and would have helped the overcrowding situation we have now.

[ChrisB]

I seem to recall at the start that the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) refused all / any upgrades to the requirements they laid out in the franchise.

Which if my memory serves, *really* caused immediate problems in the far west....