Station Usage Figures for 2011/12

[whole diary]

[swrural]

I read in several of the news mediums that the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) counts have been totally discredited.  I am sorry, I cannot remember the sources but better beware it seems.

[grahame]

I read in several of the news mediums that the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) counts have been totally discredited.  I am sorry, I cannot remember the sources but better beware it seems.

They must be read with caution and caveats, and local knowledge 

[Chris from Nailsea]

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.

Thanks for that informed information posted here, RichardB. 

We see similar apparent anomalies on the Severn Beach Line, where local ticketing realities have to be factored in to any such 'passenger counts'.

[bobm]

I read in several of the news mediums that the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) counts have been totally discredited.  I am sorry, I cannot remember the sources but better beware it seems.

They must be read with caution and caveats, and local knowledge 

Indeed.  I went to Okehampton last year but on a Freedom of the South West Rover so I assume I am not counted as one of the 3,526 who passed through the station.  If I had stopped off at Sampford Courtenay my rover meant I could not make a useful boost to its figure. Nor indeed will I appear in any of the figures for the nurmerous trips I made on the Devon & Cornwall branches using rovers.

[John R]

Following on from Grahame's comments, another interesting example of where an improved service brings more traffic is on the Far North Line. The first 7 stations (Beauly to Tain) have seen aggregate entries and exits increase from 117,000 to 332,000 over the seven year period as service improvements have made travel into Inverness a realistic alternative to the car.

Mind you, that total is still less than for one medium-ish station in this area (eg Nailsea), so I'm sure a debate could be had over the ongoing cost of providing the service improvement and the benefit that it brings to the area. Last month another station opened at Conon Bridge, which is likely to provide some further upward momentum to the aggregate figures.

[IndustryInsider]

Here's my usual spreadsheet for the usage figures for all of the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) stations, and a comparison of the usage figures over the previous three years.  This time I've added a few selected non-FGW operated stations which either have FGW trains stopping at them, or are on the fringes of our network, or are just interesting places (such as the recently opened Aylesbury Vale Parkway).

Firstly listed in alphabetical order.

[IndustryInsider]

And then listed in order of the percentage increase from last year.  The known issue with the St. Ives line means you can disregard those figures as a comparison, and we all know that some others are a little dodgy (Tackley for example) but there are some other interesting gains, such as the continued success of Bicester Town.  In total 183 stations saw their usage increase (according to the data) and just 26 saw a decrease.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Many thanks for your work in preparing those posts, IndustryInsider! 

Indeed, Lympstone Commando, just for example, does seem to be an interesting individual case: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=12252.0

[grahame]

I love playing with figures ....

Passenger growth by station operator (percentage, year to March 2011, year to 2012):

 112.72 68070475 76727936 "london midland trains"
 107.82 149781128 161490108 "national express east anglia"
 106.09 118666068 125888884 "first scotrail"
 109.15 106573058 116328320 "northern rail"
 102.49 1627348 1667834 "south west trains (island line)"
 107.53 191026233 205418462 "southern"
 110.96 33586328 37267690 "chiltern railways"
  95.49 75519049 72112632 "merseyrail"
 102.86 38374508 39472600 "east midlands trains"
  77.94 432334 336982 "glasgow prestwick airport"
 104.13 32308884 33643264 "east coast"
 105.22 253096633 266306990 "south west trains"
 157.52 51563890 81225196 "london overground"
 103.90 21470589 22308272 "first transpennine express"
 115.07 25882993 29783456 "london underground"
 103.07 37382672 38528568 "virgin trains (west coast)"
 106.44 120066730 127795492 "first capital connect"
 102.62 175640492 180237504 "southeastern"
 102.35 53647288 54906734 "arriva trains wales"
 107.10 112344542 120318740 "first great western"
 104.51 601917586 629047816 "network rail"
 107.54 44534718 47890560 "c2c"

And by the nuts2 Spatial area (whatever that is!):

 102.39 49977364 51170394 "hampshire and isle of wight"
 103.09 26498790 27316820 "east wales"
 105.27 74789020 78728704 "berkshire, buckinghamshire and oxfordshire"
 104.07 4469948 4651958 "highlands and islands"
 102.32 8926140 9133172 "tees valley and durham"
 108.92 760559871 828424122 "inner london"
 108.78 44060634 47931182 "eastern scotland"
 105.40 13420824 14145780 "shropshire and staffordshire"
 107.94 63675866 68729378 "greater manchester"
 104.25 16272145 16963018 "cheshire"
 101.84 19445580 19804282 "west wales and the valleys"
 104.99 32776012 34410406 "east anglia"
  99.61 6133492 6109552 "cumbria"
 102.64 61580672 63205592 "kent"
 118.46 75320926 89224454 "west midlands"
 102.27 10485842 10724308 "dorset and somerset"
 104.84 70209155 73606708 "bedfordshire and hertforshire"
 106.30 34106754 36256644 "gloucestershire, wiltshire and north somerset"
 107.17 308778380 330912436 "outer london"
 104.69 155180581 162461518 "surrey, east & west sussex"
 108.75 4641314 5047596 "north eastern scotland"
 103.57 15987456 16558960 "lancashire"
 106.31 111168755 118182576 "south western scotland"
 109.08 15404456 16802502 "herefordshire, worcestershire and warwickshire"
 103.66 19363990 20072896 "derbyshire and nottinghamshire"
 102.55 60886855 62437498 "west yorkshire"
 104.20 18910926 19706058 "south yorkshire"
 108.74 13628096 14819516 "devon"
 121.36 5066746 6149060 "cornwall and isles of scilly"
 102.76 10575170 10866722 "northumberland and tyne and wear"
 101.69 13365932 13592130 "leicestershire, rutland and northamptonshire"
 104.69 13923262 14575994 "north yorkshire"
 103.57 5844128 6052646 "east riding and north linconshire"
 103.53 71146901 73657774 "essex"
  98.99 92414145 91482434 "merseyside"
 106.02 4517418 4789250 "lincolnshire"

Please excuse all lower cased places and companies - it appears that some data lines have First Scotrail and other First ScotRail (nice clean data set  ) and it was easier just to thump them all to lower case!

106.71 2313514557 2468853618 grand totals

[bobm]

I notice both Dorking West and Dorking Deepdene have seen a fall in percentage terms.  Has there been changes to the service on the North Downs?  (Although admittedly it wouldn't take many fewer feet at West to effect a big change.)

[Bristolboy]

Good work there Grahame! Some weird anomolies when looking at the data - like I'm surprised there are 112 interchanges at Penzance!

[Bristolboy]

Good work there Grahame! Some weird anomolies when looking at the data - like I'm surprised there are 112 interchanges at Penzance!

I recognise the interchanges are estimates, however I think these should be as accurate as possible to assist with future planning.

Also interestingly I have noticed several stations where I have personally interchanged yet none are recorded, specifically Stapleton road and Lawrence hill (when traveling between Bristol parkway and the Severn beach line these are often quicker than going in to temple meads as advised by the national rail website!).

[TerminalJunkie]

And by the nuts2 Spatial area (whatever that is!):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUTS_2_statistical_regions_of_the_United_Kingdom

[Southern Stag]

I notice both Dorking West and Dorking Deepdene have seen a fall in percentage terms.  Has there been changes to the service on the North Downs?  (Although admittedly it wouldn't take many fewer feet at West to effect a big change.)

I'm guessing it could well be related to the problems allocating the usage figures within the Dorking group, Dorking West's figures should be much higher.

[Milky Bar Kid]

Industryinsider, you seem to have left out stations E-I on your first tables and thus leaving some stations out on your next set of tables.