Trends in passenger numbers in an area, 2005 - 2010

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I was playing about with ticket sales figures from 2005 to 2010 (other reasons that just TransWilts!) and came up with this little program / tool - you may like to follow the link and see how it works for stations in your area.   Replace the "GL" with the first two letters of your postcode, or fill in the form that's on the bottom of each page.

http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=GL

Here's the start of the Bristol diagram / page:



Can you work out which the extreme stations are just from the shape of the curves?

[tramway]

One has to be Filton, probably the most extreme.

[grahame]

One has to be Filton, probably the most extreme.

Surprisingly, Filton is only "in with the pack" - with the 2010 figure being 158% of the 2005 figure.

[JayMac]

Comparing timetables and looking at stations in the Bristol area that have seen increases in Mon-Fri train provision, I would guess that Severn Beach would be a candidate for seeing a huge increase in footfall.

[grahame]

Comparing timetables and looking at stations in the Bristol area that have seen increases in Mon-Fri train provision, I would guess that Severn Beach would be a candidate for seeing a huge increase in footfall.

Yes, it's the big one.  I'm slightly surprised that St Andrew's Road stands out as being a big drop.  Dunno why that would be ...

Anyway, the intent is to turn this into a useful tool not a guessing game (I know I started it!) so I've added a percentage column onto the end of the data text.   See the full Bristol results:

http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=BS

[JayMac]

The dropping off of St Andrew's Road's footfall figures from a high in 2006 may be linked to the economy. The station's only real function is to provide a convenient point for people to get to and from work across the large industrial estates in the area. I noticed a distinct dropping off of agency vacancies for employers there. There's still very little on offer.

Whereas Severn Beach now has a two hourly clockface service and this has obviously proved very attractive to local residents. Give 'em a train to up to town and they'll use it! Before, outside of the peaks it was a bus to/from Avonmouth and then train. A bus that wouldn't wait if the train was more than a few minutes late. Not forgetting that the bus wasn't equipped to sell train tickets and the driver never checked for tickets. Back then the fares structure on the Severn Beach Line was different to the two zone flat-fare setup now used, so folks who did use the bus would often only pay the cheaper fare from Avonmouth. Consequently the footfall figures for Severn Beach, based on ticket sales, were no doubt under recorded.

[grahame]

Egg. Face. Former on latter ... I've just noticed that Severn Beach was the second highest value, with passengers in the year to 4.2010 being a mere 3 times more than 5 years earlier; Parson Street rose nearly 8-fold and is the one that shot off the graph.  Wasn't the service at Parson Street improved a bit?

[tramway]

Replace the "GL" with the first two letters of your postcode, or fill in the form that's on the bottom of each page.

Graham  It maybe that I am trying the form thorugh our firewall, but neither the 'replacement' option nore the 'form fill' works. It auto defaults to 'SN'.

Or was that deliberate. 

[grahame]

Replace the "GL" with the first two letters of your postcode, or fill in the form that's on the bottom of each page.

Graham  It maybe that I am trying the form thorugh our firewall, but neither the 'replacement' option nore the 'form fill' works. It auto defaults to 'SN'.

Or was that deliberate. 

Postcodes are case sensitive ... so these should work / link ...

http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=BA^» (British Airways - about) - Bath
http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=BS - Bristol
http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=SP - Salisbury
http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=TR - Truro
http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=PL - Plymouth
http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=EX - Exeter
http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=SA - Swansea
http://www.wellho.net/demo/railuse.php?place=L - Liverpool
etc

[Deltic]

Brilliant, Graham!

A minor improvement would be to order the stations in the list below the graph alphabetically.  Is it postcode order at the moment?

[grahame]

Brilliant, Graham!

A minor improvement would be to order the stations in the list below the graph alphabetically.  Is it postcode order at the moment?

I've actually just been "playing" and have it sorted by growth at the moment ... it *was* by postcode before, which wasn't brilliant.  May change it again / enhance it further yet.  Thanks for the feedback

[JayMac]

Parson Street rose nearly 8-fold and is the one that shot off the graph.  Wasn't the service at Parson Street improved a bit?

Haven't got a timetable that covers the Wessex Trains service to/from Parson Street in 2005. But if my flaky memory is correct, I believe that back then Parson Street only had a train service in the peaks. From 2007 onward it had (and still has) an hourly off peak clockface service, with a few additional peak and shoulder peak services.

[tramway]