Figures show busy times for railways
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RUNCORN Station is the eighth busiest in Cheshire with Widnes close behind in 11th place according to Government statistics published this month.
The Office Of Rail And Road figures revealed there are 757,838 entries and exits at Runcorn Station every month – nearly 300,000 more than the 469,584 journeys via Widnes.
Runcorn is busier than Widnes’s two stations together; Widnes and Hough Green have a total of 749,070 entries and exits per month.
Runcorn East is the least busy of the borough’s four stations with 183,930 trains a month, fewer than Hough Green’s 279,486.
Despite that, Runcorn East still ranks 26th out of the county’s 53 stations and is busier than nearby Frodsham (175,318) and Helsby (83,890).
The most deserted is Stanlow And Thornton, near Ellesmere Port, with just 88 entries and exits per month.
This made it the least-used train station in Cheshire and one of just eight nationwide to have had fewer than 100 passengers.
It had an even quieter year in 2015-16, with 88 travellers, visiting compared with 158 in 2014-15.
Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire retained the title of the most deserted railway station in Britain from the year before last in 2014-15 with just 12 passengers.
Stanlow And Thornton was unusual in Cheshire – every other station in the county had at least 1,000 visitors last year.
Chester was the busiest in the ● county with 4.6 million passengers getting on or off at the city’s main station every month – up 2% on the year before.
Waterloo in London was the busiest station in Britain with almost 100 million people boarding or departing – equivalent to three per second.
The six busiest stations in Britain were all in London, with Birmingham New Street being the busiest outside the capital.
The data only counts stations that were open and had at least one visitor, and doesn’t include cases where passengers disembarked to change trains.