City station busiest in Wales for passengers

CARDIFF Central remained Wales’ busiest railway station in the past year, new figures show.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said an estimated two million passengers travelled through the city centre station in the year to the end of March.

Passenger numbers across Britain dropped by 78% over the 12-month period due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cardiff’s figure, meanwhile, paled in comparison to the UK’s busiest station, with Stratford seeing an estimated 14 million passengers travel through the east London station.

It is the first time in 17 years that Waterloo was not the mostused station in the annual figures.

Just 12.2 million people used the station in 2020-21.

This was down from 86.9 million a year earlier, making it the fourth busiest station.

Birmingham New Street was the busiest station outside London, with 7.4 million passengers.

Scotland’s most used station was Glasgow Central (5.3 million).

The figures are based primarily on ticket sales.

ORR director of planning and performance Feras Alshaker said: “We’ve seen a radical change, especially in London, in the stations people were using the most.”

Andy Bagnall, director-general at industry body the Rail Delivery Group, said: “The station usage figures show how the rail industry kept people moving for the first year of the pandemic.”

Six stations had no passengers in 2020-21, mainly due to services being suspended. They were: Abererch, Gwynedd; Beasdale, Highland; Llanbedr, Gwynedd; Sampford Courtenay, Devon; Stanlow and Thornton, Cheshire; and Sugar Loaf, Powys.