Fewer passengers using Britain’s busiest stations
THE three busiest stations in the UK all experienced a decrease in passenger numbers in 2017-18, according to figures released by the Office of Rail and Road on December 11.
London Waterloo declined from 99.4 million passengers to 94.3 million, London Victoria in second place fell from 75.8 million to 74.9 million, and London Liverpool Street dropped from 67.3 million to 66.9 million.
All three terminals have been affected by engineering works on the routes that serve them, as well as industrial action at Waterloo and Victoria.
ORR said the figures, which are estimated, still represented more than twice as many visitors as the UK’s top ten tourist attractions combined.
The rest of the top ten remained the same as last year, except for London King’s Cross (last year’s ninth-placed) swapping places with its neighbour St Pancras (see panel).
The station with the biggest growth was Sugar Loaf in Wales. It
was the least-used station in Wales in 2016-17, with 228 passengers. However, that rose by 709.6% to 1,846 passengers, which ORR attributes to attracting visitors due to its notoriety.
The least used station was Redcar British Steel, managed by Northern. It was used by just 40 people, down from 50 in the previous 12 months. This was followed by ScotRail’s Barry Links with 24 (a 116.7% increase on the previous year, when it was the least used station), and Northern’s Denton with 70 passengers, down from 144.
Scotland’s most used station was Glasgow Central, with 32,915,936 (up 2.7% from 32,060,134 last year), and retaining its position as the UK’s 11th most-used station.
The most used station in Wales was Cardiff Central, with 12,951,746 (up 3.3% from 12,534,884). It remains the UK’s 33rd busiest station.
Three new stations opened during the period measured, with 488,878 passengers using Cambridge North, 252,772 using Ilkeston, and 133,060 using Low Moor. @Clinnick1