Great Western Coffee Shop

According to the Rail Regulator's Office at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1529, a grand total of 172 people used Dorchester West on the Weymouth-Bristol line in 2006-07, whilst about 415,000 used Dorchester South on the Weymouth-Waterloo line.

Whenever I've used West station there's always been about 10-20 people getting on or off. I can't help thinking that the numbers may be just a little skewed (I think nearly all tickets are credited to South) ;). Does anyone know roughly how many people do use West and South stations in an average year? I'm just curious as it wouldn't entirely surprise me if the DfT decided to use the 172 as an accurate figure in the future. London is such a long way from Dorchester after all...  ::)

Most people probably buy ticket to DORCHESTER STNS, not one of the two specifically.

There's a handful of places (Dorchester and Tyndrum come to mind) where the stats for one station are known to be exceptionally low because figures allocated to it have really gone to the other; I've actually seen them listed ... does anyone have a reference?

Yes, it's been discussed on the forum before, grahame - at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3008.0 and http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3539.0 for example. ;)

Barry Doe, who has a column in Rail magazine, frequently refers to the very skewed figures that are available for Dorchester West station. I would say that DM's answer would be the reason as there are three entries in Avantix for Dorchester - South, West and Stations. You are pretty spot on with saying that there are normally around 10-20 people waiting for a train there most of the time. Every time I have used this station thats been the case.