Station usage figures

[whole diary]

[Lee]

Got some figures from an FOSBR^▸ (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways) member for Severn Beach Line stations with percentage rise/falls. Selected other Bristol suburban stations are also included :

Lawrence Hill 55865 --> 68371 = +22.4%
Stapleton Road 86997 --> 98446 = +13.2%
Montpelier 73573 --> 76969 = +4.6%
Redland 55529 --> 66852 = +20.4%
Clifton Down 153027 --> 180656 = +18.1%
Sea Mills 36411 --> 40786 = +12.0%
Shirehampton 31539 --> 38493 = +22.0%
Avonmouth 43365 --> 47834 = +10.3%
St Andrews Road 8008 --> 5518 = -31.1%
Severn Beach 37088 --> 38202 = +3.0%

Bedminster 40917 --> 43379 = +6.0%
Parson Street 14293 --> 19172 = +34.1%
Patchway 33957 --> 42463 = +25.0%
Filton Abbey Wood 401325 --> 410630 = +2.3%

Personally, I am rather sceptical on St Andrews Road. For a number of years, the figure was stable between 3000-5000. Then in the April 2005-April 2006 figures it leapt up to 8008. The 2006-2007 figures show this falling back to 5518, closer to the historical figure, with due allowance for realistic growth.

A further complication, obviously, is that a combined rail/bus service was in place throughout.

Courtesy of John R, here is a 2 year summary for the above area (link below.)
http://www.raildocuments.org.uk/gwfuture/stationtotalsummary.xls

[John R]

One other interesting point  - I've only checked Nailsea, but whilst overall traffic is up 24% in 2 years, season ticket sales are up 33%, which might be a better indication of rush hour growth. Or then again it might just mean that a higher proportion of commuters are buying seasons.

[John R]

Another comment (then I'm done for the night) is that combined traffic on the Severn Beach line (including the two on the main line) is up 30% in two years. Let's hope that the newly enhanced service will provide a further boost, though we'll have to wait two years to get the stats that will show any impact.   

[Tim]

I've had rough figures for a while but now the official ones are out, here are the bottom 20 stations in terms of entry/exit usage in 2006-2007.

(from bottom to top)

Tyndrum Lower
Buckenham
Coombe Halt
Golf Street
Barry Links
Denton
Sugar Loaf
Breich
Dorking West
Thorne South
Tees-side Airport
Lakenheath
Chapelton
Reddish South
Scotscalder
Elton & Orston
Falls of Cruachan
Pilning
Kirton Lindsey
Dorchester West

and now top 20 (from 20th to 1st):

Glasgow Queen Street
Reading
Manchester Piccadilly
Birmingham New Street
London Fenchurch Street
Edinburgh Waverley
Wimbledon
Leeds
Clapham Junction
East Croydon
Glasgow Central
London Cannon Street
London Kings Cross
London Euston
London Paddington
London Charing Cross
London Bridge
London Liverpool Street
London Victoria
London Waterloo

Melksham comes ... 2024th in terms of usage.

I've used Tyndrum's two stations a couple of times each.  Amazing to see theLower station on this list but not Tyndrum Upper.  Both have simialr numbers of trains and Lower is much closer to the village and does not involve climbing a steep path to get to it.  Either there is a reason here I have overlooked (perhaps the timetable favours trips to Upper?) or the useage figures should be taken with a pinch of salt.

[TerminalJunkie]

I've used Tyndrum's two stations a couple of times each.  Amazing to see theLower station on this list but not Tyndrum Upper.  Both have simialr numbers of trains and Lower is much closer to the village and does not involve climbing a steep path to get to it.  Either there is a reason here I have overlooked (perhaps the timetable favours trips to Upper?) or the useage figures should be taken with a pinch of salt.

It's probably covered by the 'Notes on Station Usage...':

For towns and cities with more than one station ^ e.g. Maidstone it is possible to buy a ticket to ^Maidstone Stations^ known as a Group Station. For such tickets, journeys are allocated to the main station of those in the group.

Since the usage of Upper Tyndrum went up last year from 128 to 7,529, while Tyndrum Lower went from 7,481 to 17 they've almost certainly reclassified Upper Tyndrum as the main station.

[Graz]

How do they measure this usage? For example buying a ticket to Dorchester gives you a ticket that says 'Dorchester Stations' and not Dorchester West / South. I assume the same can be said for Tyndrum.

[eightf48544]

What surprises me is tha Denton and Reddish South actually appear and are not bottom considering they have one train a week in one direction only. It must be rail enthusiasts making the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) run the trian. I thought it was usually a taxi.

[swlines]

How do they measure this usage? For example buying a ticket to Dorchester gives you a ticket that says 'Dorchester Stations' and not Dorchester West / South. I assume the same can be said for Tyndrum.

Assumed routeing, for instance if you had a Castle Cary - Dorchester (which isn't route Not London), you're unlikely to exit at South!

For the Tyndrums, again assumed routeing but also in line with the national passenger survey which is carried out over 2 or so weeks, and then the passengers are proportioned between the two stations.

[Lee]

What surprises me is tha Denton and Reddish South actually appear and are not bottom considering they have one train a week in one direction only. It must be rail enthusiasts making the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) run the trian. I thought it was usually a taxi.

Related link.
http://www.andrewgwynne.labour.co.uk/b46abd47-6168-4094-21b4-913b02fc50c6

[Tim]

I've used Tyndrum's two stations a couple of times each.  Amazing to see theLower station on this list but not Tyndrum Upper.  Both have simialr numbers of trains and Lower is much closer to the village and does not involve climbing a steep path to get to it.  Either there is a reason here I have overlooked (perhaps the timetable favours trips to Upper?) or the useage figures should be taken with a pinch of salt.

It's probably covered by the 'Notes on Station Usage...':

For towns and cities with more than one station ^ e.g. Maidstone it is possible to buy a ticket to ^Maidstone Stations^ known as a Group Station. For such tickets, journeys are allocated to the main station of those in the group.

Since the usage of Upper Tyndrum went up last year from 128 to 7,529, while Tyndrum Lower went from 7,481 to 17 they've almost certainly reclassified Upper Tyndrum as the main station.

That makes sense.  Thanks for the information.  Am I right in thinking that the 17 tickets to Lower Tyndrum were incorrectly issued to "Lower Tyndrum" when they should have been issued to "Tyndrum Stations"?

[swlines]

More likely they were from stations such as Oban.

[Graz]

How do they measure this usage? For example buying a ticket to Dorchester gives you a ticket that says 'Dorchester Stations' and not Dorchester West / South. I assume the same can be said for Tyndrum.

Assumed routeing, for instance if you had a Castle Cary - Dorchester (which isn't route Not London), you're unlikely to exit at South!

For the Tyndrums, again assumed routeing but also in line with the national passenger survey which is carried out over 2 or so weeks, and then the passengers are proportioned between the two stations.

Though from Weymouth/Upwey for instance, it could be either Same goes for places like Warminster. I seriously don't believe there were that few people using Dorchester West...

On another note, nice to see Avoncliff usage up

[swlines]

How do they measure this usage? For example buying a ticket to Dorchester gives you a ticket that says 'Dorchester Stations' and not Dorchester West / South. I assume the same can be said for Tyndrum.

Assumed routeing, for instance if you had a Castle Cary - Dorchester (which isn't route Not London), you're unlikely to exit at South!

For the Tyndrums, again assumed routeing but also in line with the national passenger survey which is carried out over 2 or so weeks, and then the passengers are proportioned between the two stations.

Though from Weymouth/Upwey for instance, it could be either Same goes for places like Warminster. I seriously don't believe there were that few people using Dorchester West...

On another note, nice to see Avoncliff usage up

Weymouth and Upwey it's proportional based on number of trains - obviously Dorchester South would get all the passengers on that one due to there being 2 trains per hour as opposed to about a train every 2 and a half hours it figures out to for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) (and therefore SWT^▸ (South West Trains) get all that traffic allocated to them...).

[Mookiemoo]

So mine....

WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains) - fails as part of a group - foregate street scores higher but WOS has better connections - interesting

LUD is 3635th - lower than melksham!

Kidderminster - 4581 - LOWER than ludow? 

ER - think I am reading the table wrongly!

[cheesywotsit]

Thanks SW lines. I'm now left wondering what the point/use of these stats is.

If anyone is making decisions based on these figures then they are missing something.
Personally speaking, as my local service aint exactly great I would most likely drive to
the next station yet if the local service was there I would definitely use it more.

The figures never show a "potential" or "what if"...