please empty your brain below
As always one of the highlights of the blogging year. The rise of Stratford is really staggering.

CP | 16.12.15 - 7:15 a.m. | #

Especially in Central London, plus the other city centre stations, I think the figures exclude passengers visiting stations for non-train reasons such as shopping, drinking coffee, or just walking through from one side to another, if these visitors are included then the order changes.

| 16.12.15 - 7:19 a.m. | #

Is the decline of London Bridge due to the fact Charing Cross services no longer stop there? Would be interesting to see when it occurred.

Commuter | 16.12.15 - 7:23 a.m. | #

According to the data, London Bridge had 70-80m passengers up to about 2003, and has had 40-50m since.

If you'd like to play with the chronological data, there's a massive spreadsheet here: http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/file/0013/20182/Estimates-of-Station-Usage-Time-Series-97-98-to-14-15.ods
(you can draw a whizzy graph of passenger numbers over two decades for any station in the country, it's great)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 16.12.15 - 7:27 a.m. | #

I am sure that the low numbers at the places I have never heard of is not just the appalling services. At stations with few or any ticket selling facilities, passenger coynting is notoriously unreliable. Some of the counts might be 100% or more under the real number although still not reaching thee figures!

100andthirty | 16.12.15 - 7:31 a.m. | #

It's best to be wary of passenger numbers reported for un-staffed stations. There are no barriers to automate counts, and tickets are usually valid to a group of local stations (with no way of determining which particular station was used). So the count is an estimate based on somebody visiting the station. If they pick the wrong time, they can miss significant use e.g. school students, early/late commuters, a particular shift at a local employer. There was an example of this at Dorking West within the last 18 months. According to the spreadsheet, next to nobody uses the station - not true!

ian s | 16.12.15 - 7:41 a.m. | #

Massive growth at Stratford, and is it possibly understated? If I've understood the methodology (someone please correct me if I've got this wrong), these figures are based on gateline / ticket barrier counts. A passenger swapping from National Rail at (for example) London Br will go through the gateline and be counted. At Stratford, the rail to tube/DLR change is within the gateline - and therefore not counted?

IslandDweller | 16.12.15 - 7:41 a.m. | #

Note HEx and Eurostar excluded so if they were included, St Pancras and Paddington might just rise to compete with Euston!

100andthirty | 16.12.15 - 7:41 a.m. | #

The figures are for annual exits and entries (see bottom of post for link to full data and methodology).

Interchanges are not included.
(Clapham Junction remains top of the interchanges Top 10)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 16.12.15 - 7:52 a.m. | #

How would the order change at London's ten busiest if it was No. of Passengers per No. of Platforms?

Mike | 16.12.15 - 8:51 a.m. | #

Its well worth ploughing through the bumf to see the methodology, the reference was to ticket office sales, I couldn't see who online sales were attributed to - also see their notes about Oyster/Travelcards, perhaps simplifying things to footfall at stations would be simpler, a counter could be added at the entrance/exit of platforms.

| 16.12.15 - 9:02 a.m. | #

If LBG had a sudden drop in numbers, then it's probably a change in the way passengers are counted. Possibly passing more of them onto Cannon Street and Charing Cross.

Or, a lot of longer distance commuters switched to Victoria. Either way, I doubt they vanished.

Chz | 16.12.15 - 9:22 a.m. | #

Chz (etc.): if you read the methodological document, they made adjustments to move passengers away from London Bridge to Waterloo East and Charing Cross this year.

I think given underlying methodological changes, it is a bit ambitious to do comparisons fifteen years apart, especially in London where people have moved from bits of paper to bits of plastic...

Wolf | 16.12.15 - 9:31 a.m. | #

So if there are broadly 50% more rail passengers, does that mean broadly 50% more revenue? And 50% more investment in infrastructure, better signals, better reliability, etc?

Are there plans in place to deal with another 50% increase in the next 15 years? Or is there a risk that the numbers might fall back again by 50% by 2030?

What has happened to bus, tram, tube and DLR passenger numbers over this period? Does TfL count passenger numbers on each service, or at each station/stop?

Andrew | 16.12.15 - 9:37 a.m. | #

Minor point, but I think the inclusion of Thorne South in the 1999/2000 least used figures is one of the errors that occurs a lot in these figures with 'grouped' stations. Tickets are sold to 'Thorne stations' and are valid to both, and no-one really knows how to divide them up accurately. The ORR have tried to finesse this, hence in 2007/08 Thorne South saw a notional 127231% increase in passengers, while Thorne North saw a 51% decrease (http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/4631/stn_usage_report_0708.pdf), giving broadly similar usage figures for both. As both North and South have similar service levels and are both equally (in)convenient for the town centre, that feels about right.

Political Animal | Homepage | 16.12.15 - 9:56 a.m. | #

How on earth did Shippea Hill escape the Beeching cuts in the 60s? The mind boggles..

Adrian | 16.12.15 - 10:11 a.m. | #

@100+30
Some of the counts might be 100% or more under the real number

I am intrigued by the concept of negative passenger counts. Are they anti-passengers, who undergo mutual annihilation if they meet real passengers?

Or simply negative passengers, the more of whom travel the greater the space available for normal ones? Does the railway have to pay them, and get fined if they don't have a (negative) ticket?

Or do they simply not have a positive attitude to life?

timbo | 16.12.15 - 10:22 a.m. | #

Shippea Hill probably escaped Beeching because it is on the Ely-Norwich line which was kept open. There would have been few staff savings by closing the station as the same staff also operated the level crossing - it was finally automated in 2012.

timbo | 16.12.15 - 10:33 a.m. | #

Interesting as always but as others have said the underlying methodology isn't the best and has been reworked over the years. There are certainly risks in trying to make comparisons over time as the methodology has had to be tweaked.

Where separate surveys have been done at particular stations (e.g on West Anglia) the observed numbers were much higher than the ORR data would suggest even allowing for methodological / survey differences. This poses the question as to how understated the ORR numbers are for the London Travelcard area.

I rather suspect London Bridge's numbers have been affected by many years of Thameslink works plus service pattern changes and the impact of the Overground running under the Thames. That has caused a significant shift in travel patterns via Canada Water thus moving journeys from NR services to TfL run services. I expect 2018 (post Thameslink works) will see a bit of a bounce back at London Bridge but probably not to its former numbers. We will also start to see the impact of Crossrail on the numbers although its going to very hard to separate out Crossrail from LU or Thameslink at places like Farringdon. I wonder if some clever passenger counting technology is going to be deployed near the Crossrail platforms to give a view about CR's usage?

@ Andrew - TfL publish bus network data in May each year showing usage per route. They also published 10 years worth of bus data for the Assembly's Transport Committee. I have a spreadsheet that has all this data in it plus a load of supplementary stuff. The DfT also published the latest quarterly bus stats for England yesterday. It shows a 1.3% drop in passengers in London this calendar year and a 3.0% fall year on year (Sept 2014 to Sept 2015). This drop in London has meant usage overall in England has also fallen. In the past London's growth has outweighed losses elsewhere. The current numbers bring to a stop nearly 15 years of non stop growth in London bus usage but we must wait for the year end numbers to make a full comparison.

PC | 16.12.15 - 10:34 a.m. | #

Timbo - yes I know.....if X +100%X = Y, then X= 50%Y. forgive my sloppy typing

100andthirty | 16.12.15 - 11:00 a.m. | #

Sounds like serious investing in the railway infrastructure is in order. Preferably keeping crossing points and little local signal boxes etc.

Bronchitikat | Homepage | 16.12.15 - 11:22 a.m. | #

Do I believe King's Cross down from 46m to 32m? If so what's changed there?

RogerB | 16.12.15 - 11:38 a.m. | #

Could it be to do with Thameslink moving to St Pancras?

Madison | 16.12.15 - 11:51 a.m. | #

Shippea Hill isn't completely useless: I've used it in anger once. I wanted to get to Mildenhall from Cambridge with a bicycle early in the morning. There wasn't a sensible train to Kennett, but the one train of the day to Shippea Hill turned out to be perfectly timed. I didn't appear in the passenger counts, though, because I bought a day return to Brandon in case I decided to to return by that route. In the end I actually cycled home, but that's another story.

Ben Harris | Homepage | 16.12.15 - 11:51 a.m. | #

Interesting comment by PC at 10.34am, that for the first time in 15 years London bus passenger numbers have fallen.
Could this be that more routes are getting the awful NBL (Boris bus) and people are put off by the discomfort of traveling in it. That seems to be the only thing that has changed recently.

dg writes: Off-topic, but it's increased roadworks.

John | 16.12.15 - 11:52 a.m. | #

John @ 1152. As DG notes, what's changed with buses is they are now much slower journeys due to congestion/roadworks. Next years bus figures will surely show a further fall. The roadworks at Aldgate are causing complete mayhem - it is no longer a viable option to use buses between the east end and the City. Routes 205 and 254 have been officially rerouted to avoid Aldgate - and route 135 is only running a few full services, most are turned short at Stepney.

dg writes: OFF-TOPIC KLAXON

IslandDweller | 16.12.15 - 1:30 p.m. | #

There have been attempts to get Reddish South (and its near neighbour, Denton) a decent service again.

Both are on the line for arguably the most famous of the Parliamentary Trains - Stockport to Stalybridge, which runs once a week on a Friday.

It was once an important service. At one point some expresses went to Manchester Piccadilly, and some Manchester Victoria. Anyone wanting to change between the two would need to do a cross city interchange which was messy before the Metrolink. The route gave a by-pass to that. The demise came when Transpennine services were moved to Piccadilly station. Denton and Reddish South were left to rot.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 16.12.15 - 1:52 p.m. | #

I am surprised that Twickenham did not have a large increase due to the Rugby World cup.

John | 16.12.15 - 3:45 p.m. | #

<innocent face> Is there a problem with off topic posts? No-one took the bait of the sculptures yesterday - even though the websites I mentioned are still using DG's photo of the Hepworth, and still suggesting Moore's "Reclining Figure: Festival" is missing when it isn't - but I knew buses would be a sure-fire winner...

dg writes: <guilty face>

Andrew | 16.12.15 - 4:41 p.m. | #

How come Teeside airport has such low passenger numbers? I would have thought proximity to an airport would guarantee good passenger numbers for a station.

Adrian | 16.12.15 - 4:41 p.m. | #

Teeside Airport's problem is no decent access to the terminal (it's too far away and really difficult to access) and next to no trains.

Thing is, they could rebuild it closer. But they haven't.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 16.12.15 - 4:49 p.m. | #

The lack of custom at Teesside airport station may be partly because of the relatively low number of destinations served - since 2011 when Ryanair dropped its service to Alicante the only regular flights are to Aberdeen and Amsterdam (why it only serves places beginning with "A" is a mystery), partly because it is nearly a mile from the airport and there is no transfer bus, and partly because there are only two trains a week the 1114 to Hartlepool and the 1235 to Darlington (Sundays only)

timbo | 16.12.15 - 4:54 p.m. | #

The Guardian has picked up on Shippea Hill in its 'Pass Notes' squib: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/shortcuts/2015/dec/16/shippea-hill-railway-station-great-britains-quietest

Gordon | 16.12.15 - 5:16 p.m. | #

Have been following yr blog for some time now.It is great.Have recently come across the Londonist and it is well worth looking at for all sorts of reasons.I have nothing to do with it,but I think you would all like to look.

Tp | 16.12.15 - 6:06 p.m. | #

A friend of mine used to use Shippea Hill in the '50s when he was doing National Service at Mildenhall. He says one day a train stopped there and the driver stuck his head out of the cab and shouted "Where's the bloody hill?" It's in about the flattest part of Suffolk!

John R | 16.12.15 - 6:26 p.m. | #

'John R
"It's in about the flattest part of Suffolk! "

the station is in fact about 200 yards over the border, in Cambridgeshire. The triple point with Norfolk is less than a mile away. Shippea Hill itself is most definitely a hill, it even has a contour line round it (0 metres) on the OS map, but the nearest spot height to the station is minus 1 metre.

timbo | 16.12.15 - 9:55 p.m. | #

I've been waiting for this post all year! Can anyone tell me why West Ruislip had such a poor showing 15 years ago?

Hedgehog | 16.12.15 - 10:40 p.m. | #

This is only half of the annual Anorak Corner post. The next tube figures aren't due out for another six months.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 16.12.15 - 10:50 p.m. | #

So how does Waterloo compare on the world stage. I can find some busy stations, but none compare to Waterloo. Visited Leiptzig, Europes biggest this month, but it was a puppy in comparison to passenger numbers.

scrumpy | 16.12.15 - 11:32 p.m. | #

@Mike
"How would the order change at London's ten busiest if it was No. of Passengers per No. of Platforms?"

As you might expect, the longer the typical journey, the greater the turnround time and so the fewer trains, and thus passengers, in a given time. However, most stations seem to manage about 2.5m to 3.5m passengers per platform. One can only admire the daily miracle represented by the table-topper.
1. Charing Cross 7.2m (6 platforms)
2. Victoria 4.5m (19 platforms)
3. Liverpool Street 3.6m (18 platforms)
4. Waterloo 3.5m (28 platforms including Waterloo East: if the passenger numbers do not include WloEast then there are 24 platforms* and the station is in third place)
5. Stratford 3.4m (9 platforms excluding DLR and LU)
6. London Bridge 3.3m (15 platforms, when all open: 5.6m if you count only the platforms currently open)
7. Kings Cross 2.7m (12 platforms)
8. Paddington 2.6m (14 platforms excluding H&C)
9. Euston 2.4m (18 platforms)
10. St Pancras 1.9m (15 platforms including International and Thameslink)

*There is no excuse for four of these platforms still not being used, 23 years after the decision to move Eurostar to St Pancras was made, and eight years after the move actually happened. So I have included them.

timbo | 17.12.15 - 10:43 a.m. | #

I think Birmingham New Street & Clapham Junction are the busiest stations if you count trains passing through them rather than passenger numbers.

Adrian | 17.12.15 - 11:07 a.m. | #

surely the apparent explosion in passenger numbers counted in and out of London area stations is down to Oyster tap in/out requirement.
Passing through an open barrier with a paper ticket doesn't result in a count but the oyster and wave'n'pay cards of regular travellers will always be counted lest they get ovvercharged.

Travelling frequently off-peak between Woking and Waterloo I am probably not counted 20 - 25% of the time, previously travelling between Dartford and LBridge I was counted even less frequently because all train travel is still paper ticket

Sciurus Carolinensis Nemesis | 17.12.15 - 2:15 p.m. | #

@ John. Regarding Twickenham and the World Cup these figures only cover the beginning of 2015 I believe. Up to the end of March I think. I read it yesterday but have forgotten the exact date.

The report also lists increases by TOC. Greater Anglia up 7.2% (before transfer to LO of certain routes) London Overground 7%, Southeastern 6%, Thameslink 6%, SWT 4% and Southern 3%. By the way the DLR was up 8.8% in recent data.

I wrote a post on my blog looking at the Greenwich line. Woolwich Arsenal is low but could be due to some data reallocation to DLR? It's here: https://fromthemurkydepths.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/strong-growth-in-passengers-on-greenwich-line/

fromthemurkydepths | Homepage | 17.12.15 - 3:00 p.m. | #

@Scuirius C Nemesis
I'm sure you're right. I'm fairly sure that footfall at Waterloo hasn't really increased by as much as 50% since 1999

@Adrian
I believe Birmingham New Street has the most trains calling, Clapham Junction the most trains passing through it (including non-stoppers)

timbo | 17.12.15 - 4:04 p.m. | #

Corrections as I hadn't realised the stats exclude Eurostar and HEx. Thus Paddington should be calculated on the basis of 12 platforms and St Pancras on nine - giving 3m and 3.1m passengers per platform, ahead of Kings Cross.

timbo | 17.12.15 - 10:30 p.m. | #

Now Manchester Victoria has had a full face lift and Trans Pennine Trains are being re routed there again it will be interesting to see if numbers increase there. Back in the early 90's so few trains stopped there and thus very under used. Supprised Picadilly has not gone up more given quite a few extra services though given Northen Rails inability to sell or check tickets I think the usage is higher than listed.

Rick | 17.12.15 - 10:31 p.m. | #

With regards to Scrumpy's comment about the world stations, Japan has most of them and
London stations don't figure in the top 50 according to this ( admittedly japanese sourced ) story :
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/01/30/the-51-busiest-train-stations-in-the-world-all-but-6-located-in-japan/

most sites agree that Shinjuku in Tokyo is the worlds busiest with 3.64 million passengers PER DAY passing through the station .
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/busiest-station


I go through Shibuya station every day to get to work, its number 3 or 4 on the list. In 8 years of commuting I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have been delayed more than 10 minutes. The infrastructure is THAT good here , and they continue to build and improve it.

Jon Allen | 18.12.15 - 4:00 a.m. | #

@ Jon Allen - interesting list of the world's busiest stations. I've actually used 4 of the top 5 stations when visting Tokyo. I feel slightly less ashamed having got lost in Ikebukuro station on my first visit - the first big station in Japan I'd used. I had no idea it was 3rd busiest in the world.

I am a tad sceptical about Paris Nord being in the top 30 but no London station matching it. Nord is pretty busy and also has the RER and Eurostar but I wonder on what basis the counts are being done.

PC | 20.12.15 - 12:08 a.m. | #

Bus numbers may be down due to the Overground, which offers the same fare off peak (ex. Zone 1) for a fraction of the journey times - e.g. Clapham to Peckham. Furthermore, some journeys by LO would have taken a change of buses, making it effectively half-price as well as 3-4 times faster.

The overground (with a small o) has possibly done the same thing, now that contactless makes it just as easy as hopping on a bus on the busier routes, and the cashless Tube+NR fare is less than the previous sum of the parts. I use NR suburban routes more often than I used to when one had the fiddle of assessing the costs of single paper tickets against day TfL or all-modes travelcards etc.

This shows the great success of finally having an integrated inter-modal fare system. The oddball thing that really stands out now is having to pay separately for each change of bus on a single journey, or that a bus+Tube journey is not slightly discounted like the NR+Tube fare. This puts the bus at a great disadvantage if people are trying to avoid spending up to the daily cap. At the same time, once you reach the cap, where the choice is available, you'll probably opt for the faster mode anyway.

NickW | 20.12.15 - 11:39 a.m. | #

@Hedgehog

The 1999/2000 figure for West Ruislip is probably either from an era with just parliamentary National Rail services (and most of those's traffic using travelcards) or a it may have been impossible to buy a ticket that would get allocated to the station. Was there a "Ruislip stations" with all tickets allocated to South Ruislip?

Tim Roll-Pickering | 26.12.15 - 1:11 p.m. | #











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