Passenger numbers down at Burnley railway stations

Passenger numbers were down at Burnley's railway stations last year as more people stayed at home during the coronavirus pandemic, figures show.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Statistics from the Office of Rail and Road show an estimated 161,000 passengers used Burnley' s five stations in 2020-21.

This was 77% fewer than in 2019-20, when 700,000 travelled on trains in the area.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The busiest station was Burnley Manchester Road, which saw 99,700 entries and exits by passengers.

Burnley Central StationBurnley Central Station
Burnley Central Station

However, this was down from 483,000 the year before, and the lowest number of passengers since comparable records began in 1997.

This was followed by Burnley Central, with 28,800, and Rose Grove, which saw 18,500 passengers use the station.

Across Great Britain, usage of railway stations fell from 3 billion in 2019-20 to 687 million – a fall of 77%.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The busiest station in England – with an estimated 14 million passengers – was Stratford, in London, marking the first time in 17 years that Waterloo was not the most-used.

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.

“Stratford, Highbury and Islington, Clapham Junction, Barking and East Croydon replaced Kings Cross, St Pancras, Euston and Paddington in the top 10, underlining their importance as vital stops and interchanges, linking key workers with Underground and bus services to travel.

“This year we have seen many railway stations with very few passenger entries and exits.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"However, we know that recent figures show leisure journeys are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, while there has been a slower increase in commuter journeys.”

Six stations in Britain had no passengers in 2020-21, mainly due to services being suspended because of the coronavirus crisis.

In Burnley, the quietest station was Hapton, which welcomed 4,760 passengers last year, compared to 15,100 in 2019-20.

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.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Some of the entries on the list reflect where people like key workers were travelling from and also the acceleration of changes to how people are travelling after the pandemic.

“Rail companies are working together to welcome people back and the recent increase in passengers continues to both reflect and support the nation’s recovery.”

Separate figures from a YouGov poll of 56,000 adults show 51% of Britons think their local train services are very good or fairly good.

In the North West, 49% of people surveyed said the same.

Related topics: