The COVID-19 pandemic’s dramatic impact on public transport usage has been widely publicised over the past 20 months, and the Great Britain rail network is no exception. Rail journeys fell to 5% of pre-pandemic levels towards the end of March 2020 as the country went into the first national lockdown, and only recovered to 50% of pre-pandemic levels in May 2021[1]. The ORR’s Estimates of Station Usage (which Steer have produced on behalf of the ORR for the past decade) were published on 25th November covering April 2020 to March 2021. Unsurprisingly, almost every station saw a large drop in usage when compared with previous years – with an overall reduction in usage of 77% compared to the previous (2019-20) year.
However, these statistics are indicative of other travel patterns and trends during the pandemic. For example, the closure of many workplaces during the lockdown in 2020, with mandated working from home where possible, plus the guidance to stay local severely impacted commuter and business travel on the rail network. Leisure travel was similarly impacted during the lockdown, but as restrictions were unlocked in summer 2020, there was a much stronger recovery of leisure related journeys than work related travel. This is highlighted in the Estimates of Station Usage, with ‘classic’ central London commuter stations such as Waterloo, Paddington, King’s Cross and Euston falling down the ‘most used stations’ ranking list. These trends may become even more apparent in next year’s edition of the statistics, which will cover the 2021 summer ‘staycation boom’ whilst business and commuter travel continues to lag behind.
The statistics also point towards the importance of ‘hub’ stations outside of central London. Stratford was crowned as the most used station in 2020-21, (grabbing headlines as Waterloo was knocked off the top spot for the first time in 17 years) and Highbury & Islington, Clapham Junction, Barking and East Croydon all jumped into the top 10 most used stations, replacing those central London terminal stations mentioned above. These hub stations are key transport nodes where multiple transport modes intersect and have likely facilitated key worker journeys, local leisure trips and the travel to work for people who were not able to work from home.
At the other end of the spectrum, the announcement of ‘least used station’ is keenly awaited by enthusiasts each year, but for the most recent statistics, temporary service suspensions during the pandemic led to 6 stations having no estimated entries or exits at all, with several others in single figures. Berney Arms in Norfolk was the least used station in 2019-20, when the line serving the station was closed for much of the year, but this year it was one of the very few stations seeing a year-on-year increase in usage, as the line reopened and visitors made the trip to the network’s quietest station.
Stations intrinsically linked to air travel (such as Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport and Birmingham international) or large event venues also saw particularly large decreases in usage as the pandemic rules restricted those activities. These trends have continued during 2021 and it will be fascinating to explore next year’s statistics, where leisure hotspots may well fare better than typical city centre commuter destinations.
The full dataset, statistical release and further reports are available on the ORR’s data portal here: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/station-usage
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