Ups and Downs on the trains

"Plymouth stations saw an increase in numbers over the two years” Omnibuses2.0 MBO? Paranoid? Plymouth Local History Laurel and Hardy Benny Hill Numberzz 2.3 Billion

You may have noticed that railways feature very heavily in the news at the moment. The National Express story has moved on from Monday with the government taking action quicker than they certainly expected. More of this story and other rail related news later. For now I am looking at the current railway stations in Devon and Cornwall and in particular how busy they are. The Guardian has today put data from The Office of Rail Regulation on its datastore web site which looks at passenger numbers through each station in the country over the years 2006/7 and 2007/8. I have taken the Devon and Cornwall stations and added the data to my Google Map. View Railway Stations in Devon and Cornwall in a larger map I have actually just added the new data to my existing map showing the list of stations that had Secure Station Accreditation. There were quite a few that didn't have this status and these have been added to the map. The new icons are colour coded Red to show stations that have seen a decline in total passenger numbers and green ones to show an increase. On the map itself you can click on an icon to see total numbers for 2006/7 and 2007/8 and the percentage change along with the original Secure Station Accreditation. Raw numbers for Plymouth: Station 2007/8 2006/7 Change Devonport 17450 19655 -11.% Dockyard 4924 5335 -8.% Keyham 5055 7976 -37.% Plymouth 2026851 1845958 10.% St Budeaux Ferry Road 1199 1037 16.% St Budeaux Victoria Road 5193 5264 -1.% ALL Plymouth 2060672 1885225 9.3% As we can see Plymouth stations saw an increase in numbers over the two years with most of the increase at the main Plymouth North Road Station. The smaller Plymouth stations have all declined with the exception of St Budeaux Ferry Road which has seen quite a sizable increase - any ideas why this should be the case? There is a big variation in the type of ticket used by passengers at these stations. At Devonport and St Budeaux Ferry Road nearly half of all passengers are season ticket holders whilst Plymouth North Road Station over 80% take advantage of reduced price tickets. Station Full Price Reduced Price Season Tickets Devonport 18% 32% 50% Dockyard 16% 41% 43% Keyham 25% 48% 26% Plymouth 11% 82% 8% St Budeaux Ferry Road 14% 38% 49% St Budeaux Victoria Road 8% 79% 13%