Edinburgh sees biggest jump in station usage in Scotland

Glasgow Central remains the most heavily used station in Scotland during 2012-13 with a growth of 2.2% compared to 2011-12. Despite a larger growth rate of 4.9%, Edinburgh remains 8.3 million entries and exits behind Glasgow Central.

The station usage data for Scotland for the period between April 2012 - March 2013 also shows that:

• Aberdeen saw a sharp rise in usage by 167,608 entries and exits – a 5.3% jump compared to 2011-12.
• Haymarket Station saw the largest decline in usage with a reduction in entries and exits by 41,428 – a 2% decrease.
• Glasgow Queen Street continued to attract nearly the same number visitors with an increase of 80,040 entries and exits – a 0.5% rise on the year before.

Top 10 most used stations in Scotland based on estimated entries and exits for 2012/13

To view the full estimates of station usage dataset and accompanying report, see https://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/station-usage-estimates 

ORR will host a live Twitter Q&A with a senior data analyst today (Thursday, 27 February) between 14:00 and 15:00. Send us your questions @railregulation on the methodology, improvements to the data quality or ORR's wider statistical work using #openrail

Notes to editors

1. ORR is the independent safety and economic regulator for Great Britain's railways. Follow ORR on Twitter @railregulation.
2. Estimates of station usage statistics record the number of passengers travelling to and from each station (entries and exits) in England, Scotland and Wales. Figures are based on ticket sales data recorded in rail industry systems.
3. There are limitations to the dataset, as the figures are estimates and do not represent exact numbers. There have been a number of methodological improvements to the data in 2012-13 and details of these can be found in the report that accompanies the release.
4. The figures are presented in alphabetical order according to station name but can be reordered by a variety of categories – e.g. number of passenger entries and exits, country or region, county or unitary authority. Guidance notes on how to filter the data are published alongside the Excel spreadsheet.

Table: Top 10 most used stations in England, Scotland and Wales based on estimated entries and exits for 2012/13