National statistics

Rail passenger numbers and crowding on weekdays in major cities in England and Wales: 2012

Rail passenger numbers and crowding in several major cities in England and Wales for 2012.

Documents

Rail passenger numbers and crowding on weekdays in major cities in England and Wales: 2012

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Rail passenger numbers and crowding on weekdays in major cities in England and Wales: 2012 and XLS tables

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Rail passenger numbers and crowding statistics note of revision

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Rail passenger numbers and crowding on weekdays in major cities in England and Wales: 2012 (pre-revision)

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Details

This statistical release presents information from 2012 about rail passenger numbers on trains throughout the day in several major cities, as well as the levels of peak crowding.

These statistics are based on passenger counts carried out by franchised train operators of the numbers of passengers using their services in the autumn period and represent passenger numbers on a ‘typical weekday’. They cover national rail services only.

These statistics were updated in October 2013 to include the 2012 statistics for Birmingham, which were not published in the initial July 2013 publication due to an issue being identified with the data submitted by London Midland. A revision was also made to the 2012 statistics following revised data being submitted by First Capital Connect, details of which can be found in the revision note on this webpage.

Main results

The key findings from the 2012 report include:

  • on a typical weekday in autumn 2012, 536,000 passengers arrived into central London by rail during the morning peak and 981,000 across the whole day.
  • more passengers arrive into London by rail in the morning peak than depart during the afternoon peak, but the reverse is true in all other cities in the statistics, which have more passengers on trains departing during the afternoon peak.
  • in London, overall crowding across both peaks in 2012 was lower than in 2011. However, over 100,000 passengers had to stand at trains’ busiest points in the morning peak, a fifth of the overall total.
  • First Great Western had the highest level of passengers in excess of capacity (PiXC) of any London & South East operator with 7.1% across both peaks, but this was a fall from the previous year following an increase in capacity provided at Paddington.
  • the highest PiXC levels outside London in the 2012 statistics were at Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield, which all had just over 2% PiXC in the morning peak and between 1% and 2% PiXC in the afternoon peak.

Technical information:

Information on rail passenger numbers and crowding statistics, including the pre-release access list and related technical documentation

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Published 24 July 2013