National statistics
Rail passenger numbers and crowding on weekdays in major cities in England and Wales: 2013
Rail passenger numbers and crowding statistics in several major cities in England and Wales during 2013.
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Details
This release presents information from 2013 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.
Main results
On a typical autumn weekday in 2013:
- overall peak crowding across the 11 cities included in these statistics remains virtually unchanged since 2012, with 2.6% of passengers in excess of capacity (PiXC), an increase of 0.1 percentage point. Crowding was higher in the 3 hour morning peak (7 to 10am), which had 3.4% PiXC compared to 1.7% in the afternoon peak (4 to 7pm)
- crowding was higher in London than in other cities, with 3.1% PiXC in London compared to 1.0% PiXC across the other 10 cities. The highest crowding outside London was in Sheffield, which had 2.6% PiXC
- in London, 120,000 passengers had to stand at trains’ busiest points in the morning peak, 20% of the overall total. 24% of morning peak trains were over capacity and in total 60% had passengers standing
- in the morning peak 545,000 passengers arrived by rail into central London (Zone 1 of the travelcard area), a 2% increase from the year before. Just under 1 million passengers arrived into central London by rail across the whole day
- the city outside London with the highest number of passengers was Birmingham, with 39,000 passengers on board trains arriving into the city centre in the morning peak. Manchester had 30,000 morning peak arrivals and Leeds 24,000
Background information on the rail passenger numbers and crowding statistics and how they are collected can be found in the notes and definitions.
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Published 10 September 2014