Passenger numbers down at Wigan railway stations in the last year due to Covid-19

Statistics from the Office of Rail and Road show an estimated 987,000 passengers used the borough’s 10 stations in 2020-21: 77 per cent fewer than in 2019-20, when 4.3 million travelled on trains in the area.

Unsurprisingly the busiest station was Wigan North Western, which saw 386,000 entries and exits by passengers. But this was down from 1.6 million the year before, and the lowest number of passengers since comparable records began in 1997.

This was followed by Wigan Wallgate, with 356,000, and Hindley, which saw 71,500 passengers use the station. The quietest station was Ince, which welcomed 9,620 passengers last year, compared to 27,900 in 2019-20.

Across Great Britain, usage of railway stations fell from three billion in 2019-20 to 687 million – a fall of 77 per cent. The figures are based primarily on ticket sales.

ORR director of planning and performance Feras Alshaker said: “This year we have seen many railway stations with very few passenger entries and exits. However, we know that recent figures show leisure journeys are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, while there has been a slower increase in commuter journeys.”

Andy Bagnall, of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “The station usage figures show how the rail industry kept people moving for the first year of the pandemic. Some of the entries on the list reflect where people like key workers were travelling from and also the acceleration of changes to how people are travelling after the pandemic.

“Rail companies are working together to welcome people back and the recent increase in passengers continues to both reflect and support the nation’s recovery.”

Separate figures from a YouGov poll show 51 per cent of Britons think their local train services are very good or fairly good.

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