Berwick retains position as busiest train station in Northumberland

New statistics from the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) show passenger numbers from all 17 of the county’s railway stations.

With 567,782 entries and exits into the station in 2022-23, Berwick topped the charts, although the figure is down slightly on the 589,866 recorded in 2021-22.

Morpeth takes second spot on 487,610 (up from 402,772), followed by Hexham on 336,130 (286,802).

Alnmouth for Alnwick is fourth in the passenger number rankings with 331,064, a healthy increase from 285,882.

Cramlington occupies fifth spot on 133,834, marginally ahead of Prudhoe on 133,694.

Wylam (84,864), Haltwhistle (77,010) and Corbridge (55,668) complete the top 10.

The Tyne Valley stations of Stocksfield (38,864), Haydon Bridge (38,830), Riding Mill (24,162) and Bardon Mill (8,270) are next in line.

Widdrington takes 14th place on 2,492 followed by Pegswood (1,612) and Chathill (1,348).

Last place goes to Acklington which had only 434 passenger entries and exits during the year, although this does represent an increase from just 324 the previous year.

ORR figures show Liverpool Street in London overtook Waterloo as the most-used station in Great Britain, which it attributed to the opening of London's latest train service, the Elizabeth Line.

Waterloo had been the busiest station in the country in all but one of the previous 18 years, but it dropped to third in the year to March behind Paddington, also on the Elizabeth Line.

The busiest stations outside London were Birmingham New Street, Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly.

Just north of the border, the recently opened Reston station had 13,190 passenger entries and exits.

In total, there were 2.5 billion entries and exits across Great Britain in 2022-23, a significant increase from 1.8 billion the year before, but still below the 3 billion entries and exits in 2019-20, before the coronavirus pandemic.

Michael Solomon Wiliams, campaigns manager of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: "It’s encouraging to see that station usage is on the rise, but to continue this upward trend and surpass pre-pandemic numbers, rail needs to be better value and more reliable.

"Instead of implementing another record-high increase, the Government should freeze rail fares as it has fuel duty and make green public transport cheaper.”