Swansea now third busiest train station in Wales – but overall ridership down on pre-pandemic levels

A new report from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has shown that Swansea is now the third busiest train station in Wales, although train ridership figures are down overall from pre-pandemic levels.

Cardiff Central remained as the most used railway station in Wales, although its total number of passenger entries and exits was five million fewer than the figure from two years ago (April 2019 to March 2020).

The numbers were revealed in the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) estimates of station usage statistics for April 2021 to March 2022, which include the annual total of passenger entries and exits at each of the 2,570 stations in Britain.

Across Wales, Cardiff Central remained the busiest station during April 2021 to March 2022 with 7.5 million entries and exits, up from 2 million last year, but down from 12.7 million during the previous year.

Newport was second (1.8 million) and Swansea moved up from fourth to third, with 1.5 million. Cardiff’s Queen Street station had 1.4 million entries and exits, while Bridgend was the fifth most used station with 0.9 million.

The least used station in Wales was Sugar Loaf (Powys) with 76 entries and exits.

London Waterloo regained its status as the most used railway station. Knocked off the top spot after 16 years by London Stratford last year (April 2020 to March 2021), the south London station found itself back in pole position following 41.4 million passenger entries and exits between April 2021 and March 2022.

London Victoria retained its position as the second most used station with 36.8 million, while London Bridge stayed in third spot with 33.3 million entries and exits. Stratford (London) dropped down to fifth with 28.2 million, although that is more than double last year’s estimate.

Feras Alshaker, Director of Planning and Performance at the Office of Rail and Road said: “It is heartening to see passengers return to travelling by rail following what was a difficult period for the industry during the pandemic. There’s still some way to go in order for station usage figures to return to pre-pandemic levels.

“Once again it is important to thank all those in the rail industry, who continue to work hard to help people travel safely and with confidence.”

(Lead image: Transport for Wales)