SANKEY for Penketh railway station is one of the least used stations in the North West it has been revealed.
The Office for Rail and Road has been looking at usage of railway stations, based on the number of entries and exits in the 12 months up to March this year and found that the Great -Sankey station, with a total of 1,362, is the seventh least used in the region.
However, that is comparatively busy compared with Denton, in Greater Manchester, with just 54!
The busiest station in the North West is Manchester Piccadilly, with 25.8 million – well ahead of Liverpool Central, with 12.6 million.
Most used station in Great Britain is London Liverpool Street with 94.5 million. Busiest outside London was Birmingham New Street, with 33.3 million.
Feras Alshaker, director, planning and performance at the Office of Rail and Road, said: “These statistics provide crucial insights for passengers, the rail industry and its stakeholders and demonstrate clearly how travel patterns are changing across the country. Alongside our rail usage statistics they show that since the pandemic rail usage continues to increase.”
The future of Sankey for Penketh station has been in doubt for years.
But in 2014 improvement works were carried out helping to secure the future of the station.
These included resurfacing the entrance road to the car park, filling in pot holes in the car park and new safety rails on the footpaths to the platforms.
Last year, a life-saving defibrillator was installed, along with 60 others at other stations across the region.
4 Comments
Whe you don’t have any trains stopping there how do you expect it to be used ?
There are only 2 trains a day to Liverpool or 2 a day to Manchester now stop here. That will account for its lack of use. You must also take into account if the trains actually run, as they’re very often cancelled. Northern rail cancel trains left right and centre. I wouldlove to use the train but sadly cannot get a guaranteed service so drive to Liverpool now everyday. Its a very shoddy service. I’m sure however sankey for penketh would resume to be used as it was if trains are scheduled there and run.
Sadly no wonder as there are only two trains stop a day Monday to Friday. Warrington West was built on the promise of more trains. Sadly this has never happened. Warrington West cost over £21 million. Enough said
The station had a ticket machine installed before Warrington West was opened and could have had more trains had anyone actively pressed for it but I don’t believe WBC sought it. We gained a Sunday service at Warrington West but were poorly treated in the period before Warrington West opened. Firstly, the Transpennine service was rerouted away from Warrington so we ended up with both slow and express service operated by underperforming Northern. Then the intended addition of the East Midlands Service to stop at Warrington West never happened for ‘capacity’ reasons around Piccadilly? Warrington West is not grouped with Central and Bank Quay as Warrington Stations so when there are cancellations as frequently there are you cannot officially get the services which only stop at Central.
Will the new line proposed for the future ever happen and will the 2 Metro Mayors agree a route which is sensible for Warrington. Not anytime soon.
As someone who has been impacted by sudden cancellation of the last train from Liverpool on more than one occasion I no longer go there as often.