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Some basic UK rail statistics

Numbers of passenger stations, freight and parcels depots on the main line network

Introduction

Strange to say, it was not for many years a government requirement to report numbers of stations in the official railway returns and it was not until 1948 that the British Transport Commission began to report numbers. Information before that date is therefore sparse. Matters are further complicated by the lack of definition of the word 'station'; historically a (railway) station was a fixed point at which railway business could be transacted and included passenger stations, parcels depots and goods depots, but one station could provide any combination of these facilities but would only be counted once. Some stations (mainly freight) were not necessarily on the actual rail network and it is not at all clear how private sidings were dealt with, though there is some evidence that 'private' stations or sidings were excluded from the published numbers.

Changes in definitions and transfer of stations to or from London Transport account for many of the difficulties in the datasets. There is no detail about stations handling parcels before 1963 (though most would have done) or after privatization (few would have done but the railways soon got out of parcels traffic altogether).

It must be reiterated that great caution should be used in comparing station numbers over any significant period of time. The word 'station' today almost invariably means passenger station but this was not always so. For passenger numbers comparisons between the data in column 2 is probably the most meaningful.

The number of statistical rebasings is astonishing. One would think something like a railway station would be a fairly definite thing.

The Data

What is provided

The table below shows the following, in column order:
(1) Year, either calendar year or April to March, as indicated;
(2) Number of stations at which passengers may enter or leave national rail trains irrespective of other classes of traffic dealt with;
(3) Subset of column 2 being number of stations that handled passenger and freight traffic (the difference between (3) and (2) being stations at which ONLY passengers are handled);
(4) That number of stations in column 2 that handle parcels traffic;
(5) Stations that ONLY handle parcels and do not handle passengers or freight;
(6) Stations that handle freight ONLY (earlier than 1974 they were separate freight stations, after 1974 some are shown that were co-located at passenger stations);
(7) Total number of stations that handle passengers or parcels or freight

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Notes

In column 4 there is no data after March 1995, but parcels traffic ceased altogether around 2002 (except as freight).
In column 6 there is no comparable data after 1996.
From 1970 two stations transferred from BR to London Transport (and are NOT included in reductions as some BR-used parts remained under BR control); these were Westbourne Park and Royal Oak.
From 1969 twelve stations were transferred from BR to London Transport (and are included in reductions); these were Bow Road to Upminster Bridge excluding Barking.
In 1967 four stations were transferred from BR to London Transport (and are included in reductions); these were West Ruislip, Ruislip Gardens, South Ruislip and Greenford.

The expression station means a place where business with the railway could be transacted and excludes, for example, sidings and marshalling yards.