PASSENGER numbers were dramatically down at Warrington’s railway stations last year as more people stayed at home during the Covid pandemic.

Statistics from the Office of Rail and Road show an estimated 854,000 passengers used Warrington's seven stations in 2020-21.

This was 78 per cent fewer than in 2019-20, when 3.9million travelled on trains in the area.

The busiest station was Warrington Bank Quay, which saw 312,000 entries and exits by passengers.

However, this was down 79 per cent from 1.5million the year before, and the lowest number of passengers since comparable records began in 1997.

Warrington Bank Quay was the towns busiest station

Warrington Bank Quay was the town's busiest station

This was followed by Warrington Central with 305,000 (down 79 per cent from 1.5m) and Birchwood, which saw 120,000 passengers use the station (down 80 per cent from 600,000).

Warrington West was the next highest used with 69,000 passengers (down 18 per cent from 84,000), followed by Padgate with 36,000 (down 77 per cent from 153,000) and Glazebrook with 10,000 (down 79 per cent from 49,000).

The town’s quietest station was Sankey for Penketh, which welcomed just 1,500 passengers last year compared to 123,000 in 2019-20 – a fall of 99 per cent.

However, a note attached to the figures points out that half a mile away, Warrington West opened in December 2019.

At that time, the ticket office at Sankey closed and services at Sankey were reduced to two trains per day in each direction.

Sankey for Penketh was the town’s quietest station

Sankey for Penketh was the town’s quietest station

Across Great Britain, usage of railway stations fell from three billion in 2019-20 to 687million – a fall of 77 per cent.

The busiest station in England – with an estimated 14million passengers – was Stratford, in London, marking the first time in 17 years that Waterloo was not the most-used.

Feras Alshaker, the ORR’s director of planning and performance, 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.”

Cheshire station Stanlow and Thornton near Ellesmere Port was one of six in Britain that had no passengers in 2020-21, mainly due to services being suspended because of the coronavirus crisis.

Warrington West Station

Warrington West Station

Andy Bagnall, director-general at industry body 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 of 56,000 adults show 51 per cent of Britons think their local train services are very good or fairly good.

In the north west, 49 per cent of people surveyed said the same.