RAIL usage throughout the Covid-19 pandemic may have dropped dramatically, but how many of us were using the railways pre-lockdown?

Every year the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) records the number of people visiting stations around the UK, based on ticket sales.

These official statistics are assessed and designated as National statistics by the United Kingdom Statistics Authority.

According to the ORR, this means that they meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value.

With these figures, it is possible to view the number of people visiting Shropshire railway stations between 2019 and 2020.

This list will look at the most used stations in that period, as well as the least used.

Most used

Two of the most-used stations in Shropshire saw more than one million users between 2019-20, but these numbers quickly drop off.

Shrewsbury

Whitchurch Herald:

Unsurprisingly, the most used station in Shropshire in Shrewsbury.

Between 2019-20, there were 2,221,170 recorded entries and exits at the station.

Telford Central

Whitchurch Herald:

The second most popular station was Telford Central, although the entry and exit numbers were less than half that of Shrewsbury, with 1,190,850 people using the station.

Wellington

Whitchurch Herald:

The aforementioned stations were the only ones to break a million visitors, with Wellington ranked third with 705,016 visitors during the time period.

Ludlow

Whitchurch Herald:

After Wellington, visitor numbers drop dramatically.

Ludlow was the fourth most used station in 2019-20, with a mere 266,090 entries and exits.

Gobowen

Gobowen was just behind Ludlow in the rankings, perhaps because of Oswestry's lack of a current station .

The station saw 218,970 visit during the time period.

Mid table

Whitchurch and Wem both saw more than 100,000 users during 2019-20, but they were still some way off the troubling the most used stations, with 144,724 and 102,186 visitors respectively.

Least Used

For the least used stations, some of these are considered request stops, and thus produce low usage numbers.

Broome

Whitchurch Herald:

The small village of Broome near Craven Arms has the unfortunate distinction of having the least-used station in Shropshire, only just passing more than 1,000 visitors.

From 2019-20, just 1,040 people entered or exited the station.

Bucknell

Whitchurch Herald:

Two stops down the line, Bucknell is Manchester Piccadilly compared to Broome, but still only saw 3,468 visitors.

Prees

Whitchurch Herald:

Prees saw around double the number of visitors of Bucknall, but this still amounted to just 6,318 visitors.

Yorton

Whitchurch Herald:

A request stop between Wem and Shrewsbury, it is perhaps surprising that Yorton saw 7,544 visitors between 2019-20.

Knighton

Whitchurch Herald:

The previous four stations were the true minnows of the Shropshire rail network, especially compared to Knighton.

The station, located on the Welsh border, saw a practically metropolitan 20,988 visitors.

For the complete table, visit dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage