88% drop in rail passenger numbers at Falkirk stations during pandemic

Passenger numbers were down at Falkirk's railway stations last year as more people stayed at home during the coronavirus pandemic, figures show.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Statistics from the Office of Rail and Road show an estimated 416,000 passengers used Falkirk' s five stations in 2020-21.

This was 88% fewer than in 2019-20, when 3.4 million travelled on trains in the area.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The busiest station was Falkirk High, which saw 117,000 entries and exits by passengers.

Two evening trains arriving at Falkirk High Station each shortly after 5.30pm nearly empty during the pademic (Pic: Michael Gillen)Two evening trains arriving at Falkirk High Station each shortly after 5.30pm nearly empty during the pademic (Pic: Michael Gillen)
Two evening trains arriving at Falkirk High Station each shortly after 5.30pm nearly empty during the pademic (Pic: Michael Gillen)

However, this was down from 896,000 the year before, and the lowest number of passengers since comparable records began in 1997.

Read More
National awards recognise pioneering work by NHS Forth Valley staff

This was followed by Larbert, with 113,000, and Falkirk Grahamston, which saw 92,400 passengers use the station.

Across Great Britain, usage of railway stations fell from 3 billion in 2019-20 to 687 million – a fall of 77%.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The busiest station in Scotland – with an estimated 5.3 million passengers – was Glasgow Central.

The figures are based primarily on ticket sales.

Thank you for reading this article on our free-to-read website. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

Please consider purchasing a subscription to our print newspaper to help fund our trusted, fact-checked journalism.