Acklington Station in Northumberland: North East’s Least Used, Averaging 11 Weekly Passengers

Data recently published reveals that the station with the lowest usage in the north east of England recorded an average of just 11 passengers weekly. This station, Acklington in Northumberland, served a total of 550 passengers from April 2023 to March of the current year, as reported by the Office of Rail and Road. Guy Renner-Thompson, a Conservative councillor for Northumberland, expressed that he was “not surprised” by these statistics, attributing them to the station being “served by just two slow, inadequate trains each day”. Northern, which is the sole train operator providing services to Acklington, stated that it “tries to match service with demand by reviewing the latest data”. In contrast, Newcastle emerged as the region’s busiest station, accommodating 9.1 million passengers over the year, followed by Durham in second position with 2.6 million. Nationally, Teesside Airport was identified as one of two stations that registered no passenger entries, a result of their services being suspended for the entire year. The second station was Stanlow and Thornton, located in Cheshire. These figures, which are derived from estimates based on ticket sales, indicate a continued national recovery in train travel after the Covid pandemic. Within the region, all four of the least-utilized stations are situated in Northumberland and are operated by Northern. These stations offer two daily services: one in the morning and another in the evening. Councillor Renner-Thompson, whose electoral ward includes Bamburgh, commented that stations “aren’t going to be used if there aren’t trains for people to get on.” He added, “We are campaigning for a new station at Belford and for a better service to all the smaller stations in Northumberland.” A spokesperson for Northern stated that the company “realised the importance of providing transport links to people in rural areas”. They further noted, “Tens of millions of passengers travel on our services every year, to more than 500 stations in communities across the North of England”.