Rail journeys in West Midlands hit new high

The latest statistics from the Office of Rail Regulation show a 6.6 per cent increase on 2012-2013 to 51,052 journeys.

Journeys between the West Midlands and other regions also rose by 3.9 per cent to 27,164 and on the most popular routes to and from London and the North West there were increases of 5.1 per cent. There were 11 million individual pasengers travelling between the West Midlands and London and 4.3m for the North West.

Sandwell Labour councillor Roger Horton, who is rail lead on Centro - the West Midlands public transport authority - said it was the 13th year in a row that there had been an increase in rail travel within the West Midlands.

"It is good news because it means less pressure on the roads and is good for health because less fumes are coming from cars," he added.

Councillor Horton said that the train had overtaken the bus as the main means of getting people into Birmingham city centre.

"Over Christmas when there was the German market and other special events the train companies had to put on extra carriages on some services into the city," he said.

"There is a growing use of park and ride on the rail and it is proving so successful we are having difficulty keeping up with it. We are already planning to increase park and ride capacity at some stations like Sandwell and Dudley, Rowley Regis and Stourbridge."

Rail journeys within the West Midlands have increased annually rom 15,165 a year in 2000-2001.

The majority of journeys - 77.7 per cent - in 2013-2014 started or ended in the West Midlands metropolitan authority area.

Every district/unitary authority within the West Midlands, with the exception of Telford and Wrekin, saw an increase in the number of journeys to/from other regions compared to 2012-2013, with an increase of more than five per cent for Staffordshire.

Seb Gordonn, spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents Network Rail and train operators, said: "There is more to do to make Britain's railway even better but new and improved services combined with good value fares are attracting more passengers to travel by train.

"Passenger numbers have almost doubled since the late 1990s contributing to a fivefold increase in money being returned by operators to government for investment in a better railway."