Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of rail passenger numbers in the North West in each of the last 20 years.
The Office of Rail and Road publishes annual statistics on regional rail usage. The number of rail journeys made to/from and within the North West region in each of the last 20 years is presented below.
Rail journeys to, from and within the North West: from 1997-98
| Total Journeys (thousands) |
1997-98 | 49,199 |
1998-99 | 50,009 |
1999-00 | 52,882 |
2000-01 | 51,924 |
2001-02 | 51,730 |
2002-03 | 51,022 |
2003-04 | 55,503 |
2004-05 | 58,678 |
2005-06 | 64,044 |
2006-07 | 67,167 |
2007-08 | 71,663 |
2008-09 (*) | 105,819 |
2009-10 | 106,098 |
2010-11 | 111,556 |
2011-12 | 115,182 |
2012-13 | 113,921 |
2013-14 | 121,741 |
2014-15 | 124,878 |
2015-16 | 128,005 |
2016-17 | 133,966 |
2017-18 | 134,420 |
Source: Office of Rail and Road
(*) Methodological changes have improved these statistics over time. Most notably from 2008-09, new estimates of rail travel in passenger transport executives (PTEs) areas were included in the dataset for the first time, providing a more complete representation of rail passenger journeys.