Research reveals Fife’s busiest and quietest train stations

Pressure group Railfuture said the impact of current travel restrictions is causing a “temporary blip” in the growth of railway usage.

Office of Road and Rail data shows an estimated 5.5 million passengers using Fife's 19 stations in 2019-20.

That's 551,768 fewer than the previous year, a fall of 9.1%.

The busiest station was Inverkeithing with 1.1 million entries and exits by passengers, followed by Kirkcaldy, 1 million, and Leuchars (For St. Andrews), 595,000.

The least used station was Springfield with passenger usage at 1,672. It was followed by Cardenden, 42,734, and Lochgelly, 55,306.

Across Scotland, usage of railway stations decreased by 4.7 million to 189.3 million in 2019-20, while across Britain it fell 1.1% to 3 billion.

The ORR has put the national reduction in journeys down to a “dramatic drop” in passengers in March due to Covid-19 restrictions, with lockdown introduced on March 23.

But Railfuture, an independent organisation with 20,000 members, is hopeful the railway system will recover.

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Bruce Williamson, a spokesman for the group, said: “I am very confident that the railways will bounce back when Covid-19 is over.

“We can’t ignore the fact the world has changed and people working from home may stay put – but I still feel for the most part, things will return to normal."

In Fife there were 15 passenger journeys for every person living in the area in 2019-20 compared to the national rate of 75.

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