A St Helens railway station has been described as "full of potential" despite being rarely used by commuters.
Newton-le-Willows station was the borough of St Helens' busiest station during 2021-2022, with 791,246 journeys. This figure dwarves the least used station in the borough, Rainford- which saw only 22,122 journeys in the same period.
Despite this, some commuters believe the railway station is "full of potential". Chris Lamb, who regularly uses the station on his commute to Manchester for work, told the ECHO : "It's got so much potential but lack of funding is holding the whole line back."
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Chris also believes the later train times brought in since the pandemic can make it difficult for people to use the station for their work commute, negatively affecting the footfall. He added: "With the later times since the pandemic, the first train at 8am, it's a struggle to get into Manchester at reasonable time.
"I've been lucky to have alternatives but lots don't. It's taken nearly two months for them to confirm that they're starting at 7am from next Monday which is still later than the previous 6.44am train."
Another passenger said: "The trains from Rainford are never on time or cancelled, it's an absolute joke."
While one person believes the village's small population is the reason for the lack of passengers, they said: "It's a small area, so has less people getting the train. Seems simple to me."
A spokesperson for Northern said: "We have just launched a new ‘Check My Timetable’ feature on our website which allows people to select their local station and view all the changes from that point – highlighting services that are new, amended or withdrawn compared to the previous timetable. (At the very top of the page it also displays the total number of services from that station each day.) You can view that here "
Newton-le-Willows however, seems to have benefitted from its 2019 makeover, with around £19m being spent on upgrading the previously antiquated railway station. It now tops the list by over 200,000.
The list of most used train stations in St Helens:
- Newton-le-Willows - 791,246 journeys
- St Helens Central - 513,828 journeys
- Lea Green - 338,102 journeys
- Earlestown - 231,330 journeys
- Prescot - 210,072 journeys
- Whiston - 164,922 journeys
- Rainhill - 147,114 journeys
- St Helens Junction - 124,422 journeys
- Garswood - 120,412 journeys
- Thatto Heath - 98,782 journeys
- Eccleston Park - 58,104 journeys
- Rainford - 22,122 journeys
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