STEPHEN HOUSTON
Pandemic put brakes on train travel
Paisley’s principal railway station lost an astonishing three million passengers during the pandemic.
The 75 per cent plunge in business for Gilmour Street has just been revealed by the Office of Rail and Road.
The unprecedented drop took passenger numbers back to the early days of rail.
Statistics for March 2020 to March 2021 - all within lockdown and commuting restrictions - revealed just 982,530 people used Gilmour Street.
The previous year, the figure was 3,903,776 passengers.
Feras Alshaker, director of planning and performance at the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said: “Throughout 2020-21, the railways remained an essential service for those people who needed to travel during a year which was impacted by the pandemic.
“Glasgow Central has consistently appeared as one of the top ten most used stations outside of London and it is clear it remained a key destination for many passengers during the pandemic.
“Paisley remained an important access into Glasgow Central.
“This year, we have seen many railway stations with very few passenger entries and exits.
“However, we know that recent figures show leisure journeys are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, while there has been a slower increase in commuter journeys.”
Despite the colossal reduction in passengers, Gilmour Street did retain its position as the fourth busiest in Scotland.
Glasgow Central was in number one spot, with a 78 per cent reduction from 32.5 million the year before to 5.3 million.
This was the lowest level of journeys seen since at least 1872.
The ORR survey spans more than 2,500 stations in Great Britain and Edinburgh Waverly was in second spot in Scotland with 2.9 million, and Glasgow Queen Street ahead of Gilmour Street on 2.3 million.
Behind Paisley in fifth spot is Partick on 634,162.
Beasdale station in the Highlands recorded no passenger entries and exits.
Gilmour Street is one of the few rail interchanges in Scotland where two lines meet.
Gilmour Street opened in 1840 with two platforms, before becoming four thanks to the booming textile industry.
It served both the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway and the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway Company.
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