The Government’s Office of Rail and Road publishes annual statistics including estimates of station usage.  For the reporting year April 2022 to March 2023, these figures were released on 14th December 2023. Having had a turbulent year, with industrial disputes and engineering work frequently disrupting our train service, we were keen to see the level of usage of the station.  The total for Market Harborough in the year was 762,792.  This is a 43.6% increase on 2021-22’s total of 531,140.  Given the disruption, this is a healthy increase and represents a good step back towards the pre-Covid peak of 898,058 in 2019-20.  It made Market Harborough the 574th busiest station on the network, from a total of 2,578 stations in April 2023!  The main destination or origin for journeys from or to Market Harborough was St Pancras.
The full statistics for the whole UK national rail network for 2022-23 can be found here:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage/

​The Government’s Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes annual data on rail passenger numbers.  Albeit some time after the end of the reporting year, the ORR published figures for the year April 2021 – March 2022 on 24th November 2022.  These are calculated as ‘entries and exits’ using data from ticket sales; in other words, journeys starting or ending at each station.  For Market Harborough, these totalled 531,140 in 2021-22, up 252% on the much-depleted figure of 150,866 the previous year resulting from the pandemic.  This represents a good degree of recovery post-Covid, though is still well down on the pre-Covid peak of 898,058 in 2019-20.
Passengers changing trains at each station are also counted, though for Market Harborough this does not apply and the official figure was 0.  Kettering, on the other hand, being the interchange point between EMR Intercity and Connect services, had 99,783 such passengers in the year.  

The Government’s Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes annual data on rail passenger numbers.  Albeit some time after the end of the reporting year, the ORR published figures for 2019-20 on 1st December 2020.  The messages for Market Harborough are mixed: a continued trend of modest growth for most of the year, but a drastic fall in March 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.  To reflect this, the ORR has published two sets of figures for every station on the national network: one for the standard April - March reporting year, and one for March - February, to show the underlying trend before Covid.
Market Harborough's totals were as follows:

• April 2019 – March 2020: Total 898,058 (2018-19 Total 907,770) (Down 1.1%), making Market Harborough the 636th busiest station in Britain (out of 2,567).
• March 2019 – February 2020 Total 937,484 (Up 3.3% on the 907,770 for April 2018 - March 2019).  This pre-Covid growth is encouraging, as the period included the closures in May – June 2019 for the station rebuilding project.

However, passenger numbers have plummeted since the Covid lockdown and remain very low at the time of writing.  It is hoped that the pandemic and its associated restrictions will begin to recede soon and that traffic levels can start to recover.
The usage data for all stations and franchised or equivalent train operators can be found on the ORR website at:  https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/station-usage. 

Not many takers.  An empty carriage on the 10:31 Market Harborough to Nottingham train on 25th August 2020. 
Picture: Steve Jones 

​The government’s Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes annual data on rail passenger numbers.  Albeit some time after the end of the reporting year, the ORR has recently published figures for 2018-19.  Market Harborough saw modest further growth, of 1.5% to a total of 907,770 rail journeys beginning or ending at the station during the year to March 2019.  This is, of course, before the various closures for the station rebuild in May-June 2019 and other engineering work.  It will be interesting to see how the station has performed over that period and since.
The usage data for all stations and franchised train operators can be found on the ORR website at:  https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/station-usage.

​The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes annual data on rail passenger numbers.  Figures published today, 1st December, showed that Market Harborough had further growth, with a total of 888,036 rail journeys beginning or ending at the station during 2016-17.  This is 2% up on last year and three times the 296,838 recorded in 1997-98; proof that if a good train service is provided, people will use it!