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!

The Office of Rail and Road has published its annual data about the usage of the rail network.  Market Harborough has continued its trend of strong growth over the past twelve months with an increase of 4.6% to a total of 870,166 rail journeys beginning or ending at the station during 2015-16.  This is nearly three times the 296,838 recorded in 1997-98; proof that if a good train service is provided, people will use it!