TRAIN usage in Knutsford and the surrounding villages fell last year, amid strikes and disruption.

The latest Office of Rail and Road passenger estimate figures show that passenger numbers rose across east Cheshire over the 2017/18 financial year.

There were 501,866 ‘entries and exits’ at Knutsford, 16,534 at Mobberley, 25,374 at Plumley, 46,250 at Goostrey, 19,510 at Holmes Chapel and 35,760 at Chelford.

All six stations, served by Northern trains, saw decreases in passenger numbers, and there are fears for next year’s figures amid recent Northern timetable chaos.

John Oates, chairman of Mid Cheshire Rail Users Association said: “MCRUA are disappointed but not surprised with these station usage estimates.

“During this period we saw the start of the RMT strikes and our rail users have had atrocious customer service from the new Northern franchise.

“Passengers are simply fed up with late running trains and cancellations at short notice.

“People looking for a day out are not using our services for leisure. Commuters are finding alternative ways of getting to work.

“Although a small reduction, over half a million passengers continue to use Knutsford probably because there are no alternative modes of transport into Manchester other than sitting in a traffic jam.

“The significant increase at Greenbank is the increase in season ticket usage of 11,322 extra trips.

“This will be because the re-introduction of Scholar Season Tickets, which MCRUA has lobbied for, has continued to attract more students to the Mid Cheshire Line.

“We are hoping that these figures will be a wakeup call for Northern to improve their service and get the line back into growth again.”

Knutsford passenger figures have now been north of 500,000 for four of the past five years, making it the fourth-busiest station in east Cheshire after Crewe, Macclesfield and Wilmslow.

Meanwhile, figures in Goostrey, Holmes Chapel and Chelford are all higher than five years ago, with Mobberley and Plumley lower.

Estimates are based on ticket sales, with Manchester Piccadilly top of the north west table with 27,724,962 entries and exits.