Teesside Airport Railway Station used 42 times in a year

Teesside Airport station had just 42 people use its platforms in 2021/22, making it the third least used station in the country according to new figures.

It came behind Elston and Orston in Nottinghamshire - which was used just 40 times, and Heathrow’s Terminal 4 – which was closed for the entire year and had zero passengers.

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And the real number could be half that, as the figures released on Thursday (Novermber 24) by the Office of Rail and Road include entries and exits at each station as opposed to the number of passengers using it, so would count return passengers twice.

The Tees Valley station is serviced by just one train a week which only goes in one direction - the Sunday 14.56 from Eaglescliffe to Darlington.

The numbers are actually an improvement on the previous year in 2020/21, when figures showed just two people graced the platforms at Teesside Airport station.

But as The Northern Echo reported last year both of those were travel and aviation YouTuber Paul Lucas, who made a special trip to the region just to visit the station.

Speaking previously Mr Lucas said: “The train is not convenient. There's only one train, perhaps maybe two trains a week.

"The only reason that it runs is legally to keep the station open, so if the train company doesn't run any services at all to Teesside Airport for a certain length of time, legally they have to go through a closure process, which is really expensive, to close the station. So, instead, they just stop one train there a week and they try to make that train as inconvenient as possible.

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Reacting to the figures Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “I'm not surprised given it's closed!

Ben Houchen at Teesside International Airport.

“There is a limited ‘parliamentary service’ of one train on a Sunday, but we are looking at all options for the station's future, and plans remain to upgrade it and bring it back into use.

“Our huge overhaul of Darlington Station will open the door to more trains across the region and will help the airport station come back into use. The more continued successes we have in attracting popular flights to our airport, the more the fortunes of the station will improve."

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