TRAIN travel from Newcastle has risen dramatically since 2008 making it among the biggest growing stations in the country.

Numbers released today (Monday, March 18) by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) reveals Newcastle station has seen a 12 per cent rise in passengers in the last five years and is one of only 14 stations in the UK to record a double digit increase.

The station attracts 22,000 passengers on an average weekday travelling on 417 services. The most popular journey in 2012 was to London with over half a million people making the trip.

Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of ATOC said: “When Britain has recorded little or no economic growth, rail has been helping our great cities by connecting people with jobs, services and leisure opportunities.

“The last time train travel was this popular was almost 90 years ago when the rail network was around twice the size. Significant investment and an industry focused on attracting more passengers have turned around decades of decline to deliver better stations, more trains and faster services.”

Newcastle’s growth was fuelled mainly by leisure travel which increased 21 per cent from 2008 to 2012. Commuter travel also grew by 8 per cent.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, said: "These figures show that the railway is booming, and passenger satisfaction in our last national survey had risen. The key issues now are cost and capacity."

ATOC said train operators had attracted passengers by offering off-peak tickets, good value advance fares and railcard savings which had driven down the average cost of a ticket.