Data has revealed the busiest - and quietest - train stations across Lancashire over the past 12 months.

Preston was one of the top 10 most used railway stations in the North West, while Blackburn didn't even make the top 20.

The Office for Rail and Road revealed that between April 2023 and March 2024, Preston had 4.8 million entries and exits, the eighth busiest in the North West.

Blackburn meanwhile had just more than 1.24 million visitors, with other stations across East Lancashire seeing even fewer.

The number in Blackburn was a rise of around 400,000 on the previous year but numbers have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels of 1.32m.

Darwen had around 300,000 visitors while Burnley Manchester Road had around 520,000 and Accrington saw a little over 473,000.

Clitheroe saw 268,000, while Nelson saw 104,000 and Colne 71,000.

Compared with last year, numbers at East Lancashire other major stations have either risen slightly, or in Ribble Valley stations' cases, fallen.

In Hyndburn, numbers at Accrington, Huncoat, and Church and Oswaldtwistle, numbers have even climbed above pre-pandemic levels as the popularity of train travel enjoys a resurgence.

The least used station in the county was Hoscar near Burscough, which had 800 entries and exits, and the second least used was Salwick near Preston which had 1,548 entries and exits.

Pleasington was the quietest station in East Lancashire with 7,720 visitors, followed by Hapton with 12,868 entries and exits.

London Liverpool Street was the most used station in Great Britain in 2023-24 with 94.5 million visitors while Denton in Greater Manchester was the least used station in the country with just 54, barely more than one visitor a week.

The latest stats are the first to show a whole year’s worth of data and show passenger numbers still have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, with 2.85 billion journeys made in 2023/24 compared to 2018/19.

Feras Alshaker, director of planning and performance at the Office of Rail and Road, said: "These statistics provide crucial insights for passengers, the rail industry and its stakeholders and demonstrate clearly how travel patterns are changing across the country.

"Alongside our rail usage statistics, they show that since the pandemic rail usage continues to increase."