More commuters jumping on trains in Black Country and Staffordshire, figures reveal

Passenger numbers at stations across the region have peaked, with more than 845,000 extra journeys made over the past year.

More than 22.94 million tickets were purchased at stations across the region during the past 12 months, up from 22.09 million the year before.

Francis Thomas, spokesman for London Midland - which runs all but two of the region's stations - said: "One of the great success of London Midland over the last few years has been the phenomenal growth of people wanting to travel by train."

Ticket sales at the region's 35 train stations increased by almost four percent, with just four stations seeing visitor numbers decline.

Kidderminster, Lye, The Hawthorns and Blakedown saw a reduction in ticket sales, with fewer people visiting the stations.

Wolverhampton remained the busiest station across the Black Country and Staffordshire, with more than 4.9 million travellers over the past year.

It meant there was a 3.67 per cent increase in ticket sales at the station - which is operated by Virgin Trains, along with Stafford.

Adam Bott, station manager for Virgin Trains at Wolverhampton, said: "More and more people are now choosing to travel by train, reflecting the increased investment in the rail network that is delivering real benefits to the local economy.

"The record number of customers using Wolverhampton station in 2016/17 reflects the growing popularity of both short and long distance flows.

"It is one of our key stations on the west coast route, with over 467,000 journeys made on our services to and from London in the same period, up 5.8 per cent on the previous year."

The region's quietest station Bloxwich saw just just 49,672 commuters, up from 43,728 in 2015/16.

Cannock station was visited by 220,290 travellers in 2015/16 but a total of 233,172 visited the station over the past year.

Stourbridge Junction was revealed to be Dudley's busiest station, seeing an 2.28 per cent increase in ticket sales to 1.47 million.

Sandwell's busiest station Rowley Regis was used by 1.06 million passengers over the past year, compared with 1.02 million people the year before.

Ticket sales at Walsall also increased, with 1.47 million travellers calling at the station - a 4.51 per cent increase.

Stafford was the second busiest station across the region, with 2,329,490 ticket sales, which was a 4.57 per cent increase in passengers.

The figures released by the Office of Rail and Road were based on ticket sales data recorded in rail industry systems.

Estimates of station usage were calculated by looking at the total number of people travelling to and from stations, dubbed 'entries and exits'.

Birmingham New Street was the busiest station outside of London and the sixth busiest station across the nation, with more than 42 million tickets sold over the past year.

There were more that 150 million 'entries and exits' across the West Midlands, compared with 143 million in 2015/16 - which is a rise of 5.2 per cent.

Waterloo remained as the country's busiest station, with 99.4 million tickets sold over the past year, followed by Victoria with 75.89 million.