Yet again Thanet Parkway turd polishers are trying to deceive the public into believing that this controversial station, which will cost tax payers at least £50million, is a roaring success, and excellent value for money, when the opposite is true.
Boasting that over 91,000 journeys have been made to, or from, the station in the year since its July 2023 opening, the turd polishers claim the station is set to meet its performance target of 100,000 journeys.
Whilst seemingly impressive this figure is, however, misleading and has been deliberately used in the media without any reference whatsoever to other important data which shows Parkway to be one of the worst performing stations in Thanet for passenger numbers.
How can this be? Well 91,000 passenger journeys is not the same as 91,000 individual passengers. Most passengers make return journeys to and from Parkway station which means the they are counted twice in the passenger journey figures. A more accurate indicator of a station’s success is therefore the number of tickets sold to or from that station, rather than the count of passenger journey numbers.
Following an information request to Southeastern trains I have now been provided with the tickets issued (sold) data for all of Thanet’s eight stations. It shows that that whilst 91,584 passenger journeys to or from Parkway station were made during the period July 2023 to July 2024, the number of tickets issued (bought) to or from the station was just 49,862[1].
Using the information provided to me by Southeastern trains I have produced a table which shows that using the tickets issued (sold) data for each of Thanet’s eight stations, Margate is Thanet’s most successful station with sales of 732,464 tickets during the period July 2023 to July 2024. Ramsgate is in second place with 601,751 and Broadstairs in third with 409,198.
Thanet Parkway station languishes near the foot of the table having sold only 49,862 tickets. As a percentage of total tickets issued (sold) to and from all of Thanet’s eight railway stations, Parkway also occupies the bottom of the league, issuing a paltry 2.4% of all tickets issued to, or from, Thanet’s railway stations.
Those politicians who supported the Parkway project, such as Thanet Council’s Labour Leader Rick Everitt are in my opinion guilty of manipulating data about its performance to deliberately mislead and deceive the public into believing that this £50million white elephant is a success when plainly it isn’t.
Why would they do this? Simple, to protect their personal reputations and political influence by covering up with misleading infromation what is likely to become one of the most costly financial disasters in Thanet’s history, for which you and your children will have to pay
Notes
[1] The tickets bought data must also be treated with caution. The same person may buy several separate return tickets, or a single season ticket, from or to Parkway station during the course of a year. So it is likely the actual number of individual passengers buying tickets to use to from journeys beginning or ending at Parkway station between July 2023 to July 2024 is much less than the reported 49,000. Perhaps 35-40,000 may be a more accurate figure.
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