Total retail sales at Network Rail managed stations grew by 9% in the lead-up to Christmas despite concourse footfall being flat against the previous year. On a like-for-like basis sales were up 3%.
From 18 November to 23 December, station retailers took over £110 million in sales with gifting and food outlets performing particularly well.
Network Rail’s figures show that some 105 million people visited its stations in the period with one in three entering a retail outlet.
Hamish Kiernan, commercial director of retail at Network Rail, said: “This achievement isn’t by chance, our investment in stations and our diverse, high-quality retail offer is directly linked to our retail performance and customer satisfaction, both of which are growing.
“Gone are the days when our stations were only used for catching a train, they are now also destinations of choice for shopping, dining and socialising.”
The results follow 22 quarters of consecutive retail growth.
London stations seeing the biggest sales growth included Paddington, Euston and King’s Cross where sales were up 42%, 12% and 12% respectively.
Meanwhile, Manchester Piccadilly and Bristol were the best performers outside of the capital with respective uplifts of 9% and 7.4%.
