More than £11m was spent at coffee retailers in some of the UK’s busiest railway stations by passengers and station users from April to June this year.
Customers bought the equivalent of 5.1 million cups of coffee, an increase of 6% on the previous year, according to figures from Network Rail.
Retail sales over all rose by 3.67% across the 18 stations managed by Network Rail during the period.
The railway operator enjoyed its 13th successive quarter of growth from station retail with London Victoria selling more coffee than any other station at £1.6m of sales followed by London Waterloo (£1.5m) and London Liverpool Street (£1.1m).
Broadly speaking, London’s Cannon Street and Waterloo had the highest growth in retail sales across the network and outside of the capital, Bristol Temple Meads, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds and Glasgow all recorded above average growth in this quarter.
Network Rail director of retail, Hamish Kiernan, said: “These figures are further evidence of Network Rail’s success in modernising and transforming stations into destinations in their own right. We aim to enhance the overall passenger experience and continue to cater to the demands of the modern traveller, as well as generating retail profit to reinvest in our railway.”
Network Rail has a series of station improvements planned for the coming year, including at Euston and Paddington stations, which will continue to enhance the station environment for passengers and other users. This will contribute to Network Rail’s plans to increase retail space by over 300,000 square feet in the next five years.
