Network Rail has reported a 6% increase in retail sales for the final quarter of 2014, driven by an 18.3% rise in sales across train station-based pubs & bars.
The top five categories for the period were; pubs & bars (18.3%), gifting (18.18%), dining (14.74%), bread (13.30%) and books (12.10%).
The top three stations for like-for-like growth during the period were London Waterloo (20.51%), Birmingham New Street (11.12%) and Liverpool Lime Street (9.57%), showing the positive sales trend was not just in London but across Britain.
The company said that a strong Christmas sales period, coupled with consistent October and November trading helped it record positive like-for-like retail sales growth in the final quarter of 2014, the 11th successive quarter or growth.
Network Rail’s head of retail Samantha Turner said: “Around 214 million people passed through Britain’s biggest stations between October and December 2014, almost 10 million more than in 2013, and our figures show people are spending, with more than one in three visiting a retail unit; that’s over 72 million.”
Christmas retail trading at Network Rail’s managed stations was the busiest on record growing 15.8%, with like-for-like sales growing by 10.7%.
