Network Rail has said its station retail sales from September to December last year grew by 2.35% compared to the same period in 2010.
The British Retail Consortium reported that high street sales for the same period ‘remained flat’.
These figures were compiled from the results of retailers operating across 560,000 sq.ft of retail space (493units/shops) at 16 of Britain’s busiest stations owned and operated by Network Rail.
Manchester Piccadilly achieved the best performance with 7.2% growth in sales followed by London Waterloo and Victoria with sales up by 6.6%.
Strong trading results were also achieved at Birmingham 5.7%, London Bridge 4.78% and Edinburgh 3.15%
Network Rail’s head of retail Gavin McKechnie said:
“In such a challenging economic climate these figures are encouraging and mainly thanks to the guaranteed footfall through our stations.
“During this trading period commuter passenger flows were disrupted with Christmas falling at a weekend, despite this Network Rail managed stations continue to give our retail partners a real edge over the high street.”
