NEWPORT railway station remains one of the busiest in Wales, new figures show.

The city's main station is the second busiest in Wales, and recorded around 1.8 million passenger entries in the past year.

The busiest station in Wales is Cardiff Central with 7.5 million passengers between April 2021 and March 2022.

But the coronavirus pandemic continues to have a major impact on public transport use. There were five million more passengers in Cardiff Central alone in the 12 months before Covid struck, compared with the past year.

Swansea, Cardiff Queen Street, and Bridgend made up the rest of the top five busiest stations.

Across Gwent, more than 250,000 passenger entries and exits were recorded at Caerphilly, Abergavenny, and Cwmbran last year.

The quietest railway stations in Gwent were Tir-Phil (around 17,000 passengers), Brithdir (around 9,000), and Gilfach Fargoed (around 1,000) - all in Caerphilly county borough.

See the chart below for passenger volumes for each of Gwent's railway stations in 2021/22.

South Wales Argus:

Every one of Gwent's railway stations received more passengers in the past year than in 2020/21, when the height of pandemic restrictions forbade all but essential use of public transport.

Passenger use has more than doubled at each Gwent station since then, and in many cases has increased nearly four-fold.

Feras Alshaker, director of planning and performance at the UK's Office of Rail and Road, said: “It is heartening to see passengers return to travelling by rail following what was a difficult period for the industry during the pandemic.

"There’s still some way to go in order for station usage figures to return to pre-pandemic levels.

“Once again it is important to thank all those in the rail industry, who continue to work hard to help people travel safely and with confidence.”