THE number of passengers using Oxford railway station has dropped for the first time since records began following the opening of Oxford Parkway.

Figures released by the Office for Rail and Road revealed 60,000 fewer passengers used the city centre station between April 2015 and March 2016 than in the previous twelve months.

Oxford Parkway - which opened in October 2015 - had 275,000 users in its first six months.

When the Government’s Office for Rail and Road began monitoring passenger levels in 1997 just over three million used Oxford station.

This number has grown every year since and last year 6.6 million people entered or exited the city centre station.

From Monday services between Oxford and Oxford Parkway will run for the first time, linking up with the existing route to London Marylebone.

Didcot Parkway saw an influx of around 500,000 passengers last year compared to 2014/15 but the balance of power shifted slightly in Bicester.

Bicester Village grew from 88,000 to 413,432 passengers while Bicester North lost passengers dropping from 1.6million to 1.4 million.

Waterloo station in London was the busiest with more than 99 million people using it while only 12 people Shippea Hill station in East Cambridgeshire in an entire year.

In total 2.9 billion people exited or entered a station in Britain last year.