The number of people using Gloucestershire's railway stations has increased by more than a quarter of a million in the past year, according to figures released by the Office of Rail and Road.

In total, 5,691,196 people used Gloucestershire stations in 2018/19, up by 256,530 from the previous 12 months.

Passenger numbers were up at all eight of Gloucestershire's stations, with Lydney station reporting a 24.7 per cent increase in numbers in 12 months.

There were 243,896 station entries and exits at Lydney in 2018/19, up from 195,532 in the previous year, making the only station in the Forest of Dean the 1,291st busiest in the UK.

Cheltenham Spa was the busiest in the county, with 2,485,720 passenger using the station in the last 12 months a 3.6 per cent increase from 2,400,434 in the previous year.

That saw it climb two places on the list, from the 244th to 242nd busiest in the country in a list led by London Waterloo, which sees more than 94million passengers use it each year.

Gloucester comes in at 393rd on the list, down from 386 last year, although it did report a five per cent increase in passenger numbers from 1,477,988 in 2017/18 to 1,551,632 in the past 12 months.

Stroud station saw a 3.2 per cent rise to 561,892 users to make it the 848th busiest on the network, down from 844 last year.

There was an 8.2 per cent rise in usage at Stonehouse, with 166,144 passengers making it the 1,498th busiest, while Kemble saw a 4.1 per cent rise to record 387,898 users ranking it in 1,039th place.

Cam and Dursley reported a 1.4 per cent rise with 191,426 passengers to be ranked 1,428 while Ashchurch for Tewkesbury recorded 102,668 passengers to be 1,722nd busiest in Britain.

The least used of the UK's 2,567 stations were Denton in Greater Manchester which is served by two trains per week and saw 46 passengers in the last 12 months.

That is the same number as Stanlow and Thornton in Cheshire which is in the Stanlow refinery and also welcomed just 46 passengers in the past year.