Olympics: Trains Beat Planes During Games

14 August 2012, 10:25 | Updated: 14 August 2012, 10:28

Almost two million passengers used c2c trains during the Olympics, but the number of people flying out of Stansted has dropped.

The five UK airports run by BAA, which include Stansted, handled 9.6 million passengers in July 2012 - a 4.1% decline on the July 2011 figure.

Numbers at the Essex terminal fell 5.3%, while Heathrow was down 4.4% to just under 6.57 million, Southampton fell 9.5% and Glasgow dropped 0.5%.

The only BAA airport to see an increase last month was Aberdeen, where numbers were up 4.4%.

Meanwhile almost two million passengers used c2c trains during the 17 days of the Games, setting a new record.

The rail operator says Leigh-on-Sea had its busiest ever weekend during the mountain bike event at Hadleigh Farm.

300,000 journeys were made to and from the station - almost four times as many trips as the average for a summer holiday weekend.

c2c Managing Director Julian Drury said: "This has been a record-breaking Olympics for c2c and I'm delighted the hard work and preparation by our staff has paid off. We've met the challenge of carrying huge numbers of people to the venue stations, but also maintained the high standards of punctuality and customer service that our regular travellers expect."