Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire & West Yorkshire are riding high with large numbers of stations being used by students for their commute to school (highlighted in green on the map), while Merseyside, Tyne & Wear, South and East Yorkshire have far fewer (shown on the map in red).

Derbyshire and North Yorkshire have individual pockets of high student usage, but the trend isn’t widespread in those counties.

The train operator has released the data as part of its campaign to encourage more students to switch from road to rail by investing in an U16 Education Season Ticket before the new school term starts next week.

The scheme, which Northern runs in partnership with 166 secondary schools and university technical colleges across the North of England, offers students 75%-off the cost of their commute.

For more information and details of how to apply for a ticket, parents should visit: www.northernrailway.co.uk/tickets/educational-season.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said:

“It’s interesting to see just how much a difference there is between the counties of students that use the train to get to school.

“We want to encourage as many as possible to make the switch from road to rail – and with 75%-off the cost of their commute, U16 Education Season Tickets offer one of the most generous discounts of any ticket scheme in the country.”