As I understand it, that's the number of tickets bought at those stations. People may buy tickets elsewhere or have season tickets etc.
Still, that won't make a difference of such a huge order or magnitute.
Dr Beeching would be sharpening his axe

Maybe if they put a useful number of trains on, they might get a few more passengers? If your only service is say 2.30 on a Tuesday afternoon, how many passengers do you expect to get?

We've got a station on our line called Dovey Junction. It used to be a very important station, housing a signal box, a station, and a pub, it is the junction of the Cambrian coast line and the line to Aberystwyth. It is about a mile from anywhere and now has nothing on it bar a bus shelter and a few benches. Due to its remoteness, few people get on and off, resulting in a very clean station! Up until recently (2011) it was an important station for picking up an RETB token, though I'm still unsure why it hasn't become a request stop as ERTMS no longer requires the stop to pick up a token. I think part of the problem is that passengers who want to go up the coast have "Change at Dovey Junction" on tickets and route plans, however the train splits an Machynlleth, so much people make sure they are on the right half there.
I guess since the Osprey project the station has been somewhat busier with bird watchers.

The station back home only used to have two trains per day, one in the morning going towards Chippenham (I think) and then another quite late in the evening coming back.

Certainly no regulars.

There was a documentary on a few months ago about people (train spotters) who deliberately go to ride on these 'ghost trains'.
Apparently some lines have one train a week as it's a retirement of their franchise to keep certain stations open.

These stations might do much better if there were more trains using them. One train per week is hardly viable.

I've ridden the Eurostar from Manchester to London fully staffed and me as the only passenger. Its not on any timetable but due to a franchise requirement it ran regularly.

Yes - I remember seeing that. Very odd. There are bus routes which are the same - no one uses them, but they have to be run.