Those numbers are from 2018. The train-pub in question was from 1949, and at the time ale would have been overwhelmingly the beer of choice - I suspect pilsner/lager wouldn't have been widely available in the UK.
I'm actually surprised cask ale is as high as 13.2% of all beer sold. While "craft beer" (I hate that term) is en vogue and has made people curious to more traditional style beer, the default pint in most pubs will be something lagery like Carling, Tennents or Carlsberg (all three pretty bad, but Tennent's has a nostalgia factor for me).
Me too. I rented a flat right next to the cathedral when doing a semester as an exchange student in Glasgow 20 years ago. What I did't get was how someone, at some point, sold that plot of land next to a 1000 year old cathedral and cemetery, to the smelly Tennent's brewery! Every time I walked past I'd wonder who had agreed to that, and when. City planning disaster, that. I don't remember much from the semester itself but and I blame that on Tennent's too.
If you think about our most notorious pub chain - 'spoons - they generally have a decent selection of cask, so I'm not that surprised that it makes up a decent amount.
The reasons to boycott Spoons have been piling up for years. The strongarming of breweries, the use of the pubs as a pro-Brexit platform... and the bloke in charge is a notorious bellend.
Wetherspoons is cheap, but it's not a net good. (Truth be told I stopped eating there after being served a frozen curry - literally solid ice.)
I'm actually surprised cask ale is as high as 13.2% of all beer sold. While "craft beer" (I hate that term) is en vogue and has made people curious to more traditional style beer, the default pint in most pubs will be something lagery like Carling, Tennents or Carlsberg (all three pretty bad, but Tennent's has a nostalgia factor for me).