It’s that time of the year again when we look at the Most and Least used rail stations in the UK.
Once again, the busiest station in the United Kingdom (for a second year running) is London Liverpool Street.
London Liverpool Street Station – Image, ORR.
Located in the City of London, it’s the terminus of Greater Anglia services, as well as a major connection node for the Elizabeth Line, with it having 94.5 million entries and exits – up by 14 million last year.
Onto the first top ten used stations in the United Kingdom – with all of them in London. After entering the top 10 for the first time in the previous year, Tottenham Court Road leaps four places, gaining just under 30 million entries and exits to take third place from London Waterloo. London St Pancras drops out of the top 10, while Bond Street is a new entry, going from 19th most used last year to ninth this year. London Paddington retains second place by adding an additional six million entries and exits.
The top 10 most used stations in Great Britain
|
Rank
|
Station
|
Entries and Exits
|
Rank last year
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London Liverpool Street | 94.5m | 1 |
| 2 | London Paddington | 66.9m | 2 |
| 3 | Tottenham Court Road | 64.2m | 7 |
| 4 | London Waterloo | 62.5m | 3 |
| 5 | Stratford (London) | 56.6m | 6 |
| 6 | London Victoria | 50.8m | 5 |
| 7 | London Bridge | 50.0m | 4 |
| 8 | Farringdon | 46.0m | 9 |
| 9 | Bond Street | 38.3m | 19 |
| 10 | London Euston | 36.2m | 10 |
Let’s head outside of the big city, Birmingham New Street in the West Midlands is the busiest station outside London, with 33.3 million entries and exits, followed by Manchester and Leeds, with a lot of the other stations being urban stations – except Gatwick Airport.
The top 10 most used stations in Great Britain outside London
|
Rank
|
Station
|
Entries and Exits
|
Rank last year
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham New Street | 33.3m | 1 |
| 2 | Manchester Piccadilly | 25.8m | 3 |
| 3 | Glasgow Central | 25.0m | 4 |
| 4 | Leeds | 24.9m | 2 |
| 5 | Edinburgh Waverley | 21.3m | 5 |
| 6 | Gatwick Airport | 19.5m | 6 |
| 7 | Brighton | 14.5m | 7 |
| 8 | Glasgow Queen Street | 14.5m | 9 |
| 9 | Reading | 13.5m | 8 |
| 10 | Liverpool Central | 12.6m | 10 |
In Scotland, the busiest was Glasgow Central (with 25 million entry and exits) followed by Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street.
Finally, in Wales, the busiest station was Cardiff Central (11.5m entries and exits) followed by Newport and Swansea.
Onto the Least Used Stations
Whilst everyone would love to see lots of trains and stations, some stations get minimal services or are open for minimal periods.
Denton in Greater Manchester, with just two services per week, is the least used station in Great Britain (and England), recording 54 entries and exits in the latest year (up from 34 entries and exits). In Wales, the least used station was Roman Bridge with 680 entries and exits, taking the title from Sugar Loaf station. Scotland’s least used station was Kildonan, with 240 entries and exits, beating out Scotscalder (with 242 entries and exits), the least used last year.
Two stations – Stanlow and Thornton, and Teesside Airport – recorded zero entries and exits this year, but both had services suspended for the entire year, so they have been excluded from the below rankings.
The top 5 least-used stations in Great Britain
|
Rank
|
Station
|
Entries and Exits
|
Rank last year
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denton, Greater Manchester | 54 | 2 |
| 2 | Shippea Hill, Cambridgeshire | 70 | 9 |
| 3 | Ince and Elton, Cheshire | 86 | 8 |
| 4 | Polesworth, Warwickshire | 118 | 13 |
| 5 | Reddish South, Greater Manchester | 128 | 5 |
In Quotes
Feras Alshaker, Director, Planning and Performance at the Office of Rail and Road, said:
“These statistics provide crucial insights for passengers, the rail industry and its stakeholders and demonstrate clearly how travel patterns are changing across the country. Alongside our rail usage statistics they show that since the pandemic rail usage continues to increase and that the investment put into the Elizabeth line is fundamentally reshaping passenger journeys into and around London.”
Railways continue to form backbones
If you want to dive into the data, the Office of Road and Rail Regulation has it all published at https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage.
It is evidence that major projects like the Elizabeth Line can have a huge impact, allowing for modal shift or the creation of new journeys – whilst relieving other transport modes (such as the underground). With governments and agencies, with growth especially across the stations in London (with all the Elizabeth Line statins in the top ten – Liverpool Street, Paddington, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon and Bond Street).
It also shows the power of major rail hubs and when investment is made, people will use the services to take them to centres and homes.
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