New figures reveal a huge surge in passenger numbers at Britain’s busiest railway station, while the least used station only records 54!
London Liverpool Street has retained its title of Britain’s busiest railway station in the year to the end of March, according to regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
The estimated number of entries and exits was 94.5 million, up 14.1 million from the 2022/23 numbers.
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The increase is largely due to increased usage of the Elizabeth line.
London Paddington maintained its position at number two in the most recent year (66.9 million entries and exits).
Tottenham Court Road, which is only served by Elizabeth line trains, rose from seventh spot to third place, with 64.2 million entries and exits.
The Elizabeth line stretches from Reading in Berkshire and Heathrow Airport in west London to Abbey Wood in south-east London and Shenfield in Essex.
It runs via tunnels built by the Crossrail project between Paddington in west London and Abbey Wood. The line opened in May 2022.
London Waterloo, which held the title of Britain’s busiest railway station for all but one of the 18 years up to and including 2021/22, has now fallen to fourth place with 62.5 million entries and exits.
It is only used for South Western Railway services.
Outside of London, the busiest stations in England were Birmingham New Street (33.3 million entries and exists), Manchester Piccadilly (25.8 million) and Leeds (24.9 million).
The leader in Scotland was Glasgow Central (25.0 million), while Cardiff Central (11.5 million) took top spot in Wales.
A total of 1.61 billion passenger journeys were made in the year to the end of March, up 16% from 1.38 billion in the previous year, the ORR said.
Denton in Greater Manchester was Britain’s least-used railway station in 2023/24 with 54 entries and exits.
It is on the line between Stockport and Stalybridge, which was built to take trains to Leeds but saw its timetable cut in the 1990s after services were re-routed.
Denton is served by two Northern trains per week – one in each direction – which are both on Saturday mornings.
A train to Stockport departs at 8.42am, while a service to Stalybridge leaves at 9.04am.
Railway stations are often kept open despite being rarely used because it is easier to arrange for a train to stop infrequently than obtain permission for closure.
Estimates of entries and exits are largely based on ticket sales.
