London's ten busiest tube stations (2015) 1) ↑2 Waterloo (95.1m)2) King's Cross St Pancras (93.4m)3) ↓2 Oxford Circus (92.4m)4) Victoria (82.9m)5) ↑1 Liverpool Street (73.3m)6) ↓1 London Bridge (72.0m)7) Stratford (61.4m)8) Bank/Monument (57.5m)9) Canary Wharf (54.4m)10) Paddington (49.6m)
Waterloo returns to the top of the tube rankings, after relinquishing its crown to Oxford Circus for a single year, adding almost four million passengers on top of 2014's total. King's Cross and Victoria hold firm at two and four respectively, while Liverpool Street and London Bridge swap places, the latter presumably the casualty of continued long-term engineering works on the commuter lines feeding into the mainline station. There's no change further down the top ten, with Bank/Monument adding the greatest number of passengers since last year.
For comparison, ten years ago King's Cross St Pancras had 52m passengers, but it's now 93m. Over the same period Canary Wharf has rocketed from 38m to 54m, and Stratford's usage has almost tripled from 22m to 61m. It's no wonder Crossrail's looking an essential addition to London's transport network, rather than simply nice to have.
London's ten busiest tube stations that aren't also National Rail stations (2015) 1) Oxford Circus (92.4m)2) Bank/Monument (57.5m)3) Canary Wharf (54.4m)4) Leicester Square (43.7m)5) Piccadilly Circus (42.8m)6) ↑3 Holborn (40.5m)7) ↓1 Green Park (39.6m)8) ↑* Bond Street (37.1m)9) ↓1 South Kensington (33.9m)10) ↑* Brixton (30.8m)
The top five tube-only stations have remained static over the last twelve months, while Holborn has leapt up into sixth place with a 10% increase in passengers (which perhaps puts the escalator trial into perspective). Most of these ten non-rail stations are at the heart of the West End, delivering millions of Londoners to the shops and to work. Canary Wharf is an exception - that's simply work - and look at Brixton nudging in at number 10, as south London makes its presence stronger felt.
London's ten busiest tube stations outside Zone 1 (2015) 1) Stratford (61.4m)2) Canary Wharf (54.4m)3) Brixton (30.8m)4) ↑1 Finsbury Park (28.85m)5) ↓1 Hammersmith (District & Piccadilly) (28.83m)6) North Greenwich (26.4m)7) ↑1 Shepherd's Bush (22.3m)8) ↓1 Camden Town (21.9m)9) Highbury & Islington (18.4m)10) Walthamstow Central (18.3m)
This list has barely changed since last year, with the swap between 4th and 5th places merely a statistical technicality. It's instructive that Walthamstow Central may be tenth on this non-central list but it's merely the 46th busiest tube station overall, because zone 1 is where the vast majority of the action is.
London's ten least busy tube stations (2015) 1) Roding Valley (261000)2) Chigwell (559000)3) Grange Hill (658000)4) ↑1 Theydon Bois (850000)5) ↓1 Chesham (875000)6) Moor Park (886000)7) North Ealing (893000)8) ↑* South Kenton (957000)9) ↓1 Croxley (1050000)10) Ruislip Gardens (1110000)
The least used stations on the Underground remain those at the Essex end of the Central line, with poor Roding Valley less than half as popular as the next station on the list. An additional 60000 passengers a year are now using Chesham, hence its downward move, while Croxley also does well to nudge the same way. As for South Kenton, that's yo-yoed in and out of the Least Busy Top Ten for years, but this is its highest position yet. It's notable that none of these ten stations will be receiving a Night Tube service (although station number 11, Fairlop, will).
The next ten least busy stations: Fairlop, Chorleywood, Upminster Bridge, Ickenham, Mill Hill East, West Harrow, Barkingside, Chalfont & Latimer, West Ruislip, West Finchley
The ten least busy tube stations in Zone 1 (2015) 1) Lambeth North (3.3m)2) Regent's Park (3.5m)3) Edgware Road (4.5m)4) ↑2 Bayswater (5.2m)5) Borough (5.4m)6) ↑2 Mansion House (5.6m)7) ↑2 Lancaster Gate (6.3m)8) ↑* Edgware Road (7.2m)9) ↓2 Hyde Park Corner (7.4m)10) ↓6 Cannon Street (7.5m)
The top three least used stations in zone 1 are all on the Bakerloo line, which hints strongly at this being central London's least busy tube line. The other stations are all over the place, but generally on or outside the Circle line. Cannon Street's rapid descent is in part due to now being open on Sundays, and in part to being the recipient of increasing numbers of commuter trains bypassing London Bridge.
London's ten tube stations with the biggest percentage increase in passengers (2010→2015) 1) Stratford (+128%)2) Chesham (+105%)3) Cannon Street (+90%)4) Southwark (+79%)5) Canons Park (+69%)6) Bermondsey (+59%)7) Kensington (Olympia) (+58%)8) Wembley Park (+56%)9) Tottenham Hale (+54%)10) Bromley-by-Bow (+53%)
You'd expect Stratford to be top of this list, and it is, and Bromley-by-Bow also feels the Olympic housing effect by landing at number 10. Canons Park and Wembley Park also owe their rise to recent housing developments near each station, while Bermondsey and Southwark are proving the wisdom of routing the Jubilee line extension along the South Bank. And just look again at those increases in passengers, in every case in excess of 50%, and this over a mere five year period. If your train to work is feeling more crowded, you are not alone.
» Tube passenger data here (total annual entry and exit frequencies)
» For the annual rail passenger data update, see last December's post
