Hurrah, it's that time of year again when TfL silently updates its spreadsheet of annual passenger entry/exit totals at every tube station.
To be honest they did this last month, that's how silently the data was updated, but at least this all happened pre-cyberattack.
As usual passenger numbers are surveyed for a typical week in autumn then multiplied up to a full year. In good news this is the first year since the pandemic free from any travel restrictions, so we're now back to whatever the new normal is. 2023 was also the first full year of Crossrail operations so what follows has a somewhat purple tinge in places.
London's ten busiest tube stations (2023)(with changes since 2022) 1) King's Cross St Pancras (72m) 2) Waterloo (70m) 3) Victoria (60m) 4) ↑3 Tottenham Court Road (59m) 5) Liverpool Street (57m) 6) ↓2 London Bridge (55m) 7) ↑1 Stratford (54m) 8) ↓2 Oxford Circus (51m) 9) Paddington (49m) 10) ↑3 Farringdon (40m)
It's business as normal at the head of the list where King's Cross, Waterloo and Victoria remain in the top three slots. But Crossrail is making itself felt with Tottenham Court Road climbing to fourth place, indeed half of the tube's Top 10 are also on the Elizabeth line. The spreadsheet confirms that this is gateline data, i.e. passengers entering or exiting the station, so interchanges are not counted and no distinction is being made regarding mode of travel. Oxford Circus remains the busiest tube-only station and Stratford is still the busiest tube station outside zone 1.
The next 10: Bond Street, Bank/Monument, Canary Wharf, Euston, Green Park, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, South Kensington, Moorgate, North Greenwich
London's ten busiest tube stations outside Zone 2 (2023) 1) ↑1 Wembley Park (15.5m) 2) ↑2 Ealing Broadway (15.4m) 3) Barking (15.1m) 4) ↑1 Walthamstow Central (13.3m) 5) ↑1 Tottenham Hale (13.2m) 6) ↑1 Tooting Broadway (12.4m) 7) ↓6 Seven Sisters (12.2m) 8) Wimbledon (11.2m) 9) East Ham (10.8m) 10) Wood Green (9.1m)
Wembley Park scrapes into first place here, its roster of world class events beating the Crossrail influence at Ealing Broadway. Barking is the only other zone 4 station in the Top 10. Seven Sisters tumbles from the top spot, losing a quarter of its gateline numbers compared to 2022. Nevertheless northeast London has a particularly strong showing including two other stations on the Victoria line (Blackhorse Road just misses out in 11th place). If the list were to continue then Harrow-on-the-Hill (8.4m) would be the highest performing station in Zone 5 and Uxbridge (5.4m) the busiest in Zone 6.
London's ten busiest tube stations that are only on one line
Canary Wharf, North Greenwich, Vauxhall, Brixton, Camden Town, Old Street, Knightsbridge, Walthamstow Central, Covent Garden, Tooting Broadway
Tube stations with over 20% more passengers in 2023 than 2022
Richmond, Tufnell Park, Farringdon, Upminster, Chalfont & Latimer, Whitechapel, South Harrow
Tube stations with over 10% fewer passengers in 2023 than 2022
South Ealing, Seven Sisters, South Kenton, Lancaster Gate, Finsbury Park, Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch
This is still my favourite list of the year...
London's 10 least busy tube stations (2023) 1) Roding Valley (268000) 2) Chigwell (332000) 3) Grange Hill (397000) 4) North Ealing (606000) 5) Theydon Bois (734000) 6) ↑2 Ruislip Gardens (807000) 7) ↓1 Moor Park (808000) 8) ↑6 South Kenton (821000) 9) Croxley (838000) 10) ↓3 Upminster Bridge (854000)
Roding Valley remains the least used station on the Underground, just like it always is. The Essex end of the Central line has a very strong showing including all three stops on the Hainault shuttle, as per usual. North Ealing is unusually lightly used for a zone 3 station, but that's because Ealing Broadway and West Acton are close by and more useful. It's worth saying that South Kenton doesn't have a gateline so TfL go along and do a proper manual count, that's how seriously they take this data.
n.b. In this particular set of data Kensington (Olympia) counts as an Overground station, recording 2.3m passengers last year, whereas if you were only to count District line passengers it'd almost certainly beat Roding Valley and be the tube's least used station.
The next 10: Ickenham, Fairlop, Chesham, West Harrow, West Acton, Barkingside, West Ruislip, North Wembley, West Finchley, Hillingdon
The least busy tube station in each zone (2023) zone 1) Regent's Park (2.3m) zone 2) Goldhawk Road (1.8m) zone 3) North Ealing (0.6m) zone 4) Roding Valley (0.3m) zone 5) Ruislip Gardens (0.8m) zone 6) Theydon Bois (0.7m) zone 7) Moor Park (0.8m) zone 8) Chalfont & Latimer (1.6m) zone 9) Chesham (1.0m)
And while we're here...
DLR Top 5: Canary Wharf (12m), Limehouse, Cutty Sark, Lewisham, Woolwich Arsenal
DLR Bottom 5: Beckton Park (0.5m), Stratford High Street, Abbey Road, Elverson Road, Royal Albert
n.b. Tube stations with DLR services don't count, otherwise Bank, Stratford and Canning Town would be in the Top 5.
Beckton Park remains Tumbleweed Central after the neighbouring office development stalled. Pudding Mill Lane spent two decades in the Bottom 5 but thanks to ABBA it's no longer even in the Bottom 10.
n.b. Tube stations with Crossrail services don't count, otherwise every station from Paddington to Whitechapel would beat everything here.
Southall, West Drayton and Acton Main Line all more than doubled their passenger numbers in 2023 compared to 2022, such was the impact of launching cross-London services.
Overground Top 10: Clapham Junction (13m), Liverpool Street, Denmark Hill, Shoreditch High Street, Shepherd's Bush, Hackney Central, Dalston Junction, New Cross Gate, Dalston Kingsland, Surrey Quays Overground Bottom 10: Emerson Park (0.3m), Headstone Lane, South Hampstead, Bushey, Hatch End, Theobalds Grove, Kilburn High Road, Wandsworth Road, South Acton, Barking Riverside
n.b. Tube stations with Overground services don't count.
Barking Riverside being one of the ten least used Overground stations is disappointing given it's the sole station on an extension that cost £327m, but that's because they built the railway before most of the houses.
And as we await the imminent renaming of the Overground lines, here's a final list with a touch of zeitgeist about it.
The least used station on each Overground line (2023) Suffragette line: Barking Riverside (844000) Mildmay line: South Acton (749000) Windrush line: Wandsworth Road (747000) Weaver line: Theobalds Grove (686000) Lioness line: Headstone Lane (459000) Liberty line: Emerson Park (274000)
