It's time once again for the annual splurge of passenger data from across Britain's railway network, this batch covering the period April 2023 to March 2024.
Last year's data included the first fruits of Crossrail and this year we feel the full force, a purple bombshell that's upended former norms and shaken up the list of busiest stations. Any interchange between tube and Crossrail counts as entering or exiting a National Rail station so some mighty distortions are skewing the numbers.
The UK's ten busiest National Rail stations (2023/24)(with changes since 2022/23) 1) -- Liverpool Street (95m) 2) -- Paddington (67m) 3) ↑4 Tottenham Court Road (64m) 4) ↓1 Waterloo (63m) 5) ↑1 Stratford (57m) 6) ↓1 Victoria (51m) 7) ↓3 London Bridge (50m) 8) ↑1 Farringdon (46m) 9) ↑10 Bond Street (38m) 10) -- Euston (36m)
In its second year of operation Crossrail has consolidated its stranglehold on this list. Six of the top 10 are Crossrail stations, with the arrival of purple trains having displaced the usual trio of Waterloo, London Bridge and Victoria from the summit. Liverpool Street retains the crown it snatched last year, its complement of commuters boosted by through services on the Elizabeth line. With 95 million passengers it's massively ahead of the rest of the pack and I suspect will be the UK's busiest station every year for the foreseeable future.
Paddington used to linger around seventh place but is now second, again thanks to Crossrail. Tottenham Court Road, which wasn't even a National Rail station until two years ago, leaps to an astonishing third place. Stratford, which enjoyed a chart-topping year during the pandemic, settles in fifth which is an impressive ranking for a station outside central London. Farringdon is boosted by being the sole link between Crossrail and Thameslink. Bond Street opened late so had only five months of usage in last year's data, but a full calendar year sees it shoot up to ninth. Whitechapel, amazingly, lurks just outside the top 10 at 12th.
If you're wondering about other Crossrail stations in the listings, Romford (25th) unexpectedly has more passengers than Canary Wharf (26th), then come Ealing Broadway (31st), Reading (32nd), Woolwich (33rd), Ilford (35th), Abbey Wood (41st) and Custom House (49th).
And if you're interested in comparing London's rail termini, the ranking is Liverpool Street > Paddington > Waterloo > Victoria > London Bridge > Euston > St Pancras > King's Cross > Charing Cross > Blackfriars > Marylebone > Fenchurch Street > Cannon Street. All but Cannon Street are in the national Top 50.
The UK's ten busiest National Rail stations outside London (2023/24) 1) -- Birmingham New Street (33m) 2) ↑1 Manchester Piccadilly (26m) 3) ↑1 Glasgow Central (25.0m) 4) ↓2 Leeds (24.9m) 5) -- Edinburgh (21m) 6) -- Gatwick Airport (19m) 7) -- Brighton (14.6m) 8) ↑1 Glasgow Queen Street (14.5m) 9) ↓1 Reading (14m) 10) -- Liverpool Central (13m)
Poor old Birmingham New Street had always been in the national top 10 but Crossrail has again nudged it out. It's now in 13th place overall, with Manchester Piccadilly 14th, Glasgow Central 15th and Leeds 16th. These last three stations often have very similar passenger numbers so don't read too much into this year's shuffle. Liverpool Lime Street is on the cusp of the top 10, just 300,000 behind its Merseyside counterpart.
Over 280 provincial stations served over a million passengers during 2023/24, thirty more than in the previous year. For comparison 220 London stations exceeded a million passengers. In surprising London/not-London comparisons, West Ham was busier than Sheffield, Surbiton was busier than Nottingham, Lewisham was busier than Coventry, Manor Park was busier than Leicester, Hackney Wick was busier than Norwich and Sidcup was busier than Plymouth.
London's ten busiest National Rail stations that aren't central London termini or part of Crossrail (2023/24) 1) -- Clapham Junction (23m) 2) -- Highbury & Islington (22m) 3) -- East Croydon (20m) 4) -- Canada Water (18m) 5) -- Vauxhall (14m) 6) -- Barking (13m) 7) -- Wimbledon (12m) 8) -- West Ham (10m) 9) -- Finsbury Park (9.4m) 10) -- Richmond (8.9m)
Once you strip out central London termini and Crossrail a rather different picture appears, and rankings are more stable with no changes since last year. Half of the top 10 are Overground stations. All but two are also tube stations, where everyone changing to or from the tube technically counts as an entrance or exit even if passengers don't leave the station. Clapham Junction's total would almost double if the data included interchanges.
The next 10: Tottenham Hale, Shoreditch High Street, Seven Sisters, Surbiton, Willesden Junction, Lewisham, Shepherd's Bush, Old Street, Bromley South, Peckham Rye
London's ten least busy Overground stations (2023/24) 1) -- Emerson Park (305,000) 2) ↑1 South Hampstead (429,000) 3) ↓1 Headstone Lane (437,000) 4) ↑1 South Kenton (555,000) 5) ↑3 Wandsworth Road (586,000) 6) ↑1 Hatch End (595,000) 7) ↑2 Penge West (648,000) 8) ↑3 Kilburn High Road (661,000) 9) ↓3 Stamford Hill (696,100) 10) -- South Acton (705,000)
Emerson Park on the runty Romford-Upminster line remains at the bottom of the Overground heap, by some distance. South Hampstead's total is particularly pitiful for a zone 2 station. South Kenton is also one of the tube's least used stations, and combining numbers from the two modes would knock it out of this list. Barking Riverside was 4th last year based on just nine months of traffic, but a full year has bumped its ridership up to 945,000. Half of the ten least busy Overground stations are on the Lioness line.
The least busy station on each Overground line (2023/24) Liberty: Emerson Park (305,000) Lioness: South Hampstead (429,000) Windrush: Wandsworth Road (586,000) Weaver: Stamford Hill (696,100) Mildmay: South Acton (705,000) Suffragette: Crouch Hill (858,000)
That's a timely list as the new Overground line names spring into place over the next seven days.
London's ten least busy National Rail stations (2023/24) 1) ↑1 Sudbury & Harrow Road (19000) 2) ↓1 Drayton Green (20000) 3) -- South Greenford (38000) 4) -- Sudbury Hill Harrow (41000) 5) -- Morden South (70000) 6) ↑1 Birkbeck (82000) 7) ↑2 Coulsdon Town (93000) 8) -- Reedham (95000) 9) ↓3 Castle Bar Park (102000) 10) -- Crews Hill (113000)
Sudbury & Harrow Road is once again London's least used station, nine years after it surrendered its title to a now defunct Angel Road. It sees a measly four trains in the morning peak and four in the evening, so most locals use the nearby Piccadilly line station instead. Drayton Green is close behind, a station that's only a short walk from West Ealing where its trains terminate. South Greenford and Castle Bar Park are also on the little-used Greenford branch. Reedham and Coulsdon Town continue to suffer from a post-pandemic reduction in services on the Tattenham Corner line.
The next 20: Woodmansterne, South Merton, Greenford, South Ruislip, Brent Cross West, West Ruislip, Northolt Park, St Helier, Knockholt, Sundridge Park, Belmont, Bromley North, Ravensbourne, Sutton Common, West Sutton, Wimbledon Chase, Kenley, Riddlesdown, Haydons Road, Emerson Park
And now outside London...
The National Rail stations with NO passengers in 2023/24 0) Stanlow and Thornton [this year 0, last year 0, the previous year 44] 0) Teesside Airport [this year 0, last year 2]
Stanlow & Thornton, an industrial halt in Cheshire, is entirely surrounded by the UK's second largest oil refinery. It used to get a few peak services but has been closed since February 2022 "due to safety concerns of the footbridge which is the only entry point to the station". It also had zero passengers last year. Teesside Airport is new to zero this year, losing its weekly train in May 2022 after the westbound platform closed due to safety issues. Its eastbound platform closed in 2017 after the footbridge was deemed unsafe, cutting the number of weekly trains from two to one. The minimal service and inconvenient location made it the UK's least used station in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Technically both Stanlow and Thornton and Teesside Airport are only temporarily closed, but given their miserable passenger record it's hard to see anyone stumping up for repairs.
The UK's ten least busy National Rail stations (2023/24) 1) ↑1 Denton (54) 2) ↑7 Shippea Hill (70) 3) ↑5 Ince and Elton (86) 4) ↑9 Polesworth (118) 5) -- Reddish South (128) 6) -- Coombe Junction Halt (140) 7) ↑7 Chapelton (186) 8) ↑7 Clifton (202) 9) ↓6 Elton and Orston (212) 10) -- Kildonan (240)
These are the stations that can't even muster five passengers a week, such is the inaccessibility of their location or the paucity of their service, and most have appeared in this Top 10 on many previous occasions. Denton was also the UK's least used station five years ago. Along with Reddish South on the Stockport-Stalybridge line it's served by only one train a week in each direction, currently on a Saturday morning.
Shippea Hill is back in its usual doldrums after a brief bump in visitors inspired by being a least used station. Ince and Elton is Stanlow and Thornton's underwhelmed neighbour. Polesworth on the West Coast Main Line gets one northbound train before 7am but no southbound trains. Coombe Junction is a unpopulated reversing place between Liskeard and Looe. Chapelton is a request stop in the Taw Valley south of Barnstaple. Clifton in northwest Manchester gets one morning and one evening train. Elton & Orston is also served by just two trains a day, one to Nottingham and one to Skegness, and was 2021/22's least used station. Kildonan is the least used station in Scotland, taking over from Scotscalder.
The next 20: Scotscalder, Altnabreac, Beasdale, Kirton Lindsey, Culrain, Pilning, Buckenham, Thorpe Culvert, Lochluichart, Ardwick,
Locheilside, Invershin, Duncraig, Lakenheath, Rawcliffe, Achanalt, Acklington, Kinbrace, Lelant Saltings, Barry Links
For aficionados of least used stations over the years these are all very familiar names. Altogether 26 stations failed to attract 10 passengers a week and 133 stations failed to attract 10 passengers a day. But they all soldier on because closing a railway station remains a very tough legal wrangle, and better to have a little used halt on your doorstep than no station at all.
