Hurrah, it's that time of year again when TfL silently updates its spreadsheet of annual passenger entry/exit totals at every tube station.
As usual passenger numbers are surveyed for a typical week in autumn then multiplied up to a full year.
The data also includes DLR, Overground and Crossrail stations, but we'll get to those later.
London's ten busiest tube stations (2024)(with changes since 2023) 1) ↑1 Waterloo (77.4m) 2) ↓1 King's Cross St Pancras (77.1m) 3) Victoria (63m) 4) Tottenham Court Road (62m) 5) Liverpool Street (61m) 6) London Bridge (58m) 7) ↑2 Paddington (56m) 8) ↓1 Stratford (55m) 9) ↓1 Oxford Circus (53m) 10) Farringdon (41m)
Waterloo returns to the top of the table after three years of King's Cross dominance, although the margin is very small. Victoria manages to stay ahead of Tottenham Court Road and Liverpool Street, the latter currently Britain's busiest National Rail station. 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, Euston, Canary Wharf, Green Park, South Kensington, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Moorgate, North Greenwich
London's ten busiest tube stations outside Zone 2 (2024) 1) ↑2 Barking (18.2m) 2) ↑6 Wimbledon (17.4m) 3) ↓1 Ealing Broadway (17.1m) 4) ↓3 Wembley Park (16.5m) 5) Tottenham Hale (13.8m) 6) ↓2 Walthamstow Central (13.4m) 7) ↓1 Tooting Broadway (12.7m) 8) ↓1 Seven Sisters (12.7m) 9) ↑3 Richmond (12.0m) 10) ↑5 Upton Park (11.8m)
Barking returns to the top spot, not because Wembley Park's seen fewer passengers but because Barking's total has risen more. The top three here all have gatelines shared by tube and rail services so Wembley Park's total is more reliably tubular. Northeast London has a particularly strong showing including three stations on the Victoria line. If the list were to continue then Harrow-on-the-Hill (8.6m) would be the highest performing tube station in Zone 5 and Heathrow Terminals 2&3 (6.0m) 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, Wimbledon, Old Street, Knightsbridge, Tottenham Hale, Covent Garden
Tube stations with over 20% more passengers in 2024 than 2023
Burnt Oak, Harrow & Wealdstone, Hendon Central, Upton Park, South Ealing, Buckhurst Hill, West Ruislip, West Harrow, Barking
Tube stations with over 10% fewer passengers in 2024 than 2023
Roding Valley, Kew Gardens, Finchley Central, Hyde Park Corner, Upminster Bridge, Woodside Park, Caledonian Road, Grange Hill
n.b. Colindale and Kentish Town are both recorded as 'station closed', hence both have a passenger total of zero. Colindale was in fact only closed for six months but this included the period of the survey. Likewise Kentish Town was actually open for the very last week of 2024 but that's not included either. Technically Kentish Town must be the least used tube station last year, but I've ignored it in the table that follows.
London's 10 least busy tube stations (2024) 1) Roding Valley (172000) 2) Chigwell (307000) 3) Grange Hill (353000) 4) North Ealing (624000) 5) Theydon Bois (740000) 6) ↑4 Upminster Bridge (741000) 7) Moor Park (834000) 8) ↓2 Ruislip Gardens (861000) 9) ↑2 Ickenham (871000) 10) ↓1 Croxley (898000)
Roding Valley remains the least used station on the Underground, just like it always is. The Essex end of the Central line has a strong showing including all three stops on the Hainault shuttle, all of which had significantly fewer passengers than the previous year. 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. Only four of these ten stations lie within the Greater London boundary.
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: Fairlop, South Kenton, Chesham, West Acton, West Harrow, Barkingside, West Finchley, North Wembley, Chorleywood, Northwood Hills
The least busy tube station in each zone (2024) zone 1) Regent's Park (2.3m) zone 2) Goldhawk Road (1.8m) zone 3) North Ealing (0.6m) zone 4) Roding Valley (0.2m) zone 5) Ruislip Gardens (0.9m) zone 6) Theydon Bois (0.7m) zone 7) Moor Park (0.8m) zone 8) Chalfont & Latimer (1.5m) zone 9) Chesham (1.0m)
And while we're here...
DLR Top 5: Canary Wharf (12m), Lewisham, Greenwich, Woolwich Arsenal, Cutty Sark
DLR Bottom 5: Beckton Park (0.5m), Stratford High Street, Abbey Road, Elverson Road, Blackwall
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 15.
n.b. Tube stations with Crossrail services don't count, otherwise every station from Paddington to Whitechapel would beat everything here.
Iver may be the least used Elizabeth line station but its passenger numbers are up 34% year on year.
Overground Top 10: Liverpool Street (17m), Clapham Junction, Shepherd's Bush, Shoreditch High Street, Peckham Rye, Watford Junction, Denmark Hill, Dalston Kingsland, Hackney Central, Dalston Junction Overground Bottom 10: Emerson Park (0.3m), Headstone Lane, South Hampstead, Theobalds Grove, Hatch End, Wandsworth Road, Kilburn High Road, Penge West, South Acton, Barking Riverside
n.b. Tube stations with Overground services don't count.
Barking Riverside still 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. All six Overground lines are represented here, with the Liberty line taking the 'least used' crown.
Taken overall, TfL's ten least used stations are Roding Valley, Chigwell, Emerson Park, Grange Hill, Headstone Lane, Beckton Park, South Hampstead, Iver, North Ealing and Theobalds Grove. That's four tube stations, four Overground stations, a DLR station and an Elizabeth line station.
As a final statistic, Roding Valley may be TfL's least used station by a country mile, but it's still busier than 45% of National Rail stations. We barely know what 'least used' means here in London.
