Hurrah, it's that time of year again when TfL silently updates its spreadsheet of annual passenger entry/exit totals at every tube station. It's really early this year.
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 (2025)(with changes since 2024) 1) ↑1 King's Cross St Pancras (73m) 2) ↓1 Waterloo (70m) 3) ↑1 Tottenham Court Road (60m) 4) ↓1 Victoria (59.3m) 5) Liverpool Street (59.2m) 6) ↑1 Paddington (57m) 7) ↓1 London Bridge (55m) 8) Stratford (52m) 9) Oxford Circus (51m) 10) ↑1 Bond Street (42m)
King's Cross returns to the top of the table after Waterloo nipped in for a year. Several other small swaps take place lower down with Tottenham Court Road overtaking Victoria and Paddington leapfrogging London Bridge. Liverpool Street may be Britain's busiest National Rail station but it's only the fifth busiest tube station. All ten stations have lower passenger totals than last year. 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: Farringdon, Bank/Monument, Euston, Canary Wharf, Green Park, South Kensington, Moorgate, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, North Greenwich
24 tube stations had more than 20 million passengers last year and 60 exceeded 10 million. For comparison, 22 National Rail stations had more than 20 million passengers and 50 exceeded 10 million... so pretty similar.
London's ten busiest tube stations outside Zone 2 (2025) 1) Barking (17.2m) 2) ↑1 Ealing Broadway (17.0m) 3) ↓1 Wimbledon (16.7m) 4) Wembley Park (15.3m) 5) Tottenham Hale (13.8m) 6) Walthamstow Central (12.8m) 7) ↑2 Richmond (12.3m) 8) ↓1 Tooting Broadway (11.7m) 9) ↓1 Seven Sisters (11.6m) 10) Upton Park (11.1m)
Barking remains in the top spot while Ealing Broadway nudges ahead of Wimbledon. 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 (8.4m) would be the highest performing tube station in Zone 5 and Heathrow Terminals 2&3 (5.3m) 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, Tottenham Hale, Knightsbridge, Walthamstow Central
Tube stations with over 10% more passengers in 2025 than 2024
Roding Valley, Kew Gardens, Upminster Bridge
Tube stations with over 10% fewer passengers in 2025 than 2024
Tufnell Park, Burnt Oak, Hendon Central, Park Royal, Sudbury Town, Alperton, North Ealing, Piccadilly Circus, Sudbury Hill, South Harrow. Covent Garden. Kingsbury, Hyde Park Corner
Last year Colindale and Kentish Town were both closed during the period of the survey. Their neighbouring stations were thus busier than usual but are now back to normal, hence Tufnell Park, Burnt Oak and Hendon Central show the biggest decline in passenger numbers.
London's 10 least busy tube stations (2025) 1) Roding Valley (201000) 2) Chigwell (304000) 3) Grange Hill (367000) 4) North Ealing (510000) 5) Theydon Bois (699000) 6) ↑1 Moor Park (795000) 7) ↑2 Ickenham (805000) 8) Ruislip Gardens (813469) 9) ↓3 Upminster Bridge (813470) 10) Croxley (865000)
As usual the top three consists of the three stops on the Hainault shuttle. Roding Valley remains the least used station on the Underground but its passenger numbers are up 22% since 2024, the greatest increase of any tube station. North Ealing is unusually lightly used for a zone 3 station because Ealing Broadway and West Acton are close by and more useful. It haemorrhaged 18% of its passengers in 2025. Upminster Bridge had one more passenger than Ruislip Gardens! 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 2.5m passengers last year, whereas if you were only to count District line passengers it'd easily beat Roding Valley and be the tube's least used station.
The next 10: Fairlop, South Kenton, Chesham, West Acton, Barkingside, West Harrow, Boston Manor, Hillingdon, Park Royal, Sudbury Town
The least busy tube station in each zone (2025) zone 1) Regent's Park (2.1m) zone 2) Goldhawk Road (1.8m) zone 3) North Ealing (0.5m) zone 4) Roding Valley (0.2m) zone 5) Ruislip Gardens (0.8m) 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 10: Greenwich (12m), Canary Wharf, Limehouse, Lewisham, Woolwich Arsenal, Shadwell, Heron Quays, East India, Westferry, South Quay
DLR Bottom 10: Beckton Park (0.4m), Stratford High Street, Prince Regent, Royal Albert, Elverson Road, Abbey Road, Blackwall, Star Lane, Poplar, King George V
n.b. Tube stations with DLR services don't count, otherwise Bank, Stratford and Canning Town would all be in the Top 5.
Canary Wharf would normally be the busiest DLR station but Greenwich beat it last year because Cutty Sark was closed. 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 20.
Crossrail Top 10: Canary Wharf (19m), Abbey Wood, Hayes & Harlington, Woolwich, Heathrow T2&3, Ilford, Romford, Custom House, Heathrow T5, Southall
Crossrail Bottom 10: Iver (405000), Taplow, Langley, Twyford, Burnham, Hanwell, West Ealing, Gidea Park, Shenfield, Acton Main Line
n.b. Tube stations with Crossrail services don't count, otherwise every station from Paddington to Whitechapel would beat everything here.
Overground Top 10: Liverpool Street (16m), Clapham Junction, Shepherd's Bush, Hackney Central, Watford Junction, Peckham Rye, Shoreditch High Street, Denmark Hill, Dalston Junction, Dalston Kingsland Overground Bottom 10: Emerson Park (0.3m), South Hampstead, Headstone Lane, Theobalds Grove, Hatch End, Penge West, Wandsworth Road, Cheshunt, Kilburn High Road, South Acton
n.b. Tube stations with Overground services don't count.
Liverpool Street and Clapham Junction are a very long way ahead of Shepherd's Bush. South Hampstead is the least used of all zone 2 stations. Barking Riverside has crept out of the bottom 10 (it's number 12) as the amount of housing nearby grows. All six Overground lines are represented in the Bottom 10, 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, Iver, Beckton Park, North Ealing, Taplow, South Hampstead and Theydon Bois. That's five tube stations, two Overground stations, two Elizabeth line stations and a DLR 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.
