Birmingham New Street the busiest railway station outside London while Powys has some of the loneliest
Birmingham New Street is the busiest railway outside London – but still only comes 13th in the list of the UK.
London Liverpool Street has retained its title of Britain's busiest railway station as passenger numbers soared, new figures show.
The estimated number of entries and exits at Liverpool Street in the year to the end of March was 94.5 million, regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said. That is up 14.1 million from 80.4 million in 2022/23, which is largely due to increased usage of the Elizabeth line.
London Paddington maintained its position at number two in the most recent year (66.9 million entries and exits).
And the rest of the top 12 are all in London, with London Euston serving the West Midlands sitting in 10th place.
Tottenham Court Road, which is only served by Elizabeth line trains, rose from seventh spot to third place, with 64.2 million entries and exits.
London Waterloo held the title of Britain's busiest railway station for all but one of the 18 years up to and including 2021/22, but has now fallen to fourth place with 62.5 million entries and exits. It is only used for South Western Railway services.
The busiest stations in England outside London were Birmingham New Street (33.3 million entries and exists), Manchester Piccadilly (25.8 million) and Leeds (24.9 million). The leader in Scotland was Glasgow Central (25.0 million), while Cardiff Central (11.5 million) took top spot in Wales .
The figures also show the stations with the fewest passengers, topped by Denton, Greater Manchester with just 54. There are a number of Powys stations on the list, including Llangynllo with 684 paassengers, Dolau with 680 and Cilmeri with 874.
A total of 1.61 billion passenger journeys were made in the year to the end of March, up 16 per cent on last year.
Here is the list for the most used and least used railway stations in Britain in 2023/24, based on the number of passenger entries and exits. The figures have been published by the Office of Rail and Road.
The list reads, from left to right: name of station and location; total number of passenger entries and exits in 2023/24; (in brackets) total number of entries and exits in 2022/23 plus ranking in 2022/23.
– Top 50 most used
1 London Liverpool Street: 94,499,824 (2022/23: 80,448,194; 1st)
2 London Paddington: 66,859,098 (59,182,926; 2nd)
3 Tottenham Court Road, London: 64,219,040 (34,877,768; 7th)
4 London Waterloo: 62,525,274 (57,789,780; 3rd)
5 Stratford, London: 56,570,866 (44,136,784; 6th)
6 London Victoria: 50,829,676 (45,563,972; 5th)
7 London Bridge: 50,045,010 (47,657,264; 4th)
8 Farringdon, London: 46,049,862 (31,459,904; 9th)
9 Bond Street, London: 38,307,986 (19,400,416; 19th)
10 London Euston: 36,185,290 (31,318,408; 10th)
11 London St Pancras International: 35,959,980 (33,296,120; 8th)
12 Whitechapel, London: 35,246,924 (23,307,210; 14th)
13 Birmingham New Street: 33,335,376 (30,726,280; 11th)
14 Manchester Piccadilly: 25,776,162 (23,558,364; 13th)
15 Glasgow Central: 24,964,246 (20,767,954; 17th)
16 Leeds: 24,891,386 (23,964,156; 12th)
17 London Kings Cross: 24,483,826 (23,287,414; 15th)
18 Clapham Junction, London: 22,858,198 (20,790,150; 16th)
19 Highbury & Islington, London: 21,827,580 (20,601,096; 18th)
20 Edinburgh: 21,307,916 (18,212,628; 21st)
21 East Croydon, London: 19,605,338 (18,514,458; 20th)
22 Gatwick Airport: 19,489,656 (16,507,980; 22nd)
23 London Charing Cross: 17,701,302 (16,191,196; 24th)
24 Canada Water, London: 17,517,222 (16,226,090; 23rd)
25 Romford, London: 14,820,206 (11,603,078; 32nd)
26 Canary Wharf, London: 14,787,440 (9,924,606; 38th)
27 Brighton: 14,547,650 (14,052,890; 25th)
28 Glasgow Queen Street: 14,503,312 (12,283,736; 30th)
29 London Blackfriars: 13,945,996 (12,904,992; 27th)
30 Vauxhall, London: 13,931,936 (13,012,334; 26th)
31 Ealing Broadway, London: 13,699,654 (8,237,356; 48th)
32 Reading: 13,490,220 (12,400,988; 29th)
33 Woolwich, London: 13,237,072 (8,339,576; 47th)
34 Barking, London: 13,236,252 (12,730,212; 28th)
35 Ilford, London: 13,162,522 (8,750,562; 43rd)
36 Liverpool Central: 12,610,748 (11,401,980; 33rd)
37 Wimbledon, London: 12,581,430 (11,693,876; 31st)
38 Liverpool Lime Street: 12,278,888 (11,101,930; 34th)
39 Cardiff Central: 11,499,126 (10,185,022; 37th)
40 London Marylebone: 10,966,304 (10,307,792; 35th)
41 Abbey Wood, London: 10,655,006 (7,118,664; 52nd)
42 London Fenchurch Street: 10,446,678 (10,207,634; 36th)
43 Bristol Temple Meads: 10,227,188 (9,291,680; 40th)
44 Cambridge: 10,033,088 (9,341,600; 39th)
45 West Ham, London: 9,647,284 (9,051,654; 41st)
46 Sheffield: 9,449,310 (8,677,012; 44th)
47 Finsbury Park, London: 9,363,598 (8,559,032; 45th)
48 Stansted Airport: 9,280,540 (7,906,474; 50th)
49 Custom House, London: 9,238,076 (5,272,498; 80th)
50 York: 9,185,236 (8,862,978; 42nd)
– Top 50 least used
1 Denton, Greater Manchester: 54 (2022/23: 34; 2nd)
2 Shippea Hill, Cambridgeshire: 70 (142; 9th)
3 Ince & Elton, Cheshire: 86 (130; 8th)
4 Polesworth, Warwickshire: 118 (188; 13th)
5 Reddish South, Greater Manchester: 128 (100; 5th)
6 Coombe Junction Halt, Cornwall: 140 (120; 6th)
7 Chapelton, Devon: 186 (194; 14th)
8 Clifton, Greater Manchester: 202 (208; 15th)
9 Elton & Orston, Nottinghamshire: 212 (56; 3rd)
10 Kildonan, Highland: 240 (148; 10th)
11 Scotscalder, Highland: 242 (124; 7th)
12 Altnabreac, Highland: 250 (280; 17th)
13 Beasdale, Highland: 260 (170; 11th)
14 Kirton Lindsey, Lincolnshire: 294 (94; 4th)
15 Culrain, Highland: 300 (304; 20th)
16 Pilning, Gloucestershire: 330 (338; 22nd)
17 Buckenham, Norfolk: 360 (354; 23rd)
18 Thorpe Culvert, Lincolnshire: 364 (396; 26th)
19 Lochluichart, Highland: 374 (182; 12th)
20 Ardwick, Greater Manchester: 396 (324; 21st)
21 Locheilside, Highland: 418 (462; 32nd)
22 Invershin, Highland: 440 (232; 16th)
23 Duncraig, Highland: 448 (462; 33rd)
24 Lakenheath, West Suffolk: 480 (562; 38th)
25 Rawcliffe, East Riding of Yorkshire: 498 (442; 30th)
26 Achanalt, Highland: 506 (282; 18th)
27 Acklington, Northumberland: 550 (434; 28th)
28 Kinbrace, Highland: 606 (436; 29th)
29 Lelant Saltings, Cornwall: 630 (652; 45th)
30 Barry Links, Angus: 666 (470; 34th)
31 Roman Bridge, Conwy: 680 (450; 31st)
32 Havenhouse, Lincolnshire: 698 (1,200; 77th)
32= Spooner Row, Norfolk: 698 (382; 25th)
34 Llangynllo, Powys: 780 (684; 47th)
35 Berney Arms, Norfolk: 800 (950; 64th)
35= Hoscar, Lancashire: 800 (914; 61st)
37 Hensall, North Yorkshire: 802 (376; 24th)
37= Portsmouth Arms, Devon: 802 (798; 54th)
39 Hubberts Bridge, Lincolnshire: 806 (896; 58th)
40 Duirinish, Highland: 812 (614; 42nd)
41 Pont-y-Pant, Conwy: 814 (776; 52nd)
42 Dolau, Powys: 828 (680; 46th)
43 Llandecwyn, Gwynedd: 834 (1,010; 68th)
44 Garth, Powys: 838 (586; 39th)
45 Cilmeri, Powys: 874 (760; 51st)
46 Broomfleet, East Riding of Yorkshire: 894 (790; 53rd)
46= Swineshead, Lincolnshire: 894 (1,226; 79th)
48 Thornton Abbey, Lincolnshire: 946 (1,134; 73rd)
49 Wressle, East Riding of Yorkshire: 948 (494; 36th)
50 Tygwyn, Gwynedd: 986 (1,052; 70th)
