Station Usage Figures 2008-9

It's that time of year again! The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has released data showing how popular each and every rail station in the National Rail network is. For the past two years this has been our most popular entry - view these past entries by clicking on the links at the foot of this post. We've also added a header on the main blog sidebar.


View the very latest data by clicking here and read on for our summary of the details. This year's data is believed to be the most accurate yet as a result of the manner in which entries and exits have been counted. For the first time, 2008-9 saw figures estimated for the range of unlimited travel tickets offered by PTEs and TfL. Accordingly, some locations have seen a marked rise in usage.

Top-ten busiest rail stations in mainland Britain (brackets denote last year's rank)

1. London Waterloo - 87,930,076 (1)
   
2. London Victoria - 70,157,115 (2)
   
3. London Liverpool Street - 55,103,416 (3)
   
4. London Bridge - 49,703,152 (4)
   
5. London Charing Cross - 36,659,932 (5)
   
6. London Paddington - 29,302,758 (7)
   
7. Glasgow Central - 27,584,344 (11)
   
8. London Euston - 27,499,986 (6)
   
9. Birmingham New Street - 25,191,945 (18)
   
10. London King's Cross - 24,641,427 (8)
    

Euston appears to have lost around 2 million passengers over the past year, despite the introduction of Virgin Trains' 'Very High Frequency' timetable. Perhaps glitches were present in the 2007-8 data or the knock-on effect of the WCML's upgrade and the replacement buses, cancellations and long delays took their toll on travellers? Lost from this year's Top 10 is East Croyden, which was ranked 9th last year and London Cannon Street (10th). Newcomers are Glasgow Central and Birmingham New Street, the latter noted as having seen growth in excess of 28% over the past year, as a result of Centro's unlimited travel tickets being added.

A very busy Manchester Piccadilly in February (Photo: Paul Bigland)

This year's data doesn't contain a column that states whether a station has seen growth or decline in usage from last year, primarily due to the change in methodology in accepting estimates of the unlimited rover-style tickets in urban areas. We assume the straightforward Growth/Decline column will return next year. Heathrow Express data has not been included and not all data for open-access operators such as Hull Trains and WSMR has been detailed.

Top-1o least busy rail stations in mainland Britain (* starred entries featured last year *)

1. Tees-Side Airport - 44*
   
2. Denton - 56*
   
3. Maidstone Barracks - 70
   
4. Kirton Lindsey - 88
   
5. Barry Links - 94*
   
6. Dorking West - 104*
   
7. Coombe - 118*
   
8. Sugar Loaf - 120
   
9. Pilning - 130
   
10. Buckenham - 132*

Four new stations this year, one of which being in the LEYTR area. Last year, the top two least busy stations could be effectively ignored as they were new; neither appear this time. Tees-Side Airport saw a decline from its 57 passengers during 2007-8 to just 44 during 2008-9.

Top-ten most used interchange stations

1. Clapham Junction - 16,354,822
   
2. East Croyden - 6,371,478
   
3. London Bridge - 4,971,470
   
4. London Waterloo - 4,587,154
   
5. London Victoria - 4,498,079
   
6. Birmingham New Street - 4,044,411
   
7. Thameslink Kings X/St Pancras - 2,841,029
   
8. Lewisham - 2,765,614
   
9. London King's Cross - 2,703,432
   
10. Reading - 2,688,530
    

There are four further stations with just over two million passenger interchanges, so it's a close-run battle in this ranking.

Clapham Junction is reputedly the busiest section of railway in Europe - its station also tops the list of busiest interchanges

Top-ten least used interchange stations

1. Rugeley Town - 1
   
2. Higham - 1
   
3. Rose Grove - 2
   
4. Ledbury - 2
   
5. Stroud - 2
   
6. Clapton - 2
   
7. Upper Warlingham - 2
   
8. Runcorn East - 3
   
9. Bootle New Strand - 4
   
10. Upper Tyndrum - 5

And finally, for us non-Londoners, below is a list of the top-ten busiest non-London stations:

1. Glasgow Central - 27,584,344
   
2. Birmingham New Street - 25,191,945
   
3. Leeds - 22,421,732
   
4. Manchester Piccadilly - 20,132,391
   
5. Liverpool Central - 19,635,814
   
6. Glasgow Queen Street - 18,661,728
   
7. Edinburgh - 17,571,392
   
8. Reading - 14,384,236
   
9. Brighton - 13,806,628
   
10. Gatwick Airport - 11,695,308

2006-7 data
2007-8 data
ORR's web page on Station Usage data