Railway station usage 2018-19

Today, Tuesday 14 January 2020, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) announced their estimates for passenger usage for every railway station in Great Britain. The announcement of this data is always exciting with some interesting patterns and stories. All of the data in this blog is from the period of April 2018 to March 2019. The data released does not include London Underground figures.

London's top 10 busiest rail stations 2018/19

1. Waterloo (94m)
2. Victoria (75m)
3. London Liverpool Street (69m)
4. London Bridge (61m)
5. Euston (46m)
6. Stratford (41m)
7. Paddington (38m)
8. St Pancras (36m)
9. King's Cross (35m)
10. Highbury & Islington (30m)

There has been no change in the most used station in London, and the whole of the country, with Waterloo. The top 10 most used stations in the capital have not changed since last year's figures. London Bridge has seen a significant increase in passengers of 13 million from last year, this is largely due to the completion of must needed upgrades. 

Across the country, only four other railway stations saw usage figures in excess of 30 million:

• Birmingham New Street (48m)
• Glasgow Central (33m)
• Leeds (31m)
• Manchester Piccadilly (30m)

With 33 million passengers, the busiest station in Scotland was Glasgow Central. The busiest station in Wales was Cardiff Central with over 10 million passengers. When it comes to these statistics, some of the most exciting are the lesser used stations.

London's least busiest rail stations 2018/19

1. South Greenford (28,100)
2. Drayton Green (29,200)
3. Angel Road (32,900)
4. Sudbury & Harrow Road (42,300)
5. Morden South (67,500)
6. Sudbury Hill Harrow (79,600)
7. Castle Bar Park (79,900)
8. South Merton (115,000)
9. Birkbeck (137,000)
10. Crews Hill (139,000)

South Greenford retains its status as the least used rail station in London. Angel Road closed in May 2019, so still appears in this edition of the ORR figures, but as the third least used station in London. As this data is for the period of March 2018 to April 2019, it does not include London's newest station, Meridian Water, nor Warrington West and Robroyston. 

If 28,100 passengers a year seems small, within the context of London it is, the least used station(s) in the country had just 46 passengers - Denton and Stanlow & Thornton. This means Redcar British Steel is no longer the country's least used station, but instead saw an increase in passengers of over 800% to become the 25th least used station in the country. 

Visiting a least or lowly used station is an experience I recommend every transport enthusiast does this year. Two visits that spring to mind for me is visiting Angel Road and Elton & Orston. With 164 passengers, Elton & Orston is the least used station in Nottinghamshire and the 6th least used in the country. A highlight of 2019 for me was visiting Angel Road on its final day in service. I was one of over 30 people to board the final service from one of London's most intriguing stations.