London Underground and railway station usage 2019-20

In the recent weeks both London Underground and the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) have announced their latest station usage data and as always there is plenty of interesting patterns. Back in early November, Transport for London updated their annual station entries and exists. The data is for the calendar year 2019. On 1 December the ORR released their estimates for passenger usage for every railway station in Great Britain, this data is for 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. 

London Underground's top 10 busiest stations in 2019

1. King's Cross St. Pancras (88.2m)

2. Victoria (85.4m)

3. Waterloo (82.9m)

4. Oxford Circus (78.0m)

5. London Bridge (74.3m)

6. Liverpool Street (67.2m)

7. Stratford (64.8m)

8. Bank and Monument (61.7m)

9. Paddington (48.6m)

10. Canary Wharf (47.6m)

With over 88 million passengers in 2019, King's Cross St. Pancras remains the busiest station on the London Underground network. There are no new entries to the top 10 for 2019, however Paddington and Canary Wharf swapped places from the previous year's figures. Canary Wharf remains the busiest station on the network to be served by just one line, the Jubilee line. 

London Underground's least busiest stations in 2019

1. Kensington (Olympia) (109,430)

2. Roding Valley (449,612)

3. Chigwell (524,833)

4. Grange Hill (652,468)

5. North Ealing (880,333)

6. Theydon Bois (896,336)

7. Moor Park (932,748)

8. Ruislip Gardens (1,106,583)

9. Upminster Bridge (1,107,953)

10. Ickenham (1,118,573) 

There is a new least used station on the tube. Roding Valley has held the title in previous years, however London Underground have changed the way they record data for Kensington (Olympia). The station is predominantly served by London Overground services, with the station mainly receiving weekend-only services. Using station entry/exit data would not differentiate between tube and London Overground passengers. Two other stations also use 'LU boarding/alighting' data for their figures; Richmond and Wimbledon. 

Least used London Underground station by line

District line - Kensington (Olympia) (109,430)

Central line - Roding Valley (449,612)

Piccadilly line - North Ealing (880,333)

Metropolitan line - Moor Park (932,748)

Northern line - Mill Hill East (1,407,857)

Bakerloo line - South Kenton (1,415,443)

Circle and Hammersmith & City lines - Goldhawk Road (2,127,422)

Jubilee line - Canons Park (2,981,768)

Victoria line - Blackhorse Road (9,741,998)

Waterloo & City line - Bank & Monument (61,793,808)

There were over 3 billion passengers on the national rail network between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020. This period includes the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, however the 2020/21 figures will show a clearer estimate to how restrictions impacted usage of the national rail network. 

Great Britain's top 10 busiest rail stations 2019/20

1. London Waterloo (86.9m)

2. London Victoria (73.5m)

3. London Liverpool  Street (65.9m)

4. London Bridge (63.0m)

5. Birmingham New Street (46.5m)

6. London Paddington (44.8m)

7. London Euston (44.7m)

8. Stratford (London) (41.9m)

9. London St Pancras International (36.0m)

10. London Kings Cross (32.5m)

Waterloo remains the busiest station in Great Britain, however usage was down by 7.7%. The biggest story from the top 10 is London Paddington receiving an additional 6.3m passengers, with ORR suggesting "journeys to/from Heathrow" have contributed to this increase. The busiest station outside of London remains Birmingham New Street. The 10th busiest railway station in London is Highbury & Islington with 30.4m passengers. Glasgow Central, Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds are the other stations to have over 30.4m passengers. 

Great Britain's least busiest stations 2019/20

1. Berney Arms (42)

2. Elton & Orton (68)

3. Stanlow & Thornton (82)

4. Havenhouse (84)

5. Denton (92)

6. Polesworth (96)

7. Thorpe Culvert (140)

8. Sugar Loaf (156)

9. Reddish South (158)

10. Shippea Hill (164)

The least used station in Great Britain, Berney Arms, only reopened on 24 February but still managed to receive 42 passengers. This is surprising considering the station reopened as the COVID-19 pandemic began to change usual travel patterns. Being a least used station can cause an increase in demand. Sugar Loaf received over 700 passengers during 18/19 as the station was highlighted as one of the least used stations in Wales in 17/18. The former least used station of Redcar British Steel for 17/18 is now more used than 57 other stations. 

London's least busiest stations 2019/20

1. Angel Road (5,882)

2. South Greenford (28,382)

3. Drayton Green (31,610)

4. Sudbury & Harrow Road (38,058)

5. Sudbury Hill Harrow (79,082)

6. Castle Bar Park (81,088)

7. Morden South (87,170)

8. Crews Hill (113,610)

9. Meridian Water (137,050)

10. Birkbeck (147,542)

The least used station in London is a station that was only open for two months of this period, Angel Road. Angel Road closed on 31 May 2019 and I was fortunate enough to be on the final train leaving the station. The station was replaced by Meridian Water on 3 June 2019 and itself features in the ten leas used stations in London for 19/20. You could therefore argue that South Greenford remains the least used station in the capital. With 321,964 passengers, Emerson Park is the current least used London Overground station. 

Next year's figures will be very interesting, however the data released from 2019 and 19/20 for the tube and national rail respectively gives an understanding of travel behaviour before the COVID-19 pandemic. Have you visited any of the stations mentioned in the blog? Let me know on Instagram or Twitter where you can find me on @TubespottingDan