London Liverpool Street named UK’s busiest station again

London Liverpool Street has been named as Britain’s busiest station for the third consecutive year.

A total of 98 million passengers entered and exited the station until the end of March, up 3.7% on the year before, according to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

Waterloo, Paddington and Tottenham Court Road were the next most popular stations across the UK. All 10 of the most used stations were in London.

The busiest station outside the capital was Birmingham New Street, which was 13th busiest overall, with 36.6million passengers. The quietest station was Elton and Orston in Nottinghamshire, which recorded just 68 entries and exits.

London Bridge, Victoria, Stratford, Farringdon, Bond Street and Euston complete the top 10.

The makeup of the list of most popular stations has changed, with four of the top 10 served by Britain’s newest railway, the Elizabeth line, which opened in 2022.

Estimates of entries and exits are largely based on ticket sales, the rail regulator said.

Outside of London, Manchester Piccadilly (27.4m) and Leeds (27.3m) were the busiest behind Birmingham New Street.

The most used station in Scotland was Glasgow Central with 25.3m users, just ahead of Edinburgh Waverley with 22.8m entries and exits.

Cardiff Central is the busiest station in Wales with 12.5m entries and exits.

The quietest station, Elton and Orston, is served by one East Midlands Railway train per day in each direction between Mondays and Saturdays.

One service runs to Nottingham, while the other takes passengers towards Skegness. The station is unstaffed and has no seating area or toilet.