This is a list of the busiest
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
s in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
on the
National Rail
National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...
network for the 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 financial year. The dataset records patterns of mobility during the second year of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, with significantly reduced levels of mobility compared with the
2019–20 data. Extended periods of significantly reduced commuting and long distance travel caused many major stations to drop in the ranking. During 2021–22 there were 990 million passenger journeys on the network, compared to 388 million in 2020–21 and 1,739 million in 2019–20. With
pandemic restrictions eliminated during the year, passenger levels during 2021–22 were more than double those of the
previous year. The busiest station was
London Waterloo, replacing Stratford Regional which was top of the ranking the previous year.
Methodology
The figures are collected by the
Office of Rail and Road
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways.
ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...
, and are estimates based on ticket usage data use of an Origin Destination Matrix, a comprehensive matrix of rail flows between stations throughout Great Britain in the financial year of 2021–22. The data count entries and exits at any station. Note that the data covers mainland Great Britain and surrounding small islands (such as the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
), not the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and so exclude tickets within
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
and
Eurostar
Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operate ...
. There are various further limits to the data due to the variety of ticketing options available on rail services within the UK; these are outlined in full in the report on the data.
Only tickets sold for
National Rail
National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...
services are included; some stations may also be served by underground
metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...
or urban
light rail networks. Stations serving solely the London Underground,
light rail, special tours or
heritage railways are therefore excluded. Data for 2021–22 was published on 24 November 2022.
All stations
There were 24 stations with more than 10million entries and exits, compared to five stations the previous year and 43 in 2019–20.
See also
*
List of busiest railway stations in Great Britain (2020–21)
*
List of busiest railway stations in Great Britain (2019–20)
*
List of busiest London Underground stations
This is a list of busiest London Underground stations for the 2021 calendar year. The dataset records patterns of mobility during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, with significantly reduced levels of mobility when c ...
*
List of busiest railway stations in Europe
Below is a list of the busiest railway stations in Europe. Train stations with more than 30 million passengers per year are shown.
Only data from national networks is shown. Notably, the London stations only include figures on the National Rail ne ...
*
List of busiest railway stations in North America This is a list of the busiest railway stations in North America. The figures are collected by the different operating agencies of each railway station, and are estimates based on ticket usage data, crowd sizes and other extrapolations.
Methodology ...
*
List of busiest railway stations in West Yorkshire
This is a list of the busiest railway stations in West Yorkshire, between 2012 and 2023. During this period, Leeds railway station has been the busiest, with Huddersfield ranked in second place. By the 2022–2023 year, Leeds was the second busie ...
Notes
References
External links
Station usage- Main page
{{Major railway stations in Britain
Busiest railway stations in Great Britain