Figures published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) today reveal that stations in London are the most heavily used, with only Birmingham New Street, in 6th place, breaking into the capital’s dominance of the top 10.
Glasgow Central retains its position as the busiest station in Scotland, with passengers using it 32 million times this year, and Cardiff Central was top in Wales with more than 12.5 million entries and exits.
Three new stations opened during the year – Edinburgh Gateway, Kirkstall Forge and Lea Bridge - bringing the total to 2,560. In total, it was estimated that there were over 2.9 billion entries and exits at all rail stations in Great Britain in 2015/16, an increase of 0.4% on the previous year. There were almost 223 million connections made.
This year the ORR has published an interactive graphic with the statistics. This allows users to instantly access key details such as where a station ranks, how usage has changed in recent years and how it compares with other stations.
Notes to Editors
- The Office of Rail and Road is the UK’s rail regulator and strategic roads monitor for England. Follow us @railandroad
- The statistics are available at: https://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/station-usage-estimates
- The interactive graphic available at: https://orr.gov.uk/statistics/popular-statistics
- As Britain does not have a fully gated rail network, it is not possible to accurately record passengers joining or leaving the network. Therefore, these estimates of station usage are largely based on ticket sales. This places a number of limitations on the data, which users should be aware of. Further information can be found on the website.