Busiest train station in Westminster revealed

Undated file photo of a person buying a train ticket. English rail fares will rise by up to 8% in 2024 if the Government uses the same formula as this year, new figures show. The Department for Transport (DfT) aligned this year's cap on train fare increases with Britain's average earnings growth for July 2022, which was 5.9%. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday show the same measure for July 2023 was 8%. Issue date: Tuesday September 12, 2023.

The busiest train station in Westminster has been revealed.

Office for Rail and Road data looks at the number of people entering and exiting every train station in the country, including the five stations for which data was collected in Westminster.

Its figures show Liverpool Street in London overtook Waterloo as the most-used station in Great Britain, which the ORR attributed to the opening of London's latest train service, the Elizabeth Line.

Waterloo had been the busiest station in the country in all but one of the previous 18 years.

But what about in Westminster?

Its figures show London Paddington station was the busiest in the area, with 59.2 million entries and exits recorded in the year to March.

In fact, Paddington – also on the Elizabeth Line – moved above Waterloo and into second nationally.

Within Westminster, the second busiest station was London Victoria, with 45.6 million.

In third was Bond Street with 19.4 million, while 16.2 million entries and exits saw London Charing Cross finish in fourth, and London Marylebone rounded out the top five on 10.3 million.

Elsewhere in Britain

The busiest stations outside London were Birmingham New Street, Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly.

Glasgow Central was the most used station in Scotland, and Cardiff Central topped the list in Wales.

The least used station that was open throughout the whole year was Denton in Greater Manchester, with 34 entries and exits.

Teesside Airport station in Darlington recorded two entries and exits, but its once-a-week Sunday service was suspended in May 2022 after the platform was judged to be unsafe.

In total, there were 2.5 billion entries and exits across Great Britain in 2022-23, a significant increase from 1.8 billion the year before, but still below the 3 billion entries and exits in 2019-20, before the coronavirus pandemic.

What they said

ORR director of planning and performance Feras Alshaker said: "The full opening of the Elizabeth line has changed the way people travel into and across the capital."

Transport for London's Elizabeth line director Howard Smith said: "The Elizabeth line has been a transformational new railway for London, connecting east and west through 10 modern stations, with around 4.3 million journeys being made each week and more than 270 million journeys since it opened last year."