Elizabeth line 'reshaping' London journeys as Britain's busiest stations are revealed

The Elizabeth line is "fundamentally reshaping" rail travel in London as new statistics reveal Britain’s busiest stations.

Six of the ten busiest stations between April 2023 and March 2024 are on the line that opened in May 2022, making this the first full year the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has collected 12 month’s worth of data for the route.

London Liverpool Street, which replaced London Waterloo as the busiest station last year, remains top with an estimated 94.5 million entries and exits, up from 80.4m the year before.

Paddington remains second at 66.9m, while Tottenham Court Road, which was a new entry in the top ten in 2023 when it ranked seventh with 34.9m entries and exits, climbs to third with 64.2m.

Waterloo has slipped from third place last year to fourth in 2024, with 62.5m entries and exits, up from the 57.8m recorded from 2022-23.

The rest of the top ten is completed by Stratford in east London (56.6m), London Victoria (50.8m), London Bridge (50.0m), Farrington (46.0m), Bond Street (38.3m) and London Euston (36.2m).

Bond Street enters the top ten after being 19th last year.

All stations in the top ten recorded an increase in entries and exits compared to 2022-23.

The ORR’s Director for Planning and Performance, Feras Alshaker, said the results “demonstrate clearly how travel patterns are changing across the country”.

He added: “Alongside our rail usage statistics they show that since the pandemic rail usage continues to increase and that the investment put into the Elizabeth line is fundamentally reshaping passenger journeys into and around London.”

Outside of London, Birmingham New Street is again the busiest station, with 33.3m entries and exits.

Manchester Piccadilly and Glasgow Central both leapfrog Leeds, recording 25.8m and 25.0m entries and exists respectively, compared to 24.9m at the Yorkshire station.

Edinburgh Waverley remains the fifth busiest station outside London, with 21.3m entries and exits, followed by Gatwick Airport at 19.5m. Brighton is seventh with 14.5m.

The top ten outside London is completed by Glasgow Queen Street (14.5m), Reading (13.5m) and Liverpool Central (12.6m).

ORR also revealed that 44 stations had more than 10m entries and exits over the 12-month period from April-March, up from 37 the year before. Another 501 had more than one million entries and exits, compared to 452 last year.

Seven new stations opened during the year, recorded the following entry and exit numbers:

At the other end of the scale, Denton in Greater Manchester, with its one each way each week, is Britain’s least used station with 54 entries and exits, although that’s up from 34 last year.

Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire (70), Ince and Elton in Cheshire (86), Polesworth in Warwickshire (118) and Reddish South in Greater Manchester (128), completed the bottom five.