London’s Liverpool Street station has replaced Waterloo as the busiest in Britain, new figures show.
The number of entries and exits at Liverpool Street was 80.4 million in the year to the end of March, regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said.
The year-on-year increase of around 50 million was attributed to the opening of the Elizabeth line railway, which serves the station.
It's all change for the top 10 stations in Great Britain!
— ORR (@railandroad) December 14, 2023
Elizabeth line opening sees London Liverpool Street with most entries and exits for April 2022 to March 2023.
Paddington is 2nd and Waterloo is down to 3rd.
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➡️ https://t.co/iTSGlVG6BY pic.twitter.com/itIMrEmgfK
The Elizabeth line also caused Paddington to rise to second place with 59.2 million entries and exits.
Waterloo fell to third place with 57.8 million entries and exits.
The busiest stations outside London were Birmingham New Street (30.7 million), Leeds (24.0 million) and Manchester Piccadilly (23.6 million).
Glasgow Central was the most used station in Scotland (20.8 million) and Cardiff Central topped the list in Wales (10.2 million).
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.
“Waterloo had been the busiest station in Britain for all but one of the previous 18 years.”
The least used station that was open throughout the whole year was Denton, Greater Manchester, with 34 entries and exits.
Only two entries and exits were recorded at Teesside Airport station, but its once-a-week Sunday service was suspended in May 2022 after the platform was classified as unsafe.
The Elizabeth line stretches from Reading in Berkshire and Heathrow Airport in west London to Abbey Wood in south-east London and Shenfield in Essex.
It runs via tunnels built by the Crossrail project between Paddington in west London and Abbey Wood. The line opened in May 2022.
