Liverpool Street has retained its crown as the busiest train station in the country as the extraordinary power of the Elizabeth line to attract passengers was revealed.
A total of 94.5m “entries and exits” were made by passengers at the station, which is served by the Elizabeth line, the London Overground and Greater Anglia services, including the Stansted Express.
This is 17.5 per cent or 14.1m more than the previous year and will add momentum to efforts to transform the station to prepare for a projected increase to 150m passengers a year by 2050.
The figures, from the Office of Rail and Road, relate to the 12 months to March 2024.
Last year, Liverpool Street rose from fourth to first place in the rankings due to the immediate impact of the Elizabeth line. An additional 50m passengers were estimated to have used it that year – taking it to 80.4m.
The “Lizzie line” also pushed Paddington station into second place last year, up four places, with 59.2 million entries and exits.
Paddington retained its position as the second busiest station this year - and Tottenham Court Road moved up from seventh to third place.
Stratford, also served by the Elizabeth line, moved up from sixth to fifth.
The only station in the top five not served by the Lizzie line was Waterloo, which took fourth place.
The ORR figures exclude about five million journeys a month at Liverpool Street Tube station.
Separate data from Transport for London shows that Liverpool Street is typically the fifth busiest London Underground station, behind King’s Cross, Victoria, Waterloo and Tottenham Court Road.
Tottenham Court Road, which entered the top 10 for the first time last year, had just under 30 million entries and exits to move into third place, ahead of Waterloo.
St Pancras drops out of the top 10, while Bond Street is a new entry, going from 19th to ninth. Paddington saw an additional six million entries and exits.
London claimed every station in the top 10 – of which six are served by the Lizzie line.
The ORR said that Clapham Junction was the busiest station in the country for passengers switching trains - a total of 20.4 million in 2023/24.
Clapham Junction has been the busiest interchange station since records began in 2004.
However the ORR did not count the number of interchange journeys at Liverpool Street or Paddington stations.
Feras Alshaker, ORR director of planning and performance, said: “These statistics provide crucial insights for passengers, the rail industry and its stakeholders and demonstrate clearly how travel patterns are changing across the country.
“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.”
The figures are the first to include the full impact of the £20bn Elizabeth line, which opened almost four years late and in stages – first in May 2022, with Bond Street station following in October 2022.
A recent TfL board paper suggested that around 30 per cent of the Elizabeth line journeys were “new” demand – those that would not have been made without the existence of the line, or other trips that would otherwise have been made by car.
The busiest stations in England outside of London were Birmingham New Street (33.3m), Manchester Piccadilly (25.8m) and Leeds (24.9m).
Denton in Greater Manchester, with just two services per week, was the least used station in Great Britain, recording 54 entries and exits.
