A railway station has been given the dubious honour of being the “least-used in Britain”.
Denton in Tameside, Greater Manchester, only had 54 “entries and exits” between April 2023 and March 2024, according to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) estimates.
Ince and Elton in Cheshire and Reddish South in Greater Manchester were respectively the third and fifth least used stations in Britain, with an estimated 86 and 128 entries and exits in the same time period.
At the other end of the scale, Manchester Piccadilly was the second busiest station outside London, with an estimated 25.8 million entries and exits, while Liverpool Central was ranked 10th, with 12.6 million.
Estimates are derived from the rail industry’s ticketing and revenue system, together with some local ticketing data.
Only two trains serve Denton each week – connecting the area with Stockport and Stalybridge on Saturdays.
The number of trains serving Denton was slashed in the 1990s following route changes.
Rarely used railway stations are sometimes only kept open because it is easier to arrange for a handful of trains to call at them than it is to close them entirely.
ORR’s planning and performance director Feras Alshaker 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.”
The North West’s least-used stations
- Denton (Tameside) 54
- Ince and Elton (Cheshire) 86
- Reddish South (near Stockport) 128
- Clifton (Manchester) 202
- Ardwick (Manchester) 396
- Hoscar (near Ormskirk, Lancashire) 800
- Nethertown (Cumbria) 1,030
- Sankey For Penketh (near Warrington) 1,362
- Braystones (Cumbria) 1,532
- Salwick (Lancashire) 1,548
The region’s most-used stations
- Manchester Piccadilly 25.8m
- Liverpool Central 12.6m
- Liverpool Lime Street 12.3m
- Manchester Victoria 7.7m
- Moorfields (Liverpool) 5.6m
- Manchester Oxford Road 5.1m
- Manchester Airport 4.9m
- Preston 4.8m
- Chester 4.7m
- Stockport 3.8m
