Table 1: Top 20 most used stations in Great Britain, 2022-23
| Station | Entries/Exits | Change from 2021-22 (% +) |
| Liverpool Street | 80,448,194 | 150 |
| Paddington | 59,182,926 | 148 |
| Waterloo | 57,789,780 | 40 |
| London Bridge | 47,657,264 | 43 |
| Victoria | 45,563,972 | 24 |
| Stratford (London) | 44,136,784 | 57 |
| Tottenham Court Road | 34,877,768 | – |
| St Pancras International | 33,296,120 | 75 |
| Farringdon | 31,459,904 | 358 |
| Euston | 31,318,408 | 36 |
| Birmingham New Street | 30,726,280 | 35 |
| Leeds | 23,964,156 | 24 |
| Manchester Piccadilly | 23,558,364 | 20 |
| Whitechapel | 23,307,210 | 151 |
| King’s Cross | 23,287,414 | 14 |
| Clapham Junction | 20,790,150 | 20 |
| Glasgow Central | 20,767,954 | 36 |
| Highbury & Islington | 20,601,096 | 16 |
| Bond Street | 19,400,416 | – |
| East Croydon | 18,514,458 | 28 |
Note: Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street are both new stations, so the % change from 2021-22 cannot be calculated.
(1) When trains takes the strain: Why the UK needs a Motorail comeback (The Independent)
(2) Some last quotes from British Rail: The Making and Breaking of Our Trains by Christian Wolmar:
“A Design Panel had been set up by the Transport Commission to develop a unified look for the railway. The aim, according to David Lawrence, the author of this history of BR design, was ‘to move the railway away from a fragmented version of a heroic and romantic, sentimental and picturesque Victorian plurality, away from the patchy application of regional colours, to a clean and coherent, sober and rational emblem of progress’.”
“In many ways, this typified the lack of planning that undermined the Modernization Plan and meant that, ultimately, it was fatally flawed. The harsh truth is that the Modernization Plan was not a ‘plan’ at all, but rather a series of projects hastily cobbled together to give the illusion of coherence.”
(2a) A related quote from CROSSRAIL London’s New Railway (A Rail Revolution for London: Andy Byford Interview):
“Andy is familiar with major projects which have run into difficulties, a problem not unique to CROSSRAIL or even to transport projects. He notes several common issues — starting work before the scope has been locked down, pressure to commit to a budget, and the desire to have a showcase product, which leads to overengineering rather than the use of known solutions.”
