Britain’s loneliest train station with just 68 passengers a year is officially revealed

BRITAIN’S quietest railway station has been revealed – and it has two trains a day.

The 175-year-old station had 68 visits in the year to the end of March 2025.

Elton and Orston station, Lincolnshire, on the East Midlands Railway, network was the ninth least used station in 2024, according to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

The station is served by one train per day in each direction between Mondays and Saturdays.

On weekdays, one train stops on the way to Nottingham at 7.04pm and a second travels back to Skegness at 5.12pm.

The trains run at 5.57am and 5.10pm on Saturdays and no trains run on Sundays.

The lonely station is unstaffed and has no seating area of toilet.

The stop goes back to July 1850 following the implementation of the first passenger trains on the then Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway.

In 1855 Great Northern Railway took over and a master’s lodge and ticket office were constructed.

Diesel units then replaced the older stream trains in 1967 and the only building still standing is a small brick-built shelter from the 1980s.

Elton and Orston’s page on the East Midlands Railway website says: “This station is served by a very sparse train service, currently only one train a day in each direction.

“The nearest stations with a more frequent service are Bottesford or Asklockton. This station has Barrow or Level crossing. We do not recommend that you use it without assistance.”

Other lonely stations from 2024/35 include Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire (76 entries and exits) and Ince and Elton in Cheshire (98).

Last year’s least used station, Denton in Manchester currently sits at fourth after the number of entrances and exits remarkably doubled.

Despite minimal footfall, railway stations are often kept open as it is easier than obtaining permission to close a stop.

Britain’s busiest station, for the third year in a row, was London Liverpool Street beating out other London hotspot’s of Paddington, Waterloo and Tottenham Court Road.

The estimated number of entries and exits for the station was 98million, up 3.7 per cent from 94.5million.

London Waterloo was close behind with 70.4million entries and exits, up from number four in the 2023-24 rankings.

Until the opening of the Elizabeth Line, Waterloo claimed the title for all but one of the 18 years up to and including 2021/22.

Paddington was third with 69.9million entries and exits while Tottenham Court Road came fourth on 68.1million.

London Bridge was in fifth place with 54.7million, just in front of other major London stations – Victoria on 53.8million, Stratford on 51.5million and Farringdon on 50.2million.

Rounding out the all London top 10 was Bond Street with 42.8million and Euston on 40.2million.

Outside London, was Birmingham New Street (36.6million), Manchester Piccadilly (27.4million) and Leeds (27.3million).

In Scotland, Glasgow Central topped the table with 25.3million entries and exits ahead of the capital’s station, Edinburgh Waverley (22.8million).

Cardiff Central was the clear winner in Wales (12.5million) with Newport in second with 2.8million.

All of this adds toa total of 1.73billion passenger journeys that were made in the year to the end of March. This is up 7 per cent from 1.61billion the year before, say the ORR.

Feras Alshaker, director of planning and performance at the ORR, said: “This year’s statistics show rail usage continuing to grow around the country, and we’re also seeing the sustained impact of major investment, particularly the Elizabeth line.

“These insights are vital in understanding how travel patterns are changing and in planning a network that meets passenger needs.”

The ORR said their estimates of entries and exits mostly come from ‘Lennon’, the rail industry’s ticketing and revenue system, with some additional local ticketing data.

The regulator added that recent methodology improvements such as adding in ticket sales previously not available and having a better allocation of journeys to specific stations, means yearly totals are not always comparable over time.