The Office of Rail and Road has revealed the estimates of station usage for 2019-20. The busiest railway station remained London Waterloo with 7.3 million fewer entries and exits between April 2019 and March 2020 compared to the previous year. The least used railway station switched from Denton and Stanlow & Thornton to Berney Arms. The latter experienced virtually no railway service for the majority of 2019-20 due to engineering works on railway lines in this part of Norfolk.
Four new railway stations opened in 2019/20 and all experienced strong demand in the light of the challenging circumstances that emerged in March 2020.
| Station | 2019-20 Entries and Exits | Opening Date |
| Meridian Water | 137,050 | 3 June 2019 |
| Robroyston | 43,542 | 15 December 2019 |
| Warrington West | 83,902 | 15 December 2019 |
| Worcestershire Parkway | 25,478 | 23 February 2020 |
Total number of stations stations clarified
The total number of stations included in the list was 2,569, which contrasts with the 2,572 that this site records. The discrepancy is explained below:
- Kintore and Horden opened following the end of the 2019-20 financial year (2 additional stations that this site records)
- IBM Halt and Bishops Lydeard are not included in the 2019/20 Office of Rail and Road statistics. The rail service at IBM Halt ended in December 2018 (2 additional stations that this site records)
- The estimates of station usage for 2019/20 include Angel Road, whilst this website removed it from the count on closure because it was immediately replaced by Meridian Water railway station (1 fewer station that this site records)
There are other railway stations whose status may not be clear because of unique circumstances outlined below:
Corfe Castle and Manchester United Football Ground were counted in the list but no data was available for either of the two stations in 2019/20.
The railway service to Redcar British Steel ended at the December 2019 timetable change. Although it was the least used station in 2017-18, it recorded a substantial boost to numbers ahead of closure with 1,060 entries and exits recorded making it the 58th quietest station for 2019-20.
Okehampton and Sampford Courtenay were located on the privately owned Dartmoor Railway and served via a summer Sunday service. The Dartmoor Railway entered administration earlier this year (2020), which has contributed to the summer service not running. The figures published reflect entries and exits that occurred before the administration took place.
Recent openings experience various degrees of success
The stations opened in previous financial years experienced various degrees of success
For 2018/19, Maghull North bloomed to 517,166 entries and exits making it the 888th station in the country, although some of this change is attributed to recording additional tickets in the Merseyside PTE area. Kenilworth experienced a 24% increase to 211,896 making it the 1,365 busiest station on the network. No data was recorded for Corfe Castle.
For 2017/18, Cambridge North just missed out on 950k entries and exits, placing it as the 605th busiest station. Ilkeston experienced a small reduction to 123,610 and Low Moor experienced a 16.1% increase, assisted by the introduction of the Manchester service in December 2019.
Although Edinburgh Gateway (2016/17) experienced a 9.6% fall, Kirkstall Forge and Lea Bridge gained more than 20% from service improvements delivered after their opening. Kirkstall Forge benefited from the 30 minute frequency service introduced in May 2018, whilst Lea Bridge saw growth with the introduction of the Meridian Water – Stratford service introduced in September 2019.