Stratford replaced London Waterloo as the busiest station in the country in a year where the train usage was heavily-hit by the pandemic.
In a report by the Office of Rail and Road, Stratford station logged 13,985,162 passenger entries and exits to claim the top spot, but total passenger figures dropped by two-thirds from the year before.
The pandemic caused a 78% drop in rail passenger journeys across Great Britain, the lowest level of passenger usage since 1872.
Congested
Stratford has become an ever-growing major transport hub in East London since the 2012 Olympics, with almost 42 million annual passengers using the station before the pandemic. It is often a very congested station at peak times, with customers frustrated this year with the one-way system in place through periods of the pandemic.
Stratford station is expected to get busier when the Elizabeth Line opens in the first half of 2022. Mayor Sadiq Khan recently said the delayed Crossrail project had achieved a ‘significant milestone’ when it entered the ‘trial operations’ phase last weekend. The Elizabeth Line was originally scheduled to open in December 2018.
The Department of Transport have committed £2 million to a Network Rail project to reduce congestion and help manage the growing passenger usage at Stratford station. Works are scheduled to start in late 2022.
Drop
London Waterloo had been the country’s busiest station for the past 16 years, but was only the fourth busiest station in 2020-21 with 12,214,626 passenger entries and exits, an 86% drop from the year before.
Highbury and Islington and Barking Station featured on the top 10 most used station list for the first time, ranking as the sixth and ninth most used stations respectively.
