What train station has the most services daily

[trainspotter54]

Is anyone able to tell me which station has most services every day and the amount. Thankyou

 

[jfollows]

Clapham Junction is often quoted, especially now that it has fewer non-stop services than it used to.

 

[Paul Kelly]

brtimes.com will show you the amount of departures from a station on any given day (it varies)

 

[trainspotter54]

Clapham Junction is often quoted, especially now that it has fewer non-stop services than it used to.

I’m surprised that not all the trains that pass through stop there as it’s such a major station

brtimes.com will show you the amount of departures from a station on any given day (it varies)

Cheers

 

[jfollows]

I’m surprised that not all the trains that pass through stop there as it’s such a major station

In the past:

• Nothing on the South Western through lines (platforms 8 & 9) stopped.
• A lot of Central fast services (platforms 12 & 13) did not stop.
• Some Reading services didn’t stop.

Now just about all Central, and all Reading line services stop, and some South Western fast services stop. In total many more than used to. Up SWD stopping services have to use platform 7; platform 8 can’t be used other than in exceptional circumstances because of gaps between trains and the platform, and platform 7 requires a slow approach which constrains line capacity.

I lived in the area 1981-84 and it wasn’t a place anyone wanted to go to. Now it’s a destination in its own right.

 

[FuzzyDuck]

I travel into London (usually Waterloo) often, however sometimes I need to get to CJ to switch to the Overground. Choosing the correct train is vital.

 

[Bald Rick]

Depends how you count it. But Stratford wins if you are including London Underground and DLR trains.

 

[philosopher]

If we stick to National Rail, my guess is the following stations would be contenders:

• Farringdon
• Liverpool Street
• London Bridge
• Stratford

 

[signed]

Liverpool Street has the most amount of passengers of any London Terminal isn't it?

It has roughly 1040 services daily on weekdays according to brtimes

 

[starlight73]

BRTimes is giving me these numbers of departures for yesterday (Friday). this doesn’t include terminating trains

Clapham Junction	1940
Farringdon	1226
London Liverpool Street	1173
London Bridge	1562
Stratford (national rail)	906
Manchester Piccadilly	624
Leeds	710
Birmingham New St	681
Glasgow Central	573
Cardiff central	551

 

[Uk125]

If we stick to National Rail, my guess is the following stations would be contenders:

• Farringdon
• Liverpool Street
• London Bridge
• Stratford

Blackfriars is definitely higher than Farringdon as all trains stopping at Farringdon also stoping at Blackfriars too Blackfriars has 2 terminals too for southbound ie, Beckenham and others I can't remember.

 

[ls2270]

Blackfriars is definitely higher than Farringdon as all trains stopping at Farringdon also stoping at Blackfriars too Blackfriars has 2 terminals too for southbound ie, Beckenham and others I can't remember.

You’ve forgotten about the Elizabeth line at Farringdon!

 

[Transilien]

Glasgow Central

573

Is this the low level platforms only? The high level platforms are terminating only! London Liverpool St is the same situation.

 

[317362]

Reading 615

 

[mrcheek]

Interestingly worded question this.

It asks which station sees the most services, not departures.

Most databases show departures only.

But for terminal stations, if you include arrivals and departures separately, since they are two different services, the number will pretty much be doubled.

So Im guessing Waterloo on that basis!

 

[norbitonflyer]

Is this the low level platforms only? The high level platforms are terminating only! London Liverpool St is the same situation.

The stats do include departures though!

 

[Peter0124]

Is this the low level platforms only? The high level platforms are terminating only! London Liverpool St is the same situation.

The stats do include departures though!

Low Level is roughly 6tph each way.

High Level pre-covid probably had about 30 trains departing every hour.

 

[nw1]

In the past:

• Nothing on the South Western through lines (platforms 8 & 9) stopped.
• A lot of Central fast services (platforms 12 & 13) did not stop.
• Some Reading services didn’t stop.

Now just about all Central, and all Reading line services stop, and some South Western fast services stop. In total many more than used to. Up SWD stopping services have to use platform 7; platform 8 can’t be used other than in exceptional circumstances because of gaps between trains and the platform, and platform 7 requires a slow approach which constrains line capacity.

I lived in the area 1981-84 and it wasn’t a place anyone wanted to go to. Now it’s a destination in its own right.

First visited for rail enthusiast purposes on 31/12/85 in cold, rain and (at the end of the day) darkness, and by then quite a few faster services were stopping: everything on the Central except Gatwick Express, Brighton fasts and Oxteds, and a few fast line services on the South Western also stopped (1tph Alton, fast from Woking - my means of getting there; 2tph Guildford/Portsmouth via Woking stoppers and 2tph Guildford via Cobham stoppers, if I remember right).

Also visited twice in 1988 under much fairer weather conditions and longer daylight (Sat 21/5/88 and Fri 19/8/88). By then most fast line South Western services were stopping including 1tph of the just-introduced 442s.

Still imagine it as a place primarily for changing, so interesting to hear it's regarded as a destination too.

 

[trainspotter54]

Thankyou for your the replies and answers much appreciated

 

[jfollows]

Still imagine it as a place primarily for changing, so interesting to hear it's regarded as a destination too.

Clapham and Battersea are “desirable“ places to live, they didn’t used to be. For example. It used to be otherwise. I think there’s a lot of local traffic today. In the 1980s I’d go there to watch trains whizzing through, and it didn’t appear very busy. Now you almost have to fight your way over the footbridge.

Reading trains being first stop Richmond says a lot about the intermediate places, many of which are now calls on the Reading services, including - but not limited to - Clapham Junction. On the main lines there were many Wimbledon-Waterloo non-stop services; I’d cycle to Wimbledon to use them sometimes and bung my bicycle in the 4-VEP or 4-CIG brake compartment for free (my local station was Earlesfield but its trains were a lot less bike-friendly).

 

[Cricketer8for9]

I think an origin and destination survey for Southern pre Covid revealed the a popular destination to be South Western Railway via Clapham Junction.

 

[jfollows]

More recently, I went to a friend’s birthday party in a Clapham Common restaurant, a place which has always been more “up market” than Clapham Junction of course, but easily reached from there by bus or train (now - Clapham North). At the party was someone who lived in Earl’s Court and had done for most of his life, and he simply didn’t know how to get home by public transport. People like him just didn’t go to even the posher parts of Clapham!

 

[Jamiescott1]

Surely Paddington is in with a shout. Lots of EL terminators.

 

[al78]

East Croydon comes to mind.

 

[Uk125]

You’ve forgotten about the Elizabeth line at Farringdon!

Ah yes, for some reason I see Elizabeth line as LU.

 

[norbitonflyer]

More recently, I went to a friend’s birthday party in a Clapham Common restaurant, a place which has always been more “up market” than Clapham Junction of course, but easily reached from there by bus or train (now - Clapham North). At the party was someone who lived in Earl’s Court and had done for most of his life, and he simply didn’t know how to get home by public transport. People like him just didn’t go to even the posher parts of Clapham!

When I moved to the Clapham Junction area in 1983 (before it was fashionable) some of my friends asked me how I was going to manage to get to work when there was no Tube station anywhere near. (Roughly equidistant from Sloane Square, Clapham Common and East Putney.....). The idea of using a main line train simply didn't occur to them.

 

[jfollows]

When I moved to the Clapham Junction area in 1983 (before it was fashionable) some of my friends asked me how I was going to manage to get to work when there was no Tube station anywhere near. (Roughly equidistant from Sloane Square, Clapham Common and East Putney.....). The idea of using a main line train simply didn't occur to them.

Ah, similar times, I moved to Earlsfield in 1983, and in fact the public transport links were very good but they didn't work well for me because I was in my last year at Imperial College, so I bought a bicycle with the money Cheshire County Council gave me for the public transport season ticket (options were long walk to Wimbledon Park for District Line, avoid during Wimbledon fortnight, or bus to Tooting Broadway for Northern Line and change, none of them really good).
I'd sometimes go home and stop off at Clapham Junction just to watch things going on, there were so many trains with large numbers of them passing through rather than stopping.
Deeply unfashionable area, at the time, I agree.

 

[starlight73]

Some arrivals data:

Glasgow Central*	556
London Waterloo	646
London Liverpool Street *	1169
London Blackfriars	606
Farringdon *	1226

* Think these should include both high and low levels as the website only has one option for this station. All stats exclude London Underground

I think one question about counting arrivals and departures - most terminating arrivals go on to form a departure except at the end of the day. So if we count them separately it will automatically give an advantage to terminal stations (but depends what rules you want to set!)

 

[swt_passenger]

Some arrivals data:

Glasgow Central*	556
London Waterloo	646
London Liverpool Street *	1169
London Blackfriars	606
Farringdon *	1226

* Think these should include both high and low levels as the website only has one option for this station. All stats exclude London Underground

I think one question about counting arrivals and departures - most terminating arrivals go on to form a departure except at the end of the day. So if we count them separately it will automatically give an advantage to terminal stations (but depends what rules you want to set!)

This question has come up a few times over the years, and I don’t think arrivals are normally counted if the question is about “services from a station”. Because as a potential passenger you can only use a departure. If you count arrivals and departures separately at a terminus, then you should count both separately at a through station as well.

 

[Deepgreen]

Interestingly worded question this.

It asks which station sees the most services, not departures.

Most databases show departures only.

But for terminal stations, if you include arrivals and departures separately, since they are two different services, the number will pretty much be doubled.

So Im guessing Waterloo on that basis!

The term "services" strongly implies those that provide a service to users at that location, which non-stop trains do not. The total number of trains at a station can be referred to as exactly that - 'trains', or 'workings'.