Ahhh, the London Underground: we can’t live with it and we certainly can’t live without it (*shudders at the memory of having no public transport for days on end during the strikes*). Everyday, we funnel in and out of those sliding doors; encountering far more armpits than we care to recall along the way. Each platform is packed to the rafters, and even when you’ve eventually managed to passive aggressively wiggle your way towards the exit; the barriers resemble what I can only describe as an overflowing tin of sardines. Don’t you just love being a Londoner?
So, with all that being said, which tube stations actually are the busiest in the city? Well, the wait is over folks. Transport for London have released their latest figures; revealing which stations saw the most passengers enter and exit throughout the month of August. And I know you’ve all been on the edge of your seat to find out, so we’re going to share that data with you – don’t say that we don’t treat you.
Drum roll please… the award for ‘busiest tube station in London’ goes to… King’s Cross St Pancras! Okay, so perhaps that wasn’t the most surprising piece of information we’ve ever given you, seeing as King’s Cross has taken top spot since 2017. But still, it’s nice to give it the recognition it deserves. Serving six of the eleven London underground tube lines, it was a bit of a shoo-in, really. Not to mention the fact that it’s connected to not one, but two big old rail stations and the Eurostar. It makes sense that the north London travel hub came out on top, with a whopping 6,383,000 passengers passing through its doors in August.
Coming in at second place was Tottenham Court Road, rising impressively from tenth place in 2022, thanks to the shiny new Lizzie line. The third place prize went to Waterloo, which up until 2017, was in fact the busiest tube station in London. Who knew?
The top ten busiest tube stations in London
According to TfL data, these were officially the busiest stations in the capital city in August 2023:
- King’s Cross St Pancras (6,383,000 passengers)
- Tottenham Court Road (4,843,000 passengers)
- Waterloo (4,837,000 passengers)
- Liverpool Street (4,742,000 passengers)
- London Bridge (4,703,000 passengers)
- Stratford (4,528,000 passengers)
- Paddington (4,280,000 passengers)
- Oxford Circus (4,112,000 passengers)
- Victoria (3,318,000 passengers)
- Bond Street (3,137,000 passengers)