Every year, Transport for London publishes data for “entries and exits” for each tube station. These figures, which show the total number of people who pass through each tube station, enable us to see how busy each station is.
Or, in some cases not. Because the same figures also enable us to ask: which tube stations are used the least?
The answer for 2015, the most recent year for which figures are available, a beat of a cheat: Tufnell Park received by far the fewest visitors. But that doesn’t really count because it was closed all year so had no passengers whatsoever.
Ignoring that, then, the least busy tube stations are as follows:
10) Ruislip Gardens, Central line – 1.11m
9) Croxley, Metropolitan line – 1.05m
8) South Kenton, Bakerloo line – 0.95m
7) North Ealing, Piccadilly line – 0.89m
6) Moor Park, Metropolitan line – 0.88m
5) Chesham, Metropolitan line – 0.87m
4) Theydon Bois, Central line – 0.85m
3) Grange Hill, Central line – 0.65m
2) Chigwell, Central line – 0.55m
1) Roding Valley, Central line – 0.26m
These are mostly in the further reaches of suburbia on the Central and Metropolitan lines. Some of these stations, like Theydon Bois and Chesham, serve areas that are bordering on rural.
There are two exceptions to this. North Ealing, is in zone three; and South Kenton in zone four. Both of these, though, are in areas that are relatively well-stationed (if that’s a word), and from which faster routes to central London are available:
Ealing.
Kenton.
Here’s a map: we’ve imposed a tube roundel on each of the listed stations, so you can see at a glance where they are:
Click to expand, if you must.
