Birmingham New Street overtakes Euston as rail passenger numbers soar

Birmingham New Street has overtaken London Euston to become the fifth busiest rail hub in the UK.

The transformed station and Grand Central development opened in September 2015 and since then passenger numbers have increased by one-third, up 12m to 47.9m.

New figures detailing passenger movements across the UK rail network from the Office of Rail and Road showed that Birmingham New Street had seen an 8% increase in passenger entries and exits in 2018/19.

It is the busiest UK station outside London, and the only one in the top 10.

London Waterloo remained top of the rankings, with 94.2m, followed by London Victoria at 74.7m, London Liverpool Street at 69.5m and London Bridge which recorded 61.3m exits and entries.

London Euston, in sixth place, recorded 46.1m entries and exits.

There were 167.5m passenger movements across the West Midlands stations, an increase of 7% on the previous year which continued the long-term growth trend.

The busiest station in the West Midlands after Birmingham New Street was Coventry (8,207,914), followed by Birmingham Moor Street (7,200,372), Birmingham International (6,975,002) and Birmingham Snow Hill (5,366,788).

Birmingham was third in the national figures for stations with the most interchanges (7,073,880), behind Clapham Junction and London Bridge.

Journeys between the West Midlands and other regions rose by 3.5% to 33.4 million. Journeys to/from London, the East Midlands, and the North West, which together account for 72% of journeys to/from the West Midlands and are the three most popular routes, increased by 2.2%, 4.2%, and 4.3% respectively.

Journeys within the West Midlands rose by 1.9% to 60.3 million. Journeys starting or ending in the Metropolitan area of West Midlands (which includes Birmingham and Wolverhampton), which accounted for 79% of journeys within the West Midlands region, increased by 1.7% in 2017-18.