Which is the worst train station in the UK?


A new survey by Which? Magazine has found that at many major railway stations across the UK, more than half of trains are late or cancelled altogether. Overall, Manchester Oxford Road station performed worst with 68% of trains running late or cancelled altogether. It is a key station in the centre of Manchester, with regular services to Merseyside, Yorkshire, Tyneside and Scotland. Manchester Piccadilly, less than a mile from Oxford Road was also one of the worst stations in the UK, with 56% of trains late or cancelled.
York, the halfway point on the east coast main line between London and Edinburgh, was the second worst station in the UK, with 65% of trains being late.
At Birmingham New Street station (one of the busiest in the UK) and Gatwick Airport, 60% of trains ran late or were cancelled altogether.
The fifth worst station in the UK was Bristol Temple Meads (the main hub for the west of England) with 58% of trains running late.
The best performing station was Brighton, where 74% of trains left on time. But it is a sad indictment of the railway system in the UK, considering that even at the so-called ‘best’ station, around a quarter of trains were still late.
What about London?
Among the 10 busiest London stations, Clapham Junction came out worst, with 54% of trains either delayed or cancelled.
Victoria station, one of the most important stations in the UK, had 44% of trains late or cancelled. And St Pancras station (home of the vital train service going through the Channel Tunnel into Europe) had 30% of trains being either late or cancelled - although this poor record still made them the 'best' station in London!
Alex Hayman, managing director of Public Markets for Which? said: “Passengers have told us reliability is hugely important to them. People have been left deeply frustrated at the unacceptably high levels of delays and cancellations which impact on their everyday lives.”
“Passengers must be at the centre of the forthcoming government rail review, it must look at performance targets to drive improvements in punctuality and reliability for passengers.”
Robert Nisbet, regional director at the Rail Delivery Group (which represents train operator and Network Rail) said: “We know how frustrating delays are which is why, as part of our long-term plan, we’re investing billions to ease congestion, reduce delays and minimise disruption. We’re also improving awareness of compensation with payments increasing 80 per cent in the last two years.”

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Which? used information from the tracking site ontimetrains.co.uk and counted as delayed any train that departed one minute or more late. To find the stations with the most delayed or cancelled services, the research looked at data from the 20 busiest stations in the UK excluding London, and then the 10 busiest London stations, since the beginning of 2018.

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