The UK’s “worst” railway station for commuters has been revealed as customers are affected by delays at important interchanges.
A new disruption calculator has suggested that a major station in London is the worst UK station for delays.
The tool works out how likely passengers are to face cancellations or delays, based on their arrival and departure stations, using rail journey data from 660 routes and 50 stations between July and December 2024.
Last year, delay repay claims reached 7.6million, according to Office for Rail and Road (ORR) data, with rail fares expected to be increased again in March 2025 by 4.6%.
26% of arrivals at London Kings Cross – famous as the station served by the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter novels – were delayed by more than five minutes, according to research.
A review of the interchange on TripAdvisor from Janaury 2024 was titled “awful place, awful staff”. It read: “Travelled back home on December 27th. Far too crowded.
“Called boarding for several trains at once but didn’t open the gates. Was absolute chaos. Women were carrying babies and older couples were in tears. I’m surprised nobody was seriously hurt or worse. Staff were terrible and had no consideration for anyone.”
A different reviewer wrote: “The train station with filthy unusable toilets. The platforms are far from each other that means there is no speedy transfers.”
The London terminus was followed by Manchester Piccadilly in the rankings – 24% of its arrivals were delayed by the same time.
Liverpool Lime Street is also included in the list, alongside Huddersfield, York, London Blackfriars and Derby.
As well as the percentage of services delayed, the table also took into account the percentage of cancellations and average delay times.
The “worst” commuter routes have also been named. Peterborough to Nottingham is said to top the list, with 39 arrivals that were more than five minutes late, and an average delay time of 7.5 minutes.
Second came Newton-le-Willows to Liverpool Lime Street. This was followed by Macnhester Piccadilly to Cardiff Central.
Stations ranked
Here’s a list of the least reliable stations in the UK, according to the Commuter Delays Calculator, developed by Tank.
|
Rank |
Station |
Cancelled (%) |
Arrivals over five minutes late (%) |
Average delay time (mins) |
|
1 |
London Kings Cross |
6 |
26 |
4.12 |
|
2 |
Manchester Piccadilly |
8 |
24 |
3.89 |
|
3 |
Liverpool Lime Street |
8 |
22 |
3.36 |
|
4 |
Huddersfield |
5 |
24 |
3.94 |
|
5 |
York |
5 |
24 |
4.08 |
|
6 |
London Blackfriars |
7 |
18 |
3.52 |
|
7 |
Derby |
4.5 |
21 |
4.14 |
|
8 |
London St Pancras International |
6 |
19 |
3.30 |
|
9 |
Nottingham |
5 |
20 |
3.49 |
|
10 |
London Paddington |
5 |
19 |
3.21 |
Network Rail owns and manages King’s Cross station but train services are provided by multiple operators.
A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “While King’s Cross does have many commuters, it is also one of the country’s premier long-distance stations, with trains arriving from as far away as Aberdeen.
“In recent months services have been affected by major storms and other issues, nonetheless, we know how important reliability is for passengers and we are working closely with operators across the country to improve it.”
