Britain's most and least used train stations revealed, with one getting just 12 passengers a year

A dozen passengers boarded or exited a train at Shippea Hill station throughout 2015/16 - one a month. Photo / Getty Images

An East Cambridgeshire rail station has been named the least used in the country for the second year in a row, with just 12 people using it throughout the whole of last year.

Estimates from the Office for Rail and Road show that a dozen passengers boarded or exited a train at Shippea Hill station throughout 2015/16 - one a month.

This was the smallest number of passengers for any station in the country last year with the number of people arriving at or departing from the station decreasing compared to 2014/15, down from 22.

Eight train stations across the country saw fewer than 100 people board or disembark from a train throughout the 12 months spanning April 2015 to March 2016.

The station with the second fewest passengers, behind Shippea Hill, was Reddish South station in Greater Manchester where just 38 people arrived or departed last year.

In third place was Pilning station in South Gloucestershire which saw 46 passengers in 2015/16, down from 68 throughout 2014/15.

Out of all 2,557 stations in Britain, the average station saw slightly more than 233,000 people leaving or entering in 2016/16. This is less than the average of 238,000 in 2014/15, although this reduction is likely to be down to a change in methodology for the London stations.

While some stations saw a startling lack of activity last year, others saw an incredibly large number of people come through their doors.

Unsurprisingly London stations were the busiest in the country with Waterloo being the busiest nationwide.

As many as 99.1 million people exited or entered Waterloo station last year, although this was a slight reduction on the 99.2 million who did so in 2014/15.

It means that 189 people enter or exit Waterloo station every minute, or 3.1 every second. It takes Waterloo station just four seconds to surpass the number of passengers Shippea Hill station got in the whole of last year.

The methodology in how these estimates were calculated for London stations has changed since last year's figures to include more detailed Oyster card metrics. Based on the 2015/16 methodology a further five million people used Waterloo last year.

In addition to this figure a further six million people used Waterloo station as an interchange, the third largest number of interchanges for any station behind Clapham Junction which had 30.5 million.

After Waterloo, London Victoria had the next largest number of people entering or leaving the station on 81.1 million while London Liverpool Street station was third on 66.6 million.

Outside London Birmingham New Street was the busiest station in the country with 39 million exits and entries followed by Glasgow central on 30 million.

In total 2.9 billion people exited or entered a station in Britain last year, up from 2.8 billion in 2014/15.

The 10 least used rail stations in 2015/16

Station - Local area - Total exits or entries
• Shippea Hill - East Cambridgeshire - 12
• Reddish South - Stockport - 38
• Pilning - South Gloucestershire - 46
• Coombe - Cornwall - 48
• Barry Links - Angus - 68
• Denton - Tameside - 74
• Stanlow & Thornton - Cheshire West and Chester - 88
• Teesside Airport - Darlington - 98
• Chapelton - North Devon - 100
• Clifton - Salford - 116

The 10 most used rail stations in 2015/16

Station - Local area - Total exits or entries (millions)
• Waterloo - London - 99.1
• Victoria - London - 81.2
• Liverpool Street - London - 66.6
• London Bridge - London - 53.9
• Euston - London - 41.7
• Stratford - London - 41.1
• Birmingham New Street - West Midlands - 39.1
• Paddington - London - 36.5
• King's Cross - London - 33.4
• Clapham Junction - London - 32.3