Two railway stations in north-west England are the joint least used in Britain, new figures show.
Greater Manchester’s Denton and Cheshire’s Stanlow and Thornton were both used by just 46 passengers in the year to March 31 2019, the Office and Rail and Road (ORR) said.
Reddish South is on the same line as Denton and was the only other station to record double-digit annual usage, at 60 passengers.
All three of the least used stations are managed by train operator Northern.
The stations are served by one train per week in each direction.
From Denton, a Stockport train departs at 10.23am on Saturdays, while a service to Stalybridge leaves at 10.54am.
Northern said it is obliged to maintain a service to the stations as part of its franchise agreement.
Nearby station Reddish North has frequent trains to Manchester and Sheffield.
It is surrounded by oil refinery Stanlow, owned by Essar Energy.
Several stations are kept open despite being rarely used because it is easier to arrange for a train to stop infrequently than obtain permission for closure.
London Waterloo was confirmed as Britain’s busiest station for the 16th consecutive year.
Birmingham New Street was the only station outside London ranked in the top 10 busiest.
It overtook Euston to take fifth place with 47.9 million entries and exits.
Glasgow Central retained its position as Scotland’s most used station, with 32.8 million passengers putting it at number 11 in the overall ranking.
The estimates are largely based on ticket sales.
Last year’s least used station, North Yorkshire’s British Steel Redcar, saw its annual number of entries and exits increase from 40 to 360.
The ORR said the rise for the Redcar station may be due to it attracting visitors keen to see the least used station in the 2017/18 rankings.
