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Leeds station is currently the busiest in the north

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sunnyjohn

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I saw this inn today's Guardian as part of an article about the possible cancellation of the northern leg of HS2.
Is Leeds station the busiest in the north? I would have thought that York was a better contender.

Leeds station is currently the busiest in the north, and is a notorious bottleneck. HS2 was supposed to include a new station in the city.
 
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Deerfold

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I saw this inn today's Guardian as part of an article about the possible cancellation of the northern leg of HS2.
Is Leeds station the busiest in the north? I would have thought that York was a better contender.
Depends what you mean by busiest. In terms of total numbers of passengers boarding/alighting/changing, Leeds is about 3 times as busy as York, largely due to the much larger numbers of commuters on the local lines in to Leeds.
 

Backroom_boy

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I'd say it's the most diesel fumed station in the North due to all over roof and multiple diesel services idling away
 

plugwash

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According to https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media...ies-and-exits-and-interchanges-by-station.ods it seems Manchester Picaddilly and Leeds are very close. Of course that is presumablly mostly pre-pandemic so who knows what it's like now.

Manchester Piccadilly is listed as having around 32.3 million entries and exits plus about 2.1 million interchanges. Leeds is listed as about 30.0 million entries plus about 3.0 million interchanges (figures rounded to the nearest hundred thousand). Add those up and you get 34.4 million for Manchester and 33.0 million for leeds, but the figures for Manchester Piccadilly are only estimates as many tickets are valid to multiple Manchester Stations. So I would say there is not enough info to reliablly rank Manchester Piccadilly above or below Leeds.

Glasgow Central beats both with 32.5 million entries/exits and exits plus 3.8 million interchanges. Whether that counts as "the north" depends I guess on whether you are reffering to england specifically or the whole UK.

York is way down the list, presumablly because it has no suburban rail network to speak of.
 

William3000

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Depends what you mean by busiest. In terms of total numbers of passengers boarding/alighting/changing, Leeds is about 3 times as busy as York, largely due to the much larger numbers of commuters on the local lines in to Leeds.
And the fact it’s a much bigger city than York presumably.
 

sunnyjohn

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According to https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media...ies-and-exits-and-interchanges-by-station.ods it seems Manchester Picaddilly and Leeds are very close. Of course that is presumablly mostly pre-pandemic so who knows what it's like now.

Manchester Piccadilly is listed as having around 32.3 million entries and exits plus about 2.1 million interchanges. Leeds is listed as about 30.0 million entries plus about 3.0 million interchanges (figures rounded to the nearest hundred thousand). Add those up and you get 34.4 million for Manchester and 33.0 million for leeds, but the figures for Manchester Piccadilly are only estimates as many tickets are valid to multiple Manchester Stations. So I would say there is not enough info to reliablly rank Manchester Piccadilly above or below Leeds.

Glasgow Central beats both with 32.5 million entries/exits and exits plus 3.8 million interchanges. Whether that counts as "the north" depends I guess on whether you are reffering to england specifically or the whole UK.

York is way down the list, presumablly because it has no suburban rail network to speak of.
Many thanks, plug wash. The item in the Guardian was referring to England and, as is quite normal with the Gruand, they got it wrong. Manchester Piccadilly it is!
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Many thanks, plug wash. The item in the Guardian was referring to England and, as is quite normal with the Gruand, they got it wrong. Manchester Piccadilly it is!
Manchester beats Leeds if you include Manchester Victoria and Oxford Road - Leeds has no equivalent to these other city centre stations.
Liverpool also beats Leeds if you add up Lime St/Central/James St usage.
Birmingham New St beats them all by a big margin, even more so if you add in Snow Hill and Moor St.
 

Killingworth

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I'd say it's the most diesel fumed station in the North due to all over roof and multiple diesel services idling away
Curiously enough I was speaking to the chap servicing our suburban TVM early this morning as he was replacing the air filters on the two fans. Amazingly filthy, but he explained the worst he comes across are in Leeds, explained by all those idling diesel engines under cover.
 

IanXC

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Curiously enough I was speaking to the chap servicing our suburban TVM early this morning as he was replacing the air filters on the two fans. Amazingly filthy, but he explained the worst he comes across are in Leeds, explained by all those idling diesel engines under cover.

That seems very dubious. The TVMs are a good distance from the platforms, and to get from the platforms to the TVMs you've not only got to walk the length of the concourse, but turn back on yourself.
 

xotGD

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That seems very dubious. The TVMs are a good distance from the platforms, and to get from the platforms to the TVMs you've not only got to walk the length of the concourse, but turn back on yourself.
There are a couple of machines 'airside' next to the small ticket window at the buffer stop end of the bay platforms.

Plus those upstairs by the southern entrance.
 
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