A railway station near Ellesmere Port is the joint least used in Britain, new figues show.

Cheshire’s Stanlow and Thornton and Greater Manchester’s Denton 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.

RAIL Stations(PA Graphics)

Stanlow and Thornton is on the line between Ellesmere Port and Manchester, with three trains per day in each direction, excluding Sundays.

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.

Denton and Reddish South are on the line between Stockport and Stalybridge, which was built to take trains to Leeds but saw its timetable cut in the 1990s after services were re-routed.

The stations are served by one train per week in each direction.

RAIL Stations(PA Graphics)

 

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.

London Waterloo was confirmed as Britain’s busiest station for the 16th consecutive year.

Some 94.2 million passengers used the station in 2018/19.

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.

RAIL Stations(PA Graphics)

The busiest station in Wales was Cardiff Central with 14.2 million entries and exits.

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.