Brighton remains one of Britain’s busiest railway stations, according to the Office of Road and Rail (ORR).
The regulator said that Brighton was the 25th busiest railway station in Britain, with more than 17 million entries and exits in 2015-16, according to estimates.
The latest figure – 17,333,326 – was slightly up on the 17,170,740 estimated last year although Brighton dropped one place in the annual list of more than 2,500 stations.
The figures pre-date most of the delays and disruption as they are for April 2015 to March 2016.
The ORR said that, outside London, only six stations were busier than Brighton – Birmingham New Street, Glasgow Central, Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly, Edinburgh and Gatwick.
The busiest station in Britain was London Waterloo, with more than 99 million entries and exits. Victoria, with an estimated 81 million, was second. London Bridge, with almost 54 million, was fourth on the list.
At Clapham Junction, more than 32 million came and went, while at East Croydon the figure was more than 24 million.
In the south east outside London, only Gatwick had more passengers arriving and leaving, with an estimate of 18,028,846.
Hove is still among the busiest 10 per cent of stations in the country despite a drop in passengers coming and going. It slipped from 228 in the list to 237 as passenger numbers went down slightly from 2,453,194 to 2,451,660.
Falmer and Portslade both had more than a million entries and exits in the past year and remained in the top 500 stations – or the 20 per cent busiest – although they slipped down the list.
The biggest change was at Preston Park with 568,000 passengers coming and going compared with 435,574 in the previous year.
Here are the figures for all eight stations in Brighton and Hove.
2015-16 passenger numbers (ranking) v 2014-15 passenger numbers (ranking)
Aldrington 236,458 (1,281) 227,204 (1,291)
Brighton 17,333,326 (25) 17,140,740 (24)
Falmer 1,334,100 (428) 1,336,334 (412)
Hove 2,451,660 (237) 2,453,194 (228)
London Road 504,018 (887) 505,754 (870)
Moulsecoomb 422,406 (969) 425,946 (960)
Portslade 1,149,314 (498) 1,147,308 (486)
Preston Park 568,000 (822) 435,574 (949)
The ORR published a time series showing the huge rise in the number of railway passengers over the past 18 years.
Here are the figures for all eight stations in Brighton and Hove.
2015-16 passenger numbers v 1997-98 passenger numbers
Aldrington 236,458 63,843
Brighton 17,333,326 7,376,192
Falmer 1,334,100 689,746
Hove 2,451,660 1,236,165
London Road 504,018 275,901
Moulsecoomb 422,406 134,495
Portslade 1,149,314 426,780
Preston Park 568,000 358,818
