Abbey Wood station sees more passengers than Canary Wharf Elizabeth line station

Newly released figures from Transport for London covering station usage across the capital has shown that Abbey Wood station is busier than Canary Wharf.

In the last financial year Abbey Wood saw 14.2m journeys with Canary Wharf at 14.1m. Woolwich was at 11.1m. It should be noted that counting methods are different at different stations.

A hat tip to the ever excellent Diamond Geezer for alerting me to this with his recent post.

So while there’s a fair few caveats, this is still not something many may have expected, including me. However the fact it’s even close is surprising but does appear to show massive untapped potential that always existed in south east London and north west Kent with rail services.

And yes, Canary Wharf Elizabeth line station only serves the Liz line (plus has other modes nearby such as the tube and DLR) while Abbey Wood has National Rail services too on the same station site but still, but this is quite something.

Abbey Wood growth

Let’s not forget that Abbey Wood station “usage” had already increased a fair bit when TfL first took over and staffed barriers all day. When operated by Southeastern usage hovered around 2.5-3 million a year. Once TfL took over – but years before Elizabeth line services commenced – it grew to near 4 million. Now it’s above 14 million.

Usage probably hadn’t risen for that first rise to near 4 million, it was just accurately measured for the first time.

Many other SE Metro stations would almost certainly see similar spikes if they weren’t barely staffed free-for-alls.

Lower fares on TfL journeys also don’t hurt growing usage. From Abbey Wood – in zone 4 – it’s cheaper to reach zone 1 than on Southeastern or Thameslink. That may well pull people in from further afield.

TfL had previously showed that bus usage serving Abbey Wood had grown 100 per cent in recent years showing the draw of new, fast and regular services.

Southeastern cutting Metro services in 2022 at the behest of government only dissuaded usage combined with decrepit Networker trains.

Extension

Bexley Council have sought to extend the line further east past Abbey Wood but high costs make that very unlikely anytime soon.

In time Canary Wharf should increase as thousands of homes are built at North Quay next door alongside offices. A life sciences tower is currently under construction.

Abbey Wood too will grow when some of the many, many vacant sites mere seconds from the station owned by Peabody are finally built upon.

With all the disclaimers and different methods of calculating numbers it may be that Abbey Wood is overestimated but the vast popularity of the station is clear. Bus use doubling to the area helps back that up.

This again shows that investing in high quality transport attracts ample custom. Remember win 2010when the Tories wouldn’t commit to build the line and Lib Dems didn’t give much support before Crossrail was put on hold for a year? Now it’s a huge success.

Will the Treasury and this new government learn that blocking investment for short term savings all too often doesn’t pay in the end?