Britain’s least used railway station has been named as British Steel Redcar.

Only 40 passengers used the North Yorkshire station in 2017/18, according to Office of Rail and Road figures.

The coke ovens and blast furnace at the nearby SSI steel plant were shut down in 2015 – leading to a drop in demand for the railway station – but there are still some people employed at the site.

Just four Northern trains stop at the station each day between Monday and Saturday, two to Bishop Auckland and two to Saltburn. There are no trains on Sundays.

According to the National Rail Enquiries website, the station is also known as Redcar British Steel and has no ticket machines, no waiting room, no toilet facilities and no step-free access.

(PA Graphics)
(PA Graphics)

It is located near the town of Redcar, which recently featured in BBC documentary The Mighty Redcar.

Last year’s least used station – Barry Links in Angus, Scotland – saw the number of entries and exits more than double to 52, making it only the second least used station.

The other three railway stations in Britain with fewer than 100 entries and exits in the past year were Denton, Greater Manchester (70); Teesside Airport, County Durham (74); and Stanlow and Thornton, Cheshire (92).

Many stations are kept open despite being rarely used because it is easier to arrange for a train to stop infrequently than obtain permission to close a station.

Rail enthusiasts often visit the least used station from the previous year to boost its passenger numbers.

London Waterloo was confirmed as Britain’s busiest station for the 15th consecutive year.

Some 94.4 million passengers used the station in 2017/18.

(PA Graphics)
(PA Graphics)

This was down 5% on the previous 12 months, due in part to the three weeks of disruption in August while major engineering work was carried out.

Services to and from the station have been hit by a series of problems in recent months.

On Tuesday a signal failure at Woking caused more delays and cancellations.

Birmingham New Street was the busiest station outside London, in sixth place with 43.7 million passengers.

Glasgow Central retained its position as Scotland’s most used station, with 32.9 million passengers putting it at number 11 in the overall ranking.

The busiest station in Wales was Cardiff Central with 13.0 million entries and exits.