Stanlow and Thornton station in Ellesmere Port is the most deserted railway station in the county, with an average of just seven passengers every month.

Figures released by the Office of Rail and Road have revealed how many passenger journeys each station in the country had throughout the 2015/16 financial year.

It was no surprise to see Stanlow and Thornton 'top' the table, as the remote station – which lies on the Ellesmere Port to Warrington line – is surrounded by the Essar oil refinery and is not close to any other public transport links.

A grand total of 88 people got on or off there, making it by far the least-used station in Cheshire in terms of passenger numbers.

In fact, it was one of just eight nationwide to have had fewer than 100 passengers last year.

It had an even quieter year in 2015/16, with 88 people visiting compared with 158 in 2014/15.

Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire retained the title of the most deserted railway station in Britain from the year before last in 2014/15 with just 12 passengers.

In Cheshire, every other station apart from Stanlow and Thornton had at least 1,000 visitors last year.

Unsurprisingly Chester was the busiest in the county with 4.6m people getting on or off at the city’s main station.

Chester railway station

This was up two per cent on the year before.

Waterloo in London was the busiest station in Britain with almost 100m people getting on or off at the terminus – the equivalent to three people per second.

The six busiest stations in Britain were all in London, with Birmingham New Street being the busiest outside the capital.

This data only counts stations that were open and had at least one visitor, and doesn’t count cases where passengers disembarked to change trains.

Here is the top-10 list for Cheshire:

Station Entries/exits
Stanlow & Thornton 88
Ince & Elton 1,468
Styal 4,856
Ashley 7,578
Wrenbury 12,710
Acton Bridge 20,236
Mobberley 20,686
Plumley 26,006
Adlington 28,390
Mouldsworth 32,022

Further down the list, Helsby came in 19th (83,890), Frodsham was 26th (175,318), Bache 41st (366,028), Ellesmere Port 42nd (390,614) and Crewe 52nd (2,843,396), with Chester completing the list.