London is ‘top business destination’, Trainline research finds

London is the leading destination for business travel on Britain’s railways, according to new research published by independent ticket retailer Trainline.

The research, which focused on small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), also found that trains were the joint top mode of travel, alongside cars. And, while (overall) travel budgets remained unchanged over the past year, a quarter of respondents said that their travel budgets had decreased. Of these, 40% said there was increasing pressure to restrict business travel, while 37% claimed they were under increasing pressure to choose cheaper options.

The research also found that almost two-thirds of travellers are likely to travel on off-peak trains, with cost savings cited as the main reason: owners and proprietors of SMEs were the most likely to travel off-peak. Additionally, it showed that 74% of business travellers use Standard Class on the railways, nine percentage points higher than the proportion of business air travellers.

Of all those surveyed, 58% revealed that they had travelled to London at least once for business during the previous 12 months, with Birmingham and Manchester (36%), Leeds and Liverpool (25%), and Cardiff and Edinburgh (23%) proving the other most popular business travel destinations among respondents. The research also revealed that 68% of all business travellers surveyed used a combination of trains and their own car, with 46% travelling by train, 39% by company car and 33% by taxi.

Of the main reasons for using rail, 40% of those taking part cited convenience as the main reason, with 21% highlighting the ability to work while travelling and 17% saying it was the quickest mode of transport.

The Government’s drive to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 is also having an impact, with one in 10 respondents saying they would consider switching to rail.