A record quarter as annual rail journeys reach 1.74 billion
ALMOST 1.75 billion passengers used the railway in the 12 months to December 2018, according to figures released by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) on March 14.
ORR’s latest figures for passenger usage, covering the third quarter of 2018-19 (Q3, October-December 2018), revealed a 2.9% increase in the number of rail journeys made compared with the corresponding three-month period in 2017-18, to a record 451 million journeys. That took the overall figure for 2018 to 1.74 billion journeys.
The increase was driven by a 4.5% rise in the London and South East Sector, where a record 309 million journeys were made between October and December (a 13 million increase compared with Q3 2017-18).
Three operators in the LSE Sector recorded an increase in passenger journeys, with only London Overground reporting a decrease (of 1.9%).
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) had the largest number of passenger journeys of any operator (19%), up by 7.9 million from Q3 2017-18 to a record 87.6 million passengers. ORR stated its improved punctuality was a factor, while better performance on Southeastern was attributed to the end of the Thameslink programme and the introduction of new services.
The number of passenger journeys in the Long Distance Sector grew by 1.0%, although this was slower than previous Q3 growth rates, while the figure for the Regional Sector decreased by 1.0% compared with Q3 2017-18.
Regional’s decline is down to strikes on Northern, which resulted in a reduced service with 1.5 million fewer passengers compared with the same period in 2017-18.
ORR also reports a decline in the number of passenger journeys on open access operators, with Hull Trains suffering its first quarterly decrease (compared with the previous year’s quarter) since the time series began in 2011-12. The regulator attributes this to poor reliability of Class 180s, which resulted in 199 fewer trains running (17%) than the previous year.
Passenger kilometres increased by 2.0% compared with Q3 2017-18, with all three sectors (London and South East, Regional and Long Distance) reporting growth. The highest was LSE, up 3.6% to a record high of 7.9 billion.
The main contributor was GTR (up 6.9%, and the highest rate of growth in passenger kms since Q4 2013-14). However, passenger kms on Northern fell by 21.6 million, due to strikes.
Passenger revenue rose by 5.9% (£147 million) to £2.6 billion in Q3 2018-19, compared with the corresponding quarter last year. This was driven by the LSE Sector, which grew by 7.1%.
Nationally, revenue per passenger kilometre was up 3.8% to 15.31p, the highest rate of increase in Q3 since 2012-13.
Season ticket revenue rose 2.7% compared with Q3 201718. There was a 6.4% growth in anytime tickets, which ORR says has a larger market share than advance tickets.
The number of journeys made using season tickets was 161 million in Q3 2018-19, an increase of 0.4 million and
the first rise for nine quarters. However, market share of season ticket journeys is 36%, against 50% in the same quarter ten years ago.
The volume of passenger train kilometres in Q3 2018-19 was 130 million, up 0.9% compared with last year.
GTR was the largest operator based on market share, reporting a 3.9% increase compared with the previous year. TransPennine Express recorded the highest growth (17.1%), which ORR said was due to it taking over Northern’s stopping trains between Manchester and Leeds via Huddersfield.
South Western Railway suffered the largest drop (6.1%). This was attributed to industrial action.