The path to revenue recovery

Passenger figures have bounced back faster than expected in some areas, NRRC delegates were told.

“When Omicron Plan B restrictions ended on January 26, we recovered [passenger numbers] almost instantaneously. There was a strong fight back,” said Southeastern Managing Director Steve White.

He reported that his company had already achieved about 70% of its pre-pandemic passenger levels and had broken its post-restriction era passenger record on two occasions in the week prior to the conference.

Having sold 144,000 tickets during the Great British Rail Sale, White said the offer “showed the concept of advance fares to a whole new market”.

He said it had highlighted how it was possible to travel economically without the standard open anytime returns, noting that Easter was “buoyant” with the company earning more revenue than during Easter 2019.

“Journey-wise, it’s looking good. From a revenue perspective, it’s even better,” he said.

Although revenue is recovering faster than journeys, White warned that “it depends where you want to travel”.

He explained that demand from Londoners wanting to travel to the coast is already ahead of pre-COVID demand, but that inbound travel was still at around 70%.

LNER has also experienced a significant bounce back. Finance Director James Downey reported that while the growth in leisure travel is outpacing that for business journeys, the latter is already back to nearly 60% of pre-pandemic levels.

“The boom in leisure travel surprised us, but business [ticket sales] is a challenge and will continue to be. We don’t ever expect to get back to 100% of pre COVID levels,” he said.

On a brighter note, he said he had seen people queuing for trains for the first time since COVID, and felt that the key to LNER being the operator with the fastest growth was its “back to basics” approach of providing a comfortable and efficient service. He emphasised that LNER is listening to its customers to improve their service.