400m rail trips lost as lockdown train travel echoes Victorian era

RAIL journeys in Great Britain fell to levels not seen since the mid-19th century in the first quarter of 2020-21, with passenger numbers dropping by 90 per cent on the previous year.

Data from the Office of Rail and Road revealed that 35 million journeys were completed from April to June, a collapse of more than 400 million on last year.

The numbers fell to lows not seen since the 1870s and led to renewed calls for flexible season tickets.

The quarter began with Britain in lockdown, with all but essential travel prohibited, but some travel restrictions were eased in May, with commuters slowly beginning to return to work.

The most journeys over the period were in London and the South East.

Govia Thameslink Railway recorded the most of any operator, with 7.5 million passengers over the three months. However, the one million journeys made on Scotrail equated to just 4.3 per cent of journeys made a year earlier, the biggest decrease of any operator.

Passenger revenue dropped from £2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2019 to £184 million in 2020.

Demand has since returned to around 38 per cent of normal levels.

Robert Nisbet, of the industry body the Rail Delivery Group, said: “With the majority of company bosses planning to keep some home-working beyond the pandemic, train companies are keen to work with government to introduce flexible season tickets that will incentivise more people safely back on to trains.

“Fares reform is a crucial component of wider industry proposals to enable train operators to better respond to the rapidly evolving needs of customers.”

Mick Cash, the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, warned that “urgent radical steps” were required to support public transport, “especially as some services such as Grand Central and Hull Trains are teetering on the brink”.

Meanwhile, the National Travel Attitudes survey, released yesterday, showed 86 per cent of people were concerned about travelling on trains, buses and taxis due to Covid as late as July.

The Department for Transport poll showed over a third (39 per cent) of people walked more than before the pandemic and 38 per cent cycled more, with 94 per cent planning to keep it up.

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said: “It’s great that those people who have switched to greener forms of transport want to stick with it and I want to capitalise on this with our £2 billion active travel fund.”