RAIL JOURNEYS FALL TO LOWEST LEVELS SINCE 1872

THE number of passenger journeys on the National Network between April 2020 and March 2021 fell to the lowest figure since records began in 1872, according to the Office of Rail and Road.

As the pandemic took hold, just 388m journeys were made in the 12 months to April 2021, representing just 22% of the 1.739 million journeys made in 2019-20.

Overall revenue fell from £10.4 billion in 2019-20 to just £1.9bn, with the Government pumping money in to support operators taking such a hit on the fare box.

Unprecedented

Just three operators – TfL Rail, London Overground and c2c – recorded 30% of journeys made in 2019-20, with ScotRail reporting 14.9% of passengers compared to the previous year, and Transport for Wales 15.8%. Not surprisingly, Heathrow Express carried just 4.7% of its normal number of passengers.

Graham Richards, Director of Planning and Performance at the Office of Rail and Road, said: “This unprecedented fall in passenger numbers, the lowest annual fall since the time series began, has clearly had an impact on both rail usage and ticketing revenue.

“Despite this, recent estimates published by the Department for Transport show that rail usage has recovered to around 45% of pre-Covid levels by the end of May 2021.”