Ridership is creeping up
Passenger journeys have risen to 89% of pre-pandemic levels.
THE number of passenger journeys made on Britain’s rail network rose by almost a fifth year-on-year in the second quarter of 2023, April 1 to June 30, according to the latest figures produced by industry regulator the Office of Road and Rail.
A total of 390 million journeys were made over the three months, representing a 19% increase on the 328 million journeys in the same period in 2022. However, the numbers are still only 89% of pre-pandemic levels.
All franchised operators had a greater number of passenger journeys than the previous year, ranging from 1% for TransPennine Express to 33% for ScotRail. However, the latter was operating on a reduced timetable from May 23 to July 15, 2022, therefore the increase in the latest quarter partly reflects the return to usual services.
The London and South East sector recorded 276 million journeys in the quarter, making it the largest sector by number of journeys. This was a 24% increase on the 223 million journeys in the same period last year. The Long Distance sector recorded 33 million journeys (an 8% increase), while the Regional sector recorded 79 million journeys (a 10% rise).
There were 2.4 million passenger journeys recorded for all open access operators combined, which is a slight increase (up 2%) compared with the same quarter in the previous year. Hull Trains recorded a 31% increase and Grand Central 12%.
Revenue figures
Total passenger revenue was £2.6 billion in the latest quarter, which is a 10% year-on-year increase when adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index, but 78% of prepandemic levels.
Anytime or Peak tickets saw the largest growth at £790 million in the latest quarter, a 17% increase on the £677 million in 2022. Season tickets also generated more revenue in the latest quarter, up 7% from £180 million to £193 million, but they only accounted for 13% of journeys.
In terms of the distance covered by rolling stock, 750 million passenger vehicle kilometres were operated in the latest quarter – a 0.7% increase on the same quarter last year, but 90% of pre-pandemic levels.
Analysis by Great British Railways Transition Team showed that revenue from leisure travel grew by a fifth (19%) quarter-on-quarter, commuting rose 6%, and business travel grew 8%. “There are a few areas where we’re focused on making collective progress,” said Suzanne Donnelly, GBRTT’s director of passenger revenue. “These include service reliability, optimising how capacity is used across the network in light of new travel trends, making ticketing simpler and better value for money, and improving communications and information to passengers. These are areas we know will have the biggest impact in encouraging more people to choose the train, more often.”