Over the months we have brought you many reports about the state of UK rail during the pandemic.
Yesterday the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) provided the latest information regarding usage of UK rail and its passenger revenue.
ORR’s statistics reveal that passenger numbers and revenue have fallen to their lowest level since 1872.
Rail passenger journeys in Great Britain fell to the lowest annual levels of usage since before 1872.
388 million journeys were made between April 2020 and March 2021, but recent figures show rail usage is on the rise. pic.twitter.com/KmncY9OwRQ
— ORR (@railandroad) June 3, 2021
In the 12 months to the end of March 2021 there were 388 million rail journeys made.
That might sound a lot but remember that 1.739 billion journeys were made in the previous 12 months.
So 388 million represents just 22 per cent of total passenger journeys made in the financial year 2019-2020.
Passenger revenue was £1.9 billion, or 18.5 per cent of the £10.4 billion earnt in the previous 12 months.
Highest levels of passenger usage were recorded by operators in the London area.
For example, Tfl Rail saw 32.5 per cent of passengers numbers compared to the previous year, C2C 31.7 per cent, South Western Railway 22.4 per cent and Thameslink 21.8 per cent.
Away from the capital we see Merseyrail (29.5 per cent) and Caledonian Sleeper (24.9 per cent) recording some of the highest usage.
Worst performer was Heathrow Express which is hardly surprising given the steep fall in activity at the capital’s main airport. ORR says passenger usage for the express service in the year 2020-2021 was a mere 4.7 per cent of the previous 12 months.
