Insight Articles: Our Blog
A series of articles analysing and commenting on the passenger transport scene.
2024/25 subsidy bill grows by 3%
Revenue grows by 11% but costs rise by 8.5%
The passenger rail industry’s finances deteriorated in 2024/25, according to figures published recently by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR)*. The result was a widening of the deficit on the passenger business requiring taxpayer support of £4.2 billion.
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- By: Chris Cheek
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Spring sun shines on the railways
Growth takes patronage to new record for the spring quarter
The pace of growth in demand for rail travel picked up in the spring sunshine, as passenger numbers were more than 7% up on the same quarter in 2024. The total including the Elizabeth Line reached a new all-time record for the April-June period, at 451.0 million. The previous record was set in 2019, at 435.2 million.
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- By: Chris Cheek
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New NTS data confirms rail revival
Shift towards younger people and leisure trips continues
New figures from the Deparment of Transport point to a continuing recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic across all modes of transport. In the English rail market, the overall trip rate increased by 13 per cent, reaching 20.7 trips per person per year, up from 18.3 in 2022. The last pre-Covid figure recorded in 2019 was 21.2, leaving a shortfall of just 2.5%.
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- By: Chris Cheek
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The Rail Fares Conundrum
New surge in inflation point to a hefty new year hike in rail fares
The prospect of an almost 6% increase in regulated rail fares next year has arisen as inflation trended upwards once more, much to the horror of rail campaigners and passenger groups. We look at the arguments and wonder what the government might do, given the fiscal constraints that it faces and the market realities of the rail industry.
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- By: Chris Cheek
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Winter warmer from rail customers
Long distance patronage moves ahead of pre-Covid levels
Demand growth in the British rail industry slowed again during the winter: non Elizabeth Line passenger numbers were 5.6 per cent higher than the same quarter in 2024, reaching another new post-Covid high. Including traffic on the recently opened line, growth was 5.9 per cent. Overall, demand rose to 97.4 per cent of pre-Covid levels, according to National Rail Trends statistics, published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). However, without the Elizabeth Line, the recovery was limited to 86.5 per cent.
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- By: Chris Cheek
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London bus trips down 21%, says NTS
Commuting down by more than half since Covid,
Trip making by the London public fell by over three per cent in 2023/24 compared with a year earlier, according to new data published by the Department for Transport. Londoners made an estimated 739 trips per person per year (tpppy) by all modes in 2023/24, down by 3.2%, so that trip making in the capital is 10.5% lower than before Covid. The bus market shows a surprising reversal in trip making, down by 21.4%, from 16.0 in last year’s survey to 12.6, leaving bus trip rates more than 30% lower than before the pandemic.
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- By: Chris Cheek
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