Passenger Journeys by Operator - June 2025
Table highlights growth by long distance TOCs
The table below re-presents the ORR's figures for passenger journeys, showing numbers for a rolling year ended 30 June 2025 and comparing it both with the previous year and giving the most recent growth, then with 2018/19, the last pre-Covid year. The figures shown are for millions of passenger journeys.
The analysis illustrates the huge variations between franchised operators, which show double-digit growth over last year including Cross Country and TransPennine (15.4% each), Transport for Wales (14.8%), LNER (13%) and West Midlands Trains (10.8%). However, north of the border, ScotRail was at the other end of the scale on just 2.3% whilst Caledonian Sleeper actually lost ground. There is a similar story on recovery, too - with figures varying between a continuing shortfall of 27.9% (Merseyrail) and gains of 23.2% on LNER, and 20.8% on EMR - still the only two franchised TOCs to be ahead of their 2019 patronage.
Of the open access operators on the East Coast route, Hull Trains grew by another 8.4% and Lumo by 9.0%. However, Grand Central only grew by 1.1%. Even so, Hull and Grand Central remain comfortably ahead of their pre-pandemic patronage - in Hull's case now over 54%. However, Heathrow Express lost 1.1% of its patronage as it continues to suffer from competition from the still-growing Elizabeth Line.
Passenger Journeys (million)
| Operator | 30/06/2025 | 30/06/2024 | % change | 30/06/2019 | % Change |
| Franchised | |||||
| Avanti West Coast | 35.42 | 33.33 | 6.3% | 39.52 | (10.4%) |
| c2c | 38.30 | 35.67 | 7.4% | 49.20 | (22.2%) |
| Caledonian Sleeper | 0.30 | 0.30 | (1.1%) | 0.32 | (5.9%) |
| Chiltern Railways | 23.37 | 21.27 | 9.9% | 29.37 | (20.4%) |
| Cross Country | 39.05 | 33.85 | 15.4% | 40.81 | (4.3%) |
| East Midlands Trains | 31.96 | 29.44 | 8.6% | 26.45 | 20.8% |
| GTR | 303.76 | 282.83 | 7.4% | 347.82 | (12.7%) |
| Great Western Railway | 90.80 | 83.41 | 8.9% | 99.85 | (9.1%) |
| Greater Anglia | 83.42 | 77.42 | 7.7% | 85.77 | (2.7%) |
| LNER | 27.54 | 24.37 | 13.0% | 22.35 | 23.2% |
| Merseyrail | 30.33 | 28.64 | 5.9% | 42.05 | (27.9%) |
| Northern | 94.58 | 86.04 | 9.9% | 102.59 | (7.8%) |
| ScotRail | 85.17 | 83.23 | 2.3% | 97.54 | (12.7%) |
| South West Trains | 168.01 | 155.38 | 8.1% | 215.80 | (22.1%) |
| South Eastern | 139.86 | 130.59 | 7.1% | 184.83 | (24.3%) |
| TfW | 32.00 | 27.87 | 14.8% | 33.39 | (4.2%) |
| Trans Pennine Express | 28.32 | 24.55 | 15.4% | 29.46 | (3.9%) |
| West Midlands Trains | 69.6 | 62.8 | 10.8% | 79.1 | (12.1%) |
| Total Franchised | 1,321.79 | 1,220.95 | 8.3% | 1,526.24 | (13.4%) |
| TfL Concessions | |||||
| Elizabeth Line | 247.26 | 228.24 | 8.3% | 53.09 | 365.7% |
| London Overground | 181.39 | 182.02 | (0.3%) | 186.46 | (2.7%) |
| Total TfL | 428.65 | 410.26 | 4.5% | 239.55 | 78.9% |
| Non-Franchised Operators | |||||
| Grand Central | 1.77 | 1.75 | 1.1% | 1.48 | 19.7% |
| Heathrow Express | 4.33 | 4.38 | (1.1%) | 6.22 | (30.3%) |
| Hull Trains | 1.58 | 1.46 | 8.4% | 1.03 | 54.3% |
| Lumo | 1.40 | 1.29 | 9.0% | - | N/A |
| Total Non-Franchised | 9.09 | 8.88 | 2.4% | 8.72 | 4.2% |
| Total GB | 1,759.5 | 1,640.1 | 7.3% | 1,774.5 | (0.8%) |