Passenger Journeys by Operator - December 2024
Table highlights problems faced by commuter TOCs
The table below re-presents the ORR's figures for passenger journeys, showing numbers for a rolling year ended 31 March 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 growth over last year varying between 19.3% on Transport for Wales and a fall of 3.0% on Caledonian Sleeper. There is a similar story on recovery, too - with figures varying between a continuing shortfall of 29.0% (Merseyrail) and gains of 19.5% on LNER, and 17.9% on EMR - now 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 9.8% and Lumo by 9.9%. However, Grand Central suffered a small downturn of 2.6%. Even so, Hull and Grand Central remain comfortably ahead of their pre-pandemic patronage - in Hull's case now over 55%. However, Heathrow Express lost 5.6% of its patronage as it continues to suffer from competition from the still-growing Elizabeth Line.
| Operator | 31/03/2025 | 31/03/2024 | % change | 31/03/2019 | % Change |
| Franchised | |||||
| Avanti West Coast | 34.90 | 32.75 | 6.6% | 39.48 | (11.6%) |
| c2c | 37.29 | 35.79 | 4.2% | 49.14 | (24.1%) |
| Caledonian Sleeper | 0.30 | 0.31 | (3.0%) | 0.31 | (2.8%) |
| Chiltern Railways | 22.91 | 21.07 | 8.7% | 29.32 | (21.9%) |
| Cross Country | 37.77 | 32.76 | 15.3% | 40.63 | (7.0%) |
| East Midlands | 31.51 | 28.94 | 8.9% | 26.73 | 17.9% |
| GTR | 297.96 | 278.96 | 6.8% | 341.49 | (12.7%) |
| Great Western | 89.03 | 82.61 | 7.8% | 100.04 | (11.0%) |
| Greater Anglia | 81.81 | 76.36 | 7.1% | 84.95 | (3.7%) |
| LNER | 26.64 | 24.17 | 10.2% | 22.28 | 19.5% |
| Merseyrail | 29.89 | 28.28 | 5.7% | 42.10 | (29.0%) |
| Northern | 91.78 | 85.07 | 7.9% | 101.34 | (9.4%) |
| ScotRail | 84.71 | 81.15 | 4.4% | 97.78 | (13.4%) |
| South West Trains | 165.62 | 153.25 | 8.1% | 215.98 | (23.3%) |
| South Eastern | 137.91 | 128.37 | 7.4% | 183.25 | (24.7%) |
| TfW | 31.31 | 26.25 | 19.3% | 33.45 | (6.4%) |
| Trans Pennine | 27.52 | 23.47 | 17.3% | 29.25 | (5.9%) |
| West Midlands | 67.7 | 61.8 | 9.5% | 78.7 | (14.0%) |
| Total Franchised | 1,296.52 | 1,201.38 | 7.9% | 1,516.21 | (14.5%) |
| TfL Concessions | |||||
| Elizabeth Line | 242.87 | 220.27 | 10.3% | 51.29 | 373.5% |
| London Overground | 180.36 | 181.39 | (0.6%) | 188.06 | (4.1%) |
| Total TfL | 423.23 | 401.66 | 5.4% | 239.36 | 76.8% |
| Non-Franchised Operators | |||||
| Grand Central | 1.72 | 1.76 | (2.6%) | 1.51 | 14.0% |
| Heathrow Express | 4.28 | 4.54 | (5.6%) | 6.20 | (30.9%) |
| Hull Trains | 1.57 | 1.43 | 9.8% | 1.01 | 55.4% |
| Lumo | 1.38 | 1.26 | 9.9% | - | N/A |
| Total Non-Franchised | 8.95 | 8.99 | (0.4%) | 8.72 | 2.7% |
| Total GB | 1,728.7 | 1,612.0 | 7.2% | 1,764.3 | (2.0%) |