27.05.16
Passenger journeys for past year at highest since records began
The UK rail industry is continuing to experience a period of record growth with passenger journeys and revenue increasing, figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) have confirmed.
The ORR revealed in its 2015-16 data that passenger train kilometres have increased every year since the measure was first used in 2010-11, and in 2010-11 were at 517.3 million kilometres for all franchised operators.
This was a 5.1% increase in the past five years and a 0.8% increase on the 513 million kilometres recorded in 2014-15.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) had the highest total number of kilometres, at 61.9 million, following its integration with some Southern and Southeastern services.
Following London Overground’s takeover of some Abellio Greater Anglia services, it had the greatest increase in passenger kilometres, of 34.4%, while Greater Anglia had the biggest decrease, of 12.8%.
Chiltern had the second largest increase, of 8%, thanks to the new line linking Oxford to London via Bicester.
The ORR’s quarterly figures for the past year have consistently shown record growth in passenger numbers and revenue.
In total, in 2015-16 1.69 billion passenger journeys were made on British railways, the highest number since records began and a 2% increase from 2014-15 and a 129.8% increase since railways were privatised in 1994-95.
Passenger revenue was also the highest since the measure began, at £9.3bn. This represented a 4.7% increase since 2014-15, the lowest year-on-year growth since 2009-10. However, the ORR said this could be attributed to a low average fare increase, of just 0.7% compared to 2.2% the previous year, in January 2016.
(Image c. Andrew Matthews)
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