The Department for Transport has released its collated statistics for rail in Great Britain, for the year ending in March 2022, highlighting the consistent domestic transport recovery in the post-pandemic state of the UK sector.
Over the course of the 12-month period, a total of 990 million passenger journeys were made, representing a significant increase of 155.2% on the previous year, whilst being a decrease of 43.1% for the year ending in March 2020.
The ongoing modal shift of freight transportation to rail has also seen increases in recent years, seeing an impressive 16.87 billion net tonne kilometres (10.48 billion net tonne miles) of rail freight transport, representing an overall increase of 11.3% on the previous year and an increase of 1.8% on the year ending March 2020.
The increase in usage of passenger services is a great sign for upholding of the sectors long-term health, seeing revenue regeneration whilst promoting the greenest form of public transportation to help reach the decarbonisation aspirations of the UK Government.
The pandemic restrictions had catastrophic impacts on the rail sector, with passenger usage reaching a historic low point in April and May of 2020, seeing passenger journey numbers at 96% less than an equivalent day in the previous year. The lowest point in 2021 saw trips reach depths of 12% of an equivalent day prior to the pandemic. The continued growth over the last two years has seen passenger journey heights, in March 2022, of 73% of an equivalent day in pre-COVID-19.
Top 10 most used stations in Great Britain, year ending March 2022
Station Entries and Exits
London Waterloo 41,426,042
London Victoria 36,776,338
London Bridge 33,309,348
London Liverpool Street 32,165,310
Stratford (London) 28,182,238
London Paddington 23,870,510
London Euston 23,097,606
Birmingham New Street 22,682,526
London Kings Cross 20,476,492
Manchester Piccadilly 19,581,442
To read the full report breakdown from the DfT, click here.
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