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Passenger rail usage

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Quarterly statistics reporting the volume of passenger journeys, kilometres and revenue on the mainline network in Great Britain. Long-running time series on passenger journeys (Table 1220) and passenger kilometres (Table 1230) are updated annually.

For details on how these statistics are compiled, please see our Passenger rail usage quality and methodology report and for information on any revisions, please see our Revisions Log.

Data and reports that include previous statistical releases on Passenger rail usage can be found on the National Archives.

If you have any questions or feedback on these statistics, please contact rail.stats@orr.gov.uk

 

Latest statistical release

Passenger rail usage 2020-21 Q2
Passenger rail usage 2020-21 Q2

Date published: 10 Dec 2020
Date next published: 11 Mar 2021

Key results

  • Passenger rail usage during the second quarter of 2020-21 continued to be affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. An alternative methodology has been used to estimate usage with some ticket types in 2020-21. There is more uncertainty around the estimates in 2020-21 Q1 and Q2 compared with previous quarters.
  • Rail passenger journeys in Great Britain in 2020-21 Q2 increased to 134 million; a rise of 279% compared with 2020-21 Q1. Nevertheless, usage remains considerably lower than it was before the pandemic. The 134 million journeys this quarter equates to 29.8% of the 449 million journeys recorded in 2019-20 Q2.
  • The increase in passenger usage relative to 2020-21 Q1 varied across the three franchised sectors. At 420%, the Regional sector recorded the largest proportional increase in journeys. This was followed by the Long Distance sector (322%) and the London and South East sector (247%).

Previous statistical releases

Data tables