Passenger rail usage
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
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
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Annual
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Quarterly
- Table 1221 - Passenger journeys by sector
- Table 1222 - Passenger journeys by ticket type
- Table 1223 - Passenger journeys by operator
- Table 1231 - Passenger kilometres by sector
- Table 1232 - Passenger kilometres by ticket type
- Table 1233 - Passenger kilometres by operator
- Table 1211 - Passenger revenue by sector
- Table 1212 - Passenger revenue by ticket type
- Table 1210 - Revenue per passenger kilometres and per passenger journey
- Table 1243 - Passenger train kilometres by operator