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 12.5) and passenger kilometres (Table 12.2) are updated annually.
For details on how these statistics are compiled, please see our Passenger rail usage methodology and quality 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 2019-20 Q4
Date published: 04 Jun 2020
Date next published: 01 Oct 2020
Key results
- The statistics for this quarter cover the period before and immediately following the government’s announcement of measures to limit the impact and transmission of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Advice against all unnecessary travel was announced on 16 March, with further guidance on ‘staying at home’ on 23 March (‘lockdown’).
- Rail passenger journeys in Great Britain in 2019-20 Q4 fell to 394 million (down 11.4% compared with 2018-19 Q4). It is the largest fall for any quarter since the time series began in 1994-95. This unprecedented fall in usage can be attributed almost entirely to the measures taken in March 2020 to limit the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
- The first three quarters of 2019-20 recorded an increase in journeys. Nevertheless, the large fall in journeys in Q4 means that the 1.7 billion recorded in 2019-20 was down 0.8% compared with 2018-19.