A new study has discovered that in the last quarter of 2023, there was a 20 per cent increase in passenger journeys throughout Great Britain.
The research, by West Somerset Railway, analysed newly released data from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) ‘Passenger rail usage, October to December 2023’ report.
According to the data, 417 million rail passenger journeys were recorded in Great Britain between October to December 2023, a 20 per cent rise from the same period the previous year, which saw 348 million journeys.
The Elizabeth Line saw the largest percentage increase of passenger journeys in Great Britain, serving 58.5 million rail users in the last quarter, that’s a 40 per cent growth from the same time a year prior.
Avanti West Coast came second (38 per cent), and ScotRail came third (34 per cent).
Looking at the bottom of the table, Heathrow Express came last with only a 5 per cent increase, followed by c2c and London North Eastern Railway (both were up 6 per cent).
Despite the positive increases that have been seen in passenger Journeys (417 million), the figures are still less than pre-pandemic levels. There’s been a 9.5 per cent decrease when compared to the same quarter four years ago (461 million, October to December 2019).
Samantha White, Sales and Marketing Manager at West Somerset Railway, said: “It is fantastic to see these incredible rises of rail passenger journeys across the UK. Despite figures not yet matching pre pandemic levels, it is really encouraging to see that the amount of people using trains continue to rise close to how we were before the pandemic.”
