The research, by West Somerset Railway, analysed newly released data from the Office of Rail and Road ‘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% 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% growth from the same time a year prior.
Avanti West Coast came second (38%), and ScotRail came third (34%).
Train Operator/Line
Passenger Journeys Oct to Dec 2023
Percentage change from Oct to Dec 2022
Elizabeth Line
58.5 million
40%
Avanti West Coast
8.5 million
38%
ScotRail
20.9 million
34%
TransPennine Express
6.6 million
33%
Lumo
0.3 million
29%
Hull Trains
0.3 million
27%
CrossCountry
9.0 million
26%
East Midlands Railway
7.5 million
23%
Grand Central
0.4 million
22%
Caledonian Sleeper
0.1 million
20%
London Overground
46.7 million
20%
West Midlands Trains
16.7 million
20%
TfW Rail
7.0 million
19%
Greater Anglia
19.6 million
18%
Chiltern
5.5 million
16%
South Western Railway
39.4 million
15%
Merseyrail
7.5 million
15%
Northern Trains
22.5 million
14%
Southeastern
32.7 million
14%
Govia Thameslink Railway
71.0 million
13%
Great Western Railway
20.8 million
10%
London North Eastern Railway
5.8 million
6%
c2c
8.9 million
6%
Heathrow Express
1.2 million
5%
Looking at the bottom of the table, Heathrow Express came last with only a 5% increase, followed by c2c and London North Eastern Railway (both were up 6%).
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% decrease when compared to the same quarter four years ago (461 million, October to December 2019).
Speaking on the data, Samantha White from West Somerset Railway said: “It is fantastic to see these incredible rises of rail passenger journeys across Great Britain. 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 they were before the pandemic.”
