The number of train journeys made in Britain rose 16 per cent to more than 1.6bn in the year ending in March, latest figures have revealed.
This included 220m journeys on the Elizabeth line – up 54 per cent year-on-year – and 279m on Govia Thameslink Railway, the UK’s biggest rail franchise that includes Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express services.
The success of the Elizabeth line, which is the single busiest rail line in the country, is believed to have caused a 12 per cent fall in passengers on the Heathrow Express between January in March, compared with the same three-month period last year.
The cost of a ticket between Paddington and Heathrow on the Elizabeth line is £12.20 – less than half the price of the £25 single fare on the Heathrow Express.
Latest figures from the Office of Rail and Road revealed only the Heathrow Express and London North Eastern Railway, which runs high-speed trains between King’s Cross and Scotland, saw passenger numbers decrease in the last quarter of 2023/24, when compared with the same period a year earlier.
The ORR report said: “Heathrow Express had the largest decrease with 12 per cent fewer passenger journeys than the previous year. Increased competition with Elizabeth line for journeys between Heathrow and London Paddington may have contributed to this reduction.”
Heathrow Express said it was “committed to providing a premium service tailored to airline passengers” and was “implementing measures to further adapt to changing travel patterns”.
A spokesman said: “In the period Jan-Mar 2024, our service carried the same passenger volume as all other open access rail operators combined.
“Additionally, our Early Bird fares priced at £15 have driven strong forward bookings, reflecting passenger confidence.”
Passengers paid £10.3 billion in rail fares in 2023/24 – up 13 per cent on the £9.1 billion in the previous year, when adjusted for inflation.
The total of 1,610m journeys recorded across Britain in 2023/24 was up from 1,380 in 2022/23 and is equivalent to 93 per cent of pre-pandemic rail travel.
However the 2023/24 total may have been inflated by the number of passengers using “split ticketing” on some train lines to save on the cost of travel.
Split ticketing is where passengers buy two or more tickets for the different stages of a single journey. About five per cent of journeys in 2023.24 involved split ticketing, according to the Rail Delivery Group, up from three per cent in the previous year.
The ORR said the use of split ticketing may mean that the post-pandemic recovery in train travel is “overstated””.
It said: “Split ticketing will mean that the average revenue per ticket is lower, as the passenger uses multiple cheaper tickets to complete a journey instead of a single more expensive ticket.”
According to the ORR data, the London and South East sector recorded 286 million train journeys in the latest quarter, making it the largest sector.
This is a 13 per cent increase on the 253 million journeys in the same quarter in the previous year.
A total of 60.3m journeys were made using season tickets between January and March. This was up three per cent on the previous year but meant the proportion of journeys made using season tickets fell from 16 per cent to 15 per cent. Four years ago, season tickets accounted for 39 per cent of journeys.
There were 25 days of strikes in 2023/24, including six days between January and March when the train drivers’ union Aslef held a series of “rolling” walk-outs at different rail firms on different days in the long-running dispute over pay.
