UK rail passengers increase despite fare price hikes

Transport Correspondent

Friday 22 July 2011

BRITAIN'S railways are carrying record numbers of passengers as above-inflation fare increases and economic uncertainty fail to dampen demand for train travel, industry figures have revealed.

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DAMIEN HENDERSON Transport Correspondent

There were more than 1.35 billion passenger journeys made in the 2010-11 financial year, representing a 7.6% increase on the previous year when the recession led to a slight squeeze on growth, figures published yesterday by the Office of Rail Regulation show.

The upsurge coincided with average fares going up by 6%, a move which unions had warned could lead to people being priced off the railways.By contrast, the AA and RAC motoring organisations have claimed that car use in the UK has fallen over the last year as soaring fuel prices persuade drivers to cut back on the number of journeys they make.Train operators and commentators said the latest figures underlined the historic popularity of rail travel, with suggestions that this was being driven by a shift in working patterns towards more office-based employment.Christian Wolmar, a leading rail industry commentator, said the growth levels were “extraordinary”. “It is presumably related to work patterns,” he said. “Interestingly, one of the strongest growth areas has been on suburban, regional railways rather than intercity routes which would be the least influenced by fuel prices. It’s extremely impressive.“There has been this growth over the last 15 years in rail travel which is now out-pacing growth in economic activity, which it usually goes hand-in-hand with. Train operators are slightly at a loss to explain it.”A spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) agreed that working patterns were influencing passenger levels.He said: “We live in a service economy. London has always been a big commuter market but with an increase in call centre jobs and other office-based jobs based in big cities, other commuter markets have developed in the north of England and Scotland.“It’s not just the fact that employment has remained relatively resilient since the recession but it’s the type of employment we have.”Network Rail, the company that owns and operates the railways, has estimated that a number of routes in Scotland will become overcrowded by the end of the decade, with suburban lines into Glasgow expected to suffer during peak periods.Updated passenger figures for Scotland were not included in the report but ScotRail said it carried 78.3 million passengers last year, a growth of 1.8%.

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UK rail passengers increase despite fare price hikes

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