THE first official indication of the impact of the recession on Britain’s railway passenger businesses is contained in the latest figures published by the Office of Rail Regulation.

By the end of the 2008-09 fiscal year there were signs of a levelling-off or decline in journeys made in each of the main rail passenger sectors — long distance (inter-city), regional and London & South East.

The most-recent figures published by the ORR are for the final quarter of 2008-09 — January-March this year — during which time 313 million passenger journeys were made on franchised services, an increase of only 0.3 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2007-08.  This quarterly total is equivalent to 1.25 billion journeys a year, whereas 1.27 billion were carried in the whole of 2008-09 — and only 957 million in 2000-01

But total number of passenger kilometres carried on franchised train services  (passenger journeys multiplied by distance travelled) — 12.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007-08 — represented a fall overall of 0.1 per cent on 2007-08 Q4, compared with an increase of 5.6 per cent from 2006–07 Q4 to 2007–08 Q4.

 “Passenger kilometres for long-distance and London & South East operators fell between 2007-08 Q4 and 2008-09 Q4 by 1.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively,” reported the ORR, adding that the only sector to see an increase in journey numbers in 2007-08 Q4 was Regional — with a rise of 1.5 per cent to 75 million journeys.

Despite the end of growth in passenger numbers, total revenue from passengers using franchised train services increased between January (when fares were increased) and March by to £1.5bn, up 4.2 per cent. But this was down from the 9.7 per cent revenue increase recorded in 2007-08 Q4 compared with 2006-07 Q4.

•  The number of train services operated, as measured by timetabled train kilometres, increased by 4.2 per cent in 2008-09 — “largely driven by the opening of the West Coast mainline and increased train services along this route,” said the ORR.  The number of train kilometres operated by Virgin West Coast has gone up by almost a quarter (22.7 per cent) since the new timetable was introduced in December 2008.