The rise in the number of National Rail passengers since the effects of Covid lockdowns five years ago caused an artificial slump is continuing.

Passengers made a total of 451 million journeys between April and June this year, according to the Office of Rail and Road, which said this was a 7 per cent increase when compared with the same three months in 2024, when the total was 420 million.

The number of kilometres travelled also rose by 7 per cent, reaching 17.1 billion over the same three months compared with 15.9 billion last year. Revenue was up by almost the same proportion, from £2.9 billion in 2024 to £3.1 billion this year – a rise of 6 per cent.

All National Rail operators recorded increases, from 15 per cent on CrossCountry to 2 per cent on ScotRail. Peak fares have since been abolished on ScotRail, nearly halving the cost of some journeys, but this has not yet affected the statistics.

There are some doubts about the absolute accuracy of the passenger totals, because they are blurred by split ticketing and also because the ORR counts journeys involving more than one train as a separate trip for each train used, but the other figures are not distorted in the same way and indicate that more people are choosing rail.

Although the number of journeys made using season tickets remained flat at 12 per cent, the passenger kilometres travelled on seasons did rise, by 7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the nationalised operators have reported increases in season ticket business.

DfT Operator said sales of seasons on LNER, Northern and TransPennine Express have gone up by 10 per cent over the past year. Last week Northern reported its busiest month since before the pandemic, with more than 8.1 million journeys of all types made on its network between 14 September and 11 October, and it has said around 175,000 weekly journeys are now made using seasons. Sales of those offering the longer durations – annual and monthly – represent the biggest increases, at an average of 14 per cent. 

The biggest growth on TransPennine Express has been in ‘flexi’ season tickets, which allow people to travel on any eight days in a 28-day period. Demand for those has risen 81 per cent in the last 12 months.

Railway Industry Association chief executive Darren Caplan said: ‘Ahead of the budget next month, these numbers are a reminder of how rail growth can support wider economic growth.’

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