Rail revenue grows by 11% year-on-year as July-September 2024 sees no industrial action
- All passenger journey purposes saw year-on-year revenue growth, with commuting achieving the highest percentage growth: Commuting (12%), Leisure (10%), Business (10%), Overall revenue growth (11%). [Commuting statistics exclude London]
- Quarterly revenue from commuting has recovered to 89% of pre-pandemic levels.
- July to September 2024-25 (Q2) saw no industrial action hinder revenue growth.
- Q2 last year was heavily impacted by industrial action, with an estimated £96 million of revenue lost due to the action.
The latest Office of Rail and Road (ORR) statistics reveal that total rail passenger revenue, adjusted for inflation, was up 11% (£284 million) in July – September (Q2 2024-25), compared with the same period last year.
Commuting saw the highest levels of revenue growth, increasing by 12% year-on-year. Commuting has witnessed a notable recovery post pandemic. In fact, when specifically comparing July to September this year to the same period in 2019, pre-coronavirus pandemic, commuting is up to 89% of revenue levels. This comparison has been made using figures that are adjusted for inflation and do not include journeys made within London.*
During the same period in 2023 there were seven days of industrial action, with analysis by the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) showing an estimated loss in revenue of £96m.** To put this figure in perspective, we estimate the year-on-year growth figure would have dropped from 11% to 7%, had the industrial action not happened. Q2 of this financial year (2024-25), saw no industrial action. We know that passengers value reliability and getting to their destination on time and that disruption to a regular and consistent service effects both passenger confidence and satisfaction.
GBRTT’s Customer and Revenue Growth Director Suzanne Donnelly said: “It’s encouraging to see the revenue growth in commuting, which supports the post-pandemic recovery in this sector. The quarter seeing no industrial action has also protected revenue growth.
“We hope the consistent growth across all journey purposes will continue as the industry works to rebuild passenger trust.”
Rail passenger revenue by journey purpose, 1 July – 30 September 2024
| Journey purpose | Revenue | Revenue change from same quarter last year | Journeys |
| Business | £238 million | +10% | 30 million |
| Commute | £1,030 million | +12% | 173 million |
| Leisure | £1,650 million | +10% | 229 million |
Figures are rounded to the nearest million.
Link to time series of previous Train Travel Snapshot figures.
Notes to editors
GBRTT’s Train Travel Snapshot Methodology
National industry revenue and journeys figures are taken from those published by ORR each quarter. These figures and the methodology used to infer them can be found on the Passenger Rail Usage page of ORR’s data portal.
Data from the Wavelength survey has been used by GBRTT’s Passenger Revenue team to infer an estimated split of revenue and journeys by market for each quarter. These proportions have been applied to the overall ORR revenue and journeys figures. All revenue data is presented in July to September 2024 prices.
The statistics for 2024-25 Quarter 2 (1 July to 30 September 2024) were published by ORR on 19 December 2024, and so the figures presented in this report represent the latest available data.
The definition of business, leisure and commuter travellers is based on responses from the Wavelength survey:
- A business traveller is someone who is travelling on company business, i.e. for a work meeting.
- A commuter is someone who is travelling to or from their usual place of work or education.
- Leisure passengers include those travelling for personal leisure reasons (e.g. visiting friends or family, days out, shopping, entertainment, sports activities, etc) plus people travelling for personal business reasons (e.g. a health appointment, a job interview or other appointment).
*Data on pre-pandemic revenue figures comes from The National Rail Passenger Survey. This pre-pandemic data does not include journeys made within London, therefore, in order to draw a percentage comparison between the commuting revenue figures we removed journeys made within London from the 2024-25 figures.
**To estimate revenue loss from industrial action, LENNON data was used to calculate the average revenue that would have been taken on a day without industrial action, as well as calculating any additional impacts on refunds we would have seen on a normal day. These values are combined to provide the total industrial action impact. Further information on this can be found in Revenue forgone: train operating companies on the .GOV.UK website.