Transport for Wales Sees a 1.1 million Rise in Passenger Journe

• Research by West Somerset Railway has found that there has been a 19% rise in people using TfW Rail in the last recorded quarter (October to December 2023).
• England, Scotland, and Wales saw a 20% rise in people using rail services overall.
• Passenger Journeys still less than pre-pandemic levels despite latest increase.

A new study has discovered that in the last quarter of 2023, there was a 19% increase of passenger journeys on TfW Rail trains.

The research, by West Somerset Railway, analysed newly released data from the Office of Rail and Road ‘Passenger rail usage, October to December 2023’ report.

TfW Rail served 7.0 million rail users in the last quarter, that’s a 19% increase from the same time a year prior which was 5.9 million.

At the top of the table was Elizbeth Line (40%), Avanti West Coast was second (8.5%), and ScotRail came third (34%).

Looking at England, Scotland and Wales altogether, 417 million rail passenger journeys were recorded in Great Britain between October to December 2023, a 20% rise from the same period the previous year, which saw 348 million journeys.

Looking at the bottom of the table, Heathrow Express came last with only a 5% increase, followed by c2c and London North Eastern Railway (both were up 6%).

Despite the positive increases that have been seen in passenger Journeys (417 million), the figures are still less than pre-pandemic levels. There’s been a 9.5% decrease when compared to the same quarter four years ago (461 million, October to December 2019).

Speaking on the data, Samantha White from West Somerset Railway said: “It is fantastic to see these incredible rises of rail passenger journeys across Great Britain.  Despite figures not yet matching pre pandemic levels, it is really encouraging to see that the amount of people using trains continue to rise close to how they were before the pandemic.”