Brutal year for the Highland Line as pandemic cost is counted

Rail passenger journeys in Great Britain fell to the lowest levels of annual passenger usage since at least before 1872, when records started, according to official statistics from the Office of Rail and Road.

ScotRail, at (14.9%, recorded the lowest level of relative usage.

Nationally, 388 million journeys were made in 2020-21 (April to March), which equates to only 22% of the 1,739 million made in 2019-20.

Total passenger revenue in Great Britain was £1.9 billion in 2020-21, compared with £10.4 billion in 2019-20.

There were 80 million journeys made during the final quarter (Q4 January to March) of 2020-21, down from the 139 million made in the previous quarter (Q3 October to December) and the 133 million in Q2 (July to September). This was still more than double the 35 million journeys made in 2020-21 Q1 (April to June).

"This unprecedented fall in usage can be attributed entirely to the impact of the pandemic," said Graham Richards, director of planning and performance at the Office of Rail and Road.

But the Caledonian Sleeper (24.9%) recorded the fifth-highest journey numbers as a percentage of 2019-20.

‘Other’ tickets (35.8%) such as rover tickets, group tickets, and package products (e.g. which included accommodation and/or onward travel with other forms of transport) recorded the highest usage relative to 2019-20, albeit with only 2.9 million journeys.

That was followed by off-peak tickets (26.8%), anytime/peak tickets (25.0%), advance tickets (20.9%) and season tickets (15.9%).

Mr Richards said: "This unprecedented fall in passenger numbers, the lowest annual fall since the time series began, has clearly had an impact on both rail usage and ticketing revenue.

“Despite this, recent estimates published by the Department for Transport show that rail usage has recovered to around 45% of pre-COVID levels by the end of May 2021.

“ORR continues to work closely to support industry and help passengers back on to the railway safely.”

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