Office of Rail and Road statistics reveal that rail travel started to bounce back during April and June 2021 as the government eased covid restrictions.

The period of April to June 2021 has seen 182 million rail passenger journeys made which is over five times the amount made during the same period of 2020.

Despite the positive news of a strong increase in rail journeys being made for the 2021 period, there is still a long way to go when compared with the April to June period of 2019 which peaked at 437 million journeys. 

When the figures are compared in conjunction with the Department for Transports statistics the figures show that passenger rail use throughout Great Britain began the April to June 2021 period at approximately 30% of pre-covid levels and began to increase to as much as 55% in the early part of June 2021.

If the statistics are looked at in terms of passenger revenue they show £999 million which equated to 35.9% of the £2.8 billion achieved in the pre-pandemic period of April to June 2019 to 2020.

To look more closely at these figures, the franchised passenger revenue for each journey dropped from £6.26 in the same 2019 to 2020 period to £5.45 for the same 2021 to 2022 period. It is thought that this drop is due to a combination of reduced journey length and an increase in journeys made using off-peak tickets.

The London and South East sector saw 127 million journeys for the April to June 2021 to 2022 period which measures 42.2% of the 301 million journeys for the same period 2019 to 2020. 

London Overground has seen the highest usage for the April to June 2021 to 2022 period achieving 55.9% and Transport for London seeing 53% and c2c 48.2% which equated to around half of the journeys made for the same period of 2019 to 2020.

The regional sector saw 40 million journeys undertaken during the April to June 2021 to 2022 period which demonstrates a relative usage of 41.2%. The relative usage figures for this sector spanned 54.5% for Merseyrail to 32.2% for ScotRail. 

The long-distance sector saw 14 million journeys for the April to June 2021 to 2022 period which demonstrated a relative usage of 39.3% when compared to the 36 million journeys for the same period of 2019 to 2020.

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