Historical national rail passenger journeys in the United Kingdom (UK) 1984-2024

In the fiscal year 2023/24, more than 1.6 billion passenger journeys were made on national rail services in the UK. This represents a nearly 20 percent increase compared to 1,300 million passenger journeys made in the previous period. Passenger numbers had been particularly low during the COVID-19 pandemic, but despite recovery by 2023/234 total numbers still remained below pre-pandemic figures.

More passengers and more delays

Lower passenger numbers and fewer trains on the network led to record low numbers of train delays during the pandemic. However, as passenger numbers began increasing again and pre-pandemic services were resumed, reliability of the network dropped. In 2023/24 nearly 14 percent of trains were delayed. Long-distance trains were particularly badly affected, with around one in five of these trains being delayed.

Which operator is most reliable?

Next to delays, rail passengers have had to contend with cancellations but how many occurred varied widely by operator. As of Q1 2024, 7.8 percent of Avanti West Coast trains were cancelled, while only 0.6 percent of Lumo services were cancelled.