DATA provided by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) reveals that total passenger journeys recovered to 1446 million in the year ending March 31, which is 83% of the 1753 million recorded before the pandemic three years ago.
The trend is also continuing to improve as, in the final three months of the year, 403 million journeys took place, representing 88% of the pre-pandemic number.
Although there are fewer rail users than the high point recorded in 2019, it is worth reflecting that at the time of Nationalisation in 1947 there were 1140 million journeys in the year – and this fell to just 600 million at the low point of British Rail operations in 1982, the time when bus substitution of rail services on many routes was proposed.
The introduction of sector management that year (creating InterCity, Network SouthEast, and Regional Railways including ScotRail) saw a gradual recovery
