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Some basic UK rail statistics

UK Passenger Journey Volumes, rail and other modes

Introduction

The following data shows the total volume of GB travel back to 1963 expressed in passenger-km (so ten passengers travelling one kilometre creates ten pass/km and one passenger travelling ten km would also generate ten pass/km). The table not only shows travel by mainline rail and London Underground, but also all travel by road and domestic air.

It will be apparent that rail and air travel leave evidence in the form of ticket sales which make the statistics relatively robust compared with other modes. Most road travel is by private car and the government statisticians have to use a variety of methods to obtain plausible average loadings and average distances travelled. In broad order of magnitude the data should be useable at a practical level but in considering small variations its derivation should be considered. The component data for bus and coach travel should be regarded with some suspicion as the data collection systems have varied widely, especially after deregulation.

The Data

The table below shows the following, in column order:
(1) Year, either calendar year or April to March, as indicated;
(2) Number of passenger-kilometres journeys on entire national rail network in billions (sum of columns 7, 8 and 9);
(3) Number of passenger-kilometres journeys on national road network in billions (cars, vans, taxis, buses, coaches);
(4) Number of passenger-kilometres journeys on UK domestic air network in billions;
(5) Total number of passenger-kilometres within UK on all modes;
(6) Proportion of total passenger-kilometres in UK (all modes) undertaken by all rail (ie number in column 2);
(7) That contribution of UK Rail undertaken by passengers on UK main line railways;
(8) That contribution of UK Rail undertaken by passengers on London Underground network;
(9) That contribution of UK Rail undertaken by passengers on other UK Metro and tram systems.

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All numbers are in billions of passenger-kilometres a year (except column 6). Note: the addition of 2009/10 data reveals a number of corrections to previous years' data which have been included. The numbers (below) for bus travel are suspect following a drastic rebase by DfT and enquiries are being made.