Trainline increases full-year guidance after making more cash from ticket sales

The bookings platform said it has seen growth over the first six months of its financial year, and that another “strong start” to the second half, in October, has pushed forecasts up.

The company had previously lifted its guidance last month, but the most recent update comes ahead of its half-year results in early November.

Trainline makes most of its money by taking a commission on ticket sales for coach and rail journeys, and has benefitted from fewer train strikes this year than last.

Last month, it also cited the growing popularity of digital tickets stored on mobile phones versus paper tickets for its improving sales.

The updates come during a period of uncertainty for Trainline, which could lose out from Labour’s pledge to create a Government-owned train operator called Great British Railways.

The company has grown quickly in recent years as a way to help customers find tickets in a rail system which has scores of private sector companies, sometimes operating on the same route.

But some investors have been concerned that Labour’s proposed simplification of the system to make it more consumer-friendly could hurt the ticketing firm.

However, shares have risen 8 per cent since the start of the year amid the strong sales growth, with many of the private sector operators’ contracts still set to run for several years.

Trainline added on Monday that revenue could now grow as much as 13 per cent year on year, up from a previous top end of 11 per cent, while its earnings growth forecast was upgraded to 2.6 per cent of net ticket sales.

The company said it is “increasingly benefitting from operating leverage as it scales”.

Last month, Trainline said that fewer strike days and more people switching to digital tickets had fuelled an uptick in sales.

The company also said competition between rail firms was heating up across Europe.

In September, Trainline said e-ticketing now represents just over half of all ticket sales, tipping the scale from paper tickets previously making up the majority of sales.

It also benefited from there being fewer strikes organised between March and August – six, compared with 11 last year – which halted some train lines in the long-running dispute over jobs and pay.

In a statement issued in September, Chief executive Jody Ford said: “Competition between rail carriers is growing across Europe and as the aggregator of choice we deliver the value and convenience customers want.

“This is most clearly demonstrated in Spain, where we have tripled net ticket sales in the last two years, with over one million customers transacting in the last 12 months alone.”