Trainline profits surge on back of record sales

It made £5.9bn from selling tickets, 12 per cent up from the year before, mainly driven by fast sales growth in the UK and expansion in European countries. Trainline makes most of its money by taking a commission on ticket sales for coach and rail journeys, and benefited from fewer train strikes last year than in 2023. It also cited the growing popularity of digital tickets stored on mobile phones versus paper tickets for its improving sales.

But the company faces a potential crisis in its main UK market in the coming years, amid competition from a Government-owned train operator called Great British Railways. Trainline has grown quickly in recent years as a way to help customers find tickets in a rail system with scores of private sector companies, sometimes operating on the same route. Shares in the company have fallen by nearly one third since the start of the year, amid worries that Labour’s proposed simplification of the system to make it more consumer-friendly could hurt Trainline’s dominant position in the market.