Passengers take strain on tickets 
as funding for rail falls

The cost of running the railways is also rising, as is the amount of money rail companies make from sources such as car parking.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) report also showed “significant regional variations” in the level of Government funding.

The report for 2011-12, which covered the 12-month period ending in March last year, showed ticket income from passengers was £7.2bn, an 8.7 per cent increase on 2010-11. This represented 57.6 per cent of the industry’s total income for 2011-12, up from 55.8 per cent the previous year.

The ORR said the 8.7 per cent increase was partly attributable to a 7.2 per cent rise in the number of passenger journeys.

It added that adjusting the figures for inflation suggested that average income per passenger journey decreased by 3.6 per cent in 2011-12.

Government funding in 2011-12 reached £4bn, which was 0.5 per cent less than in 2010-11. Adjusted for inflation, Government funding reduced by 5.4 per cent.

The cost of running the railways in 2011/12 was around £11.6bn, an increase of 2.9 per cent.

The rail industry received £1.3bn of income in 2011-12 from other sources, a 5.1 per cent rise.

Train companies received £700m from car parking, property rental, catering and other sales, while Network Rail received £6bn from its stations and property portfolio and from charges for freight and open-access train operators.

Government funding in 2011/12 varied from £2.27 per passenger journey in England to £7.67 in Scotland and £9.15 in Wales.

But the ORR said regional variations in income from passengers were significantly lower than those in Government funding.

Per passenger journey, income was highest in Wales, at £5.39, followed by England (£4.03) and Scotland (£4.03).

Per passenger kilometre travelled, passenger income was highest in England, at 13p, followed by Wales (11p) and Scotland (9p).

“This implies that taxpayers rather than passengers are paying for regional variations in industry expenditure,” said the ORR.

ORR chief executive Richard Price said: “Taxpayers and rail customers have every right to know exactly where their money goes and what it delivers.”