Passenger figures grow on route to London

The nationalised rail company said services between West Yorkshire and London, the East Coast’s busiest market, saw a four per cent increase in passenger growth.

Passenger numbers on the flagship Anglo-Scots services rose by 13 per cent over the year.

Parent company Directly Operated Railways said it anticipated the franchise would be re-let again to a private operator at the end of 2013.

Chairman of East Coast Elaine Holt said: “We’ll hand it back in a much better shape. This is a very difficult railway to run. 50 per cent is leisure travel and we haven’t got a very strong commuter base with only three per cent from commuters, so 97 per cent of revenue is discretionary.”

A major timetable change was introduced in May with a new first class complimentary food and drinks offer.

“Whilst there still remain some inconsistencies, the new product has been overwhelmingly welcomed by our customers, and we’re working hard to deliver a good service on every train,” said Ms Holt.

The number of first class journeys rose by 24 per cent since the new timetable and complimentary service were launched in May. This represents an additional 74,000 first class journeys, compared with last year.

Ms Holt said that more long-distance travellers were switching from planes to East Coast trains.

Figures from the Association of Train Operating Companies show in the past five years, East Coast’s market share on the Edinburgh to London route grew by six per cent to 27 per cent last year while its share on the Newcastle to London route grew by five per cent to 64 per cent.

The next target will be to improve the level of service in standard class.

Ms Holt said that staff morale had improved with sickness absence days per employee reducing from over 14 days in November 2009, to just under 9.5 days in March 2011, a reduction of some 50 per cent.