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Transport for Wales rail passenger numbers soar
Transport for Wales rail passenger numbers soar
Latest figures from the Office for Road and Rail show that a huge rise to 31.3 million and the highest percentage rise for any UK rail operator
A Transport for Wales (TFW) train at Cardiff Central Station.
(Image: Matthew Horwood )
Transport for Wales (TfW) has seen the biggest percentage rise in passenger numbers of any train operator in the UK, new official figures show. TfW, which operates the Wales and Borders network, saw passenger journey numbers climb 19% from April 2024 to the end of March to 31.3 million on a year earlier.
Of the 24 train operators assessed by the Office for Road and Rail (ORR), the second highest year-on-year increase was experienced by TransPennine Express, up 17% to 27.5 million and CrossCountry (whose services operate in Wales) up 15% to 37.8 million.
The significant increase by TfW comes it starts to reap the benefits of the £800m of new trains across its network funded by the Welsh Government.
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Its services also operate in England, including a popular Cardiff to Manchester route. Its passenger numbers will accelerate in the future as it introduces a fleet of 35 new tram-trains on the south Wales Metro. A fully operational turn-up-and-go tram train network is expected to be fully operational by next year.
The ORR figures show that the number of kilometres travelled by TfW passengers also grew 13% to 1.2 billion.
TFW is the transport body of Welsh Government. Its executive director for customer and communications, Lewis Brencher, said: "The latest ORR figures are a result of the significant investment and years of hard work which are now coming to fruition, with more brand-new trains in service, new and increased services, improvements in our stations and easier and cheaper ways to pay for tickets.
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"The improvements in the reliability and punctuality of our new trains, part of an £800m investment on behalf of the Welsh Government, and the better on-board customer experience are attracting more and more people to travel on the Wales and Borders network and we are proud to be the fastest growing train operating company in the UK."
Like many train operators, TfW receives a public subsidy (from the Welsh Government). With its revenues increasing from fares there is potential, particularly via a turn-up-and-go Metro network, to see that subsidy reduced over the long-term.
With increased services the Metro network is targeting growing passengers from ten million to 12 million per annum.
However, one of the main inhibitors to growth beyond that is the fact that on the parts of the network with the highest population density, the City and Coryton Lines that running through Cardiff, the £1bn Metro electrification programme will see no uplift on the current number of services of just two per hour.
In her spending review last week Rachel Reeves committed to funding a Cardiff west junction and TfW being assigned £48m for rail enhancement on the Core Valley Lines, that if deployed for a loop on the Coryton Line, that would allow for four trains an hour on both lines. Both projects would be key in helping to see passenger numbers on the Metro network moving upwards towards 20 million per annum.
For the UK as a whole the ORR figures show that 1.73 billion journeys were made by rail passengers in Great Britain - up 7% (1.61 billion) on the previous year. The number of passengers was just below the pre-pandemic (2018-19) level of 1.75 billion.
From April 2024 to March 2025, passenger revenues for all the train operators assessed was £11.5bn, up on the £10.6bbn in the previous year
Revenues were below the £12.9bn generated pre-pandemic) (April 2019 to March 2020).
Passenger revenue has been impacted by inflation over the last four years. Recently, the cap for annual regulated fare increases has been set at values below the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation, which means in real terms the cost of tickets has decreased.
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Govia Thameslink Railway carried the biggest number of passengers with 298 million (up 10%) followed by the Elizabeth Line with 242.9 million (also up 10%).
Operator of Paddington to South Wales services, Great Western Railway, handled 89 million passengers (up 8%).
