DFT - UK Department for Transport

07/25/2023 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/25/2023 02:48

Rail passenger numbers and crowding on weekdays in major cities in England and Wales: 2022

Headline figures

In autumn 2022, there were on average 1,571,298 daily passenger arrivals into major cities. This represents an increase of 45% compared to autumn 2021, but 15% below the same period in autumn 2019. Of these daily arrivals in autumn 2022, 38% were in the morning peak (07:00 to 09:59).

London had the highest rail passenger numbers arriving into a city across the day (on average 988,053 passengers per day), around 9 times that of Birmingham (second highest at 108,880), followed by Reading (87,162) and Manchester (78,246).

Total seating capacity per day covering all day arrivals and all-day departures totalled 8,480,003 in autumn 2022. Based on all-day arrivals, in autumn 2022 train operators ran services with a daily seating capacity of 4,251,740, approximately 2% higher than that of 2021 (4,166,441 total seats), and 7% lower than 2019 (4,556,779 total seats).

Across all cities in autumn 2022, approximately 14% of passengers were standing during the AM and PM peak. This was an 9.1 percentage point () increase compared to autumn 2021 although 2.6 less than autumn 2019. The increase compared to autumn 2021 was predominantly driven by the 11.7 increase in the proportion of passengers standing in London (which had the highest proportion of passengers standing).

Overall, for all cities outside of London, passengers in excess of capacity was 0.6% and remained largely unchanged compared to the previous year. Just over 8,000 passengers per day were in excess of capacity across both peaks in London (0.9%), an increase of 0.7 on the previous year.

Passengers travelled at slightly different times of the day compared to before the pandemic. Across major cities in autumn 2022, 38% of daily arrivals were in the morning peak (7am to 10am) compared to 45% of arrivals in 2019. In London, 45% of daily arrivals were in the morning peak (10 lower than 2019, where 55% of daily arrivals occurred during this time).

Rail passenger numbers and crowding statistics infographic - accessible version of this infographic available on request.

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