The rail industry is taking more and more market share away from the airlines on the main domestic aviation routes while experiencing record passenger growth. ATOC corporate director Edward Welsh explains why.
t has been a good year for statisticians in the rail industry, with the data all point- ing one way – up.
I
On top of strong passenger growth and ris- ing revenues for the major train operators, the fi gures also show that rail is winning the war against air travel even on the most important domestic aviation routes.
Rail now owns 64% of the London – New- castle transport market, for example, up from 50% in 2006, 27% of the London – Edinburgh market up from 17%, and 79% of the London – Manchester market, up from 61%.
In one of the most startling turnarounds, there has been a 41.8% drop in air passen- gers on the Birmingham – Edinburgh route since 2006, and a rise in rail passenger numbers of 133%.
Ups and downs
Across all the ten biggest domestic air routes, rail market share has jumped from 29% to 44%, while rail passenger numbers are up 41.6% while air passengers are down 26.7%.
Edward Welsh, corporate affairs director 94 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 11
He said: “It’s because of a combination of different factors. There is an element of people opting for what is perceived to be the green travel option. Also, this travel is on inter-city routes, so some of it is going to be business travel. They are more likely to want to go city centre to city centre, not out-of-town airport to out-of-town airport.
at ATOC, told RTM: “This shows that on these routes, rail is competing effectively in what is a pretty competitive market. What we’ve looked at here are specifi cally the routes that the CAA itself describes as the most-used domestic internal routes for fl ying.
“That would suggest, obviously, that these are busy fl ying routes and on top of that you have road connections where people could opt to use car or buses. Against those modes of transport, rail is doing pretty well. These fi gures show that rail’s market share is increasing and could, sometime next year, mean that one out of every two people are opting to go by train.”
Inter-city
There are a whole host of different rea- sons for rail’s increasing competitiveness against plane and car, Welsh suggested.
If you’re travelling to a city for the day, you’re going to want downtown, rather than to have to travel from out of town into the centre. That’s important.
“Longer check-in times and airport secu- rity on domestic fl ights have put people off. I also think train companies are very effec- tive at using price to attract the market this is pitched at, which is leisure and business.
“Another important factor is shorter train journey times. We have some good statis- tics to be proud of. For example, since West Coast electrifi cation, journeys from Man- chester to London have come down from 2hrs 22mins to 2hrs 8mins. From Glasgow to London Euston, it’s come down by more than 40 minutes, to a typical 4hrs 32mins, while the new East Coast timetable has knocked 15 minutes off London to Newcas- tle. I think those improvements must have a bearing, as how quickly you can get be- tween these places and how far apart they are from each other has a big impact on the travel option that people choose.”
Petrol prices
There is also the factor of the continuing return to growth since the recession, Welsh said: “We think one major reason for that
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228