ORR publishes new rail financial research (ORR) 27th January 2012

Office of Rail Regulation (ORR)

New research showing the costs and funding of Great Britain’s railways has been published today by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).
‘GB rail industry financial information 2010-11’, presents ORR’s analysis of the latest financial data from train operators, Network Rail and governments. Key findings include:
  Total rail industry costs were £11bn in 2010-2011 – 52.5% costs were incurred for operating and maintaining the rail network and 47.5% in operating trains. The majority of these costs were covered by income from passenger fares (£6.6bn) and government funding (£4bn).
  Significant variations in industry income and expenditure across GB’s nine regional operating routes. The London Northwest operating route - GB’s biggest route as measured by number of passenger journeys - received the largest share of industry income (20.5%). East Midland – which has the fewest number of passenger journeys of all GB operating routes – ranked lowest based on its share of industry income (5.3%).
  Average government funding across all rail regions was 7.5 pence per passenger kilometre travelled. Using this measure, government funding was highest in the Scotland operating route at 15.6 pence per kilometre and lowest in the Wessex operating route at 1.7 pence per kilometre. This variation is consistent with the relative passenger densities in these routes with Wessex having the highest average passenger density (143 passengers per train) and Scotland the lowest (84 passengers per train).
 Cathryn Ross, ORR director of railway markets and economic, said:
“Great Britain’s railways are funded by passengers, freight customers and taxpayers. It is critically important that the industry is accountable for delivering value for money and greater transparency about where the money goes and how this money is used is key to this.
“Our research shines a brighter light on the costs and funding of our railways than ever before. As the rail industry works hard to improve efficiency and cut costs, this data will improve understanding of the money flows across the rail industry, and ultimately help to drive better value for money.”
 To view ORR’s rail financial research in full, visit: www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.10814