Today we've published the Rail Industry Finance report for the financial year 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/1889/rail-industry-finance-uk-statistical-release-2019-20.pdf

This thread shows the key points of the income, expenditure, and government funding of the UK rail industry, and the impact of COVID-19.

As a whole, the industry in 2019-20 cost £20.2bn, which was funded through fares and other passenger income (£11.6bn), government (£6.5bn) and other sources (£2.0bn).

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/1889/rail-industry-finance-uk-statistical-release-2019-20.pdf

Fares income in 2019-20 dropped by 1.1% to £10.4bn, largely due to the impact of Covid-19 in March.

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/1889/rail-industry-finance-uk-statistical-release-2019-20.pdf

Government funding of the operational railway increased by 45.2% to £6.5bn, largely due to the planned increases in Network Rail’s funding at the start of control period 6, but also due to the impact of Covid-19.

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/1889/rail-industry-finance-uk-statistical-release-2019-20.pdf

Industry costs were £20.2bn in 2019-20.

This represents a £0.8bn (4.0%) annual increase, largely due to increased infrastructure operating and maintenance costs (£0.4bn), and increased rolling stock leasing costs due to the introduction of new trains (£0.4bn).

Passenger journeys started to decline from the beginning of March 2020 and by the end of Q1 (1 April to 30 June) had dropped to as low as 5% of normal levels.

Income from fares in 2020-21 Q1 was £184m, £2.5bn (93.1%) lower than 2019-20 Q1.

Governments have increased financial support to keep services running. Payments to train operators between April and June 2020 was £2.0bn.

This is higher than the £1.2bn of government funding for franchised passenger operators during the whole of the 2019-20 financial year.