More people are now travelling with Hull Trains than they did before the pandemic with the operator reporting the strongest recovery in UK journey levels.
Not only has the operator recovered its passenger numbers to pre-pandemic levels, but it has surpassed them far faster than anyone else.
Compared to this time last year alone, Hull Trains has increased its number of journeys by 31% having delivered 358,000 journeys in the last quarter compared to 270,000 on the same quarter in 2022.
MD Martijn Gilbert said: “This remarkable achievement is testament to the great service provided by our team at Hull Trains. Since our investment in a brand-new fleet of trains in 2019, we have continued to focus on delivering a great value, low carbon, dependable and friendly way of travelling on our route.
“It is no coincidence that all long-distance operators on the East Coast main line route are seeing growth thanks to the customer choice that Open Access operators such as Hull Trains provide. The ORR reporting shows that Long Distance Operators on the East Coast Mainline are now 18% higher than 2019, whereas the overall industry is still 11% below 2019 levels.”
He added: “The long-distance rail market has a much greater leisure travel make-up compared to 2019, so we are committed to doing even more to meet this demand. We look forward to continuing to improve our offer to customers, including a new standard class food and drink refreshment option which will go live later next month, to make Hull Trains an even better choice for more customers.”
The growth story of long-distance operators on the East Coast Mainline is complemented by Hull Trains’ sister Open Access operator, Lumo, which has introduced over 2 million new rail journeys to the East Coast route since launching in October 2021. This success underscores the commitment of operators to innovate and provide more sustainable transport options, reducing the environmental impact compared to domestic flying and travelling by road.
For example, the agile nature of Hull Trains has enabled the operator to deploy more capacity with 10 carriage trains responding to customer demand, and even adding extra journeys for major sporting events such as the Rugby League Challenge Cup final to support local team, Hull KR.
