Grant Shapps: ‘Absolutely no doubt’ rail passengers will return

Month-on-month, the average number of passengers is in decline

Boarding now? Rail passenger numbers have declined in the past month (Simon Calder)

Despite the continuing slump in rail passenger numbers – and a taxpayer subsidy of £1m per hour to run largely empty trains – the transport secretary says he has “absolutely no doubt” the railway will bounce back.

Grant Shapps told a Policy Exchange event: “As our country prospers and our economy grows, so too will our transport system.”

The latest transport usage figures from the Department for Transport (DfT) show that passenger numbers remain in the low 40s as a percentage of pre-pandemic figures.

Month-on-month, the average number of passengers is actually in decline. Between 18 and 24 April, the figure was 43.3 per cent; on the same dates in May, the most recent for which data is available, the average was 42.7 per cent.

Some of the decline may be attributable to cancellations following the discovery of cracks in some intercity express trains.

In contrast, road use is largely the same as before – with vehicle numbers last weekend at 102 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Before the coronavirus crisis, fare revenue of £10bn paid for the lion’s share of operating costs. Sales have collapsed, particularly for season tickets in London and south east England.

But the transport secretary told The Independent his aim was to ensure “Increasingly our railways are just the way to travel: more comfortable, more on time, more reliable and a better experience all round”.

He said: “That’s how we intend to rebuild numbers.

“We could have been having this conversation, had we been alive, after the Spanish flu. We could have been having it after the First or Second World War. At every stage the railway has bounced back and I have absolutely no doubt it will do again.”

Mr Shapps did not respond to a question from The Independent about his decision not to extend the validity of railcards that had been unusable during the three lockdowns.

But he did take time to describe the UK as “The most successful political union in history.”