On Tuesday 4^th December the Department for Transport released the 2018 Rail Factsheet that gives an overview of statistics of national rail transport in Great Britain. The factsheet shows that the number of rail journeys taken has doubled in the last 20 years and is now at just over 1.5 million journeys per year.

However, rail trips accounted for only 2% of total trips and 8% of total distance travelled in 2017, which is due to car travel still being the most preferred travel mode by a distance followed by walking and bus. Despite this, rail makes up 55% of total transport expenditure by the public sector. Local roads account for 18%, national roads for 14% and local public transport for just 5%.

Equally, freight transported by rail is the lowest of the three main transport modes for freight and is the lowest it has been in 20 years. Freight transport by rail makes up 9% of the total compared with 76% by road and 15% by water.

The CIHT Lugg Review being published early 2019 will focus on the funding and maintenance of the local road network and question whether current practices are fit for purpose. Read more at this link.

See the statistics and more on the following link.