The regulator’s Freight Rail Usage and Performance stats show that in the first quarter of this year (April to June 2021) a total of 4.33 billion net tonne-kilometres of rail freight was moved across the network.
This is an increase of 36.5% on the same quarter last year (2020-21 Q1), and an increase by 1.3% compared with the same quarter two years ago (2019-20 Q1).
ORR’s stats also show rail freight continued to have a punctuality figure above 90%, despite a drop in performance compared to the same quarter in 2020-21 and 2019-20.
Freight operators also experienced 8.27 minutes of delay per 100 train kilometres in 2021-22 Q1. This was 52.8% higher (i.e. worse) than the same quarter a year earlier (2020-21 Q1). It was also 3.0% higher than the same quarter two years ago (2019-20 Q1).
Construction products moved by rail freight companies increased the most compared with 2020-21 Q1 due to high levels of demand for aggregates to fulfil the start of HS2 work.
Domestic intermodal, which includes the transporting of goods to and from Britain’s ports, had the largest share of freight moved at 37.9%. Despite a 22.5% increase in volumes since 2020-21 Q1, there has been a reduction of 3.8% compared with 2019-20 Q1.
Coal continues its downward trend, reducing by 65.2% compared to 2019-20.
ORR also found that freight lifted increased by nearly five million tonnes over the last year.
Notes to editors
- ORR is the accredited primary provider of railway industry official statistics. We publish a range of statistics, including railway performance, rail usage (both passenger and freight) and safety. The trustworthiness, quality and value of our statistics are overseen by the UK Statistics Authority’s regulatory arm – the Office for Statistics Regulation.
- The full statistical release can be found on the ORR Data Portal.