Rail transport: April 2021 to March 2022

Rail transport services in 2021-22 (1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022) continued to be affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Wales, although less so than in 2020-21.

Main points

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Description of Figure 1: Line chart showing rail passenger journeys to/from or within Wales between 1995-96 and 2021-22. There was an increase in passenger journeys in 2021-22 compared to previous year.

• In 2021-22, there were 17.7 million rail passenger journeys which either started or ended in Wales. This was more than triple the number in the previous year, but a 41% decrease compared to 2019-20.
• Over two-thirds (64%) of these journeys were within Wales (Figure 1).
• Rail passenger journeys within Wales increased to 11.3 million in 2021-22.
• Rail passenger journeys within Wales more than tripled compared to 2020-21, but were only just over half the number in 2019-20.
• Cardiff was the most common destination for within-Wales journeys (4.4 million passenger journeys), accounting for 38.9% of all journeys.
• In 2022 there were 8 railway fatalities, 6 of which were suicides.
• Suicides have accounted for the majority of rail fatalities since 2012.
• In 2021-22, offences on Welsh railways increased by 35% compared to the previous year, but were similar to the number in 2019-20.
• There were 1,440 notifiable offences reported on Welsh railways in 2021-22, an increase of 377 from the previous year.