Rail winning market share on busiest UK air routes

UK rail companies claim they are grabbing a bigger share of the travel market on the top 10 domestic air routes.

Figures from the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) show that the rail industry took a 46 per cent share on these top 10 UK air routes last year – this compares to a 29 per cent market share in 2006.

The association added that train companies have been winning business from airlines by adopting “airline-style discounting” tactics to tempt travellers to use rail instead of flights.

ATOC chief executive Michael Roberts said: “Train companies have been winning market share from airlines by competing head-to-head and adopting airline-style discounting.

“Significant investment and an industry focused on attracting passengers are creating a virtuous circle where growing revenue is sustaining funding for faster and better services, in turn encouraging more rail travel.”

ATOC added that more passengers were taking advantage of money-saving fares such as advance tickets and through the use of railcards. At the same time, there has been a drop of more than 30 per cent in the purchase of expensive anytime tickets over the last six years.

The research looked at the 10 top domestic air routes in 2012 using figures from the CAA and compared them to rail industry numbers to discover market share.

The 10 UK routes analysed were:

London-Edinburgh

London-Glasgow

London-Aberdeen

London-Manchester

London-Newcastle

London-Inverness

Bristol-Edinburgh

Birmingham-Edinburgh

Bristol-Glasgow

Birmingham-Glasgow

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